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Grizzly Bear brings atmospheric music to Sixth and I synagogue Date published: 8/7/2008
BY MATT CAMERON Grizzly Bear is a fascinating musical specimen. One of the multitude of young bands to come out of Brooklyn over the past few years, the quartet has consistently defied musical norms during its four years of existence. Whereas fellow up-and-coming Brooklyn bands Vampire Weekend and MGMT have stuck to traditional, easy-to-appreciate indie tunes, Grizzly Bear has perfected a form of melancholy and atmospheric folk rock that has rarely made it beyond the fringe of modern music. All this, even as the band has gained a larger and larger following with its two most recent releases: 2006's "Yellow House" and 2007's "Friend EP." In addition to recording, Grizzly Bear has also been girding up for a slate of live shows opening for the exalted Radiohead. The tour began this past weekend in Chicago with a performance at Lollapalooza, one of the premier music festivals in the country--and one of the few that Grizzly Bear had yet to play. With these achievements under their belts and the burden of fans' expectations on their collective back, the members of Grizzly Bear have been keeping very busy, said songwriter and guitarist Ed Droste in a recent telephone interview. Droste, who originally founded Grizzly Bear as a solo project in 2004, spent the majority of the interview talking about the band's plans for its upcoming album, as well as several huge late-summer shows, including one at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington. Droste sounded particularly excited about the new album, which he said the band had been recording since early July and is about half-way ready for its early 2009 release. He said that the band aims to make its new music more accessible by changing pace from the slow-moving "Yellow House." The new album is "a bit more diverse, like a bit more sonically dynamic," Droste said, whereas "the lushness factor and the layers of it ['Yellow House'] kind of kept it going at the same tempo." He referenced "Two Weeks," a new track that the band performed recently on the "Late Show With David Letterman," as an example of what is to come. "It's probably one of the more upbeat, poppy numbers we've done."
Date published: 8/7/2008
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