Grizzly Bear

by Sarah Grant • May 29, 2009

Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
(Warp, 2009)

Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead created the prophecy of Veckatimestwhen he called Grizzly Bear his favorite band of 2008. Unsurprisingly, the album leaked in March and skinny-jeaned scallywags happily raised their skull and crossbones as they cyber-sailed to the namesake island. Veckatimest is, in fact, a real island off the coast of Cape Cod. Its isolated mystique, haunting Native American name, and under-the-table reference to Lost bloomed into Grizzly Bear's art-rock fantasy. OnVeckatimest, every measure of barebones syncopation is met with another of wave-crashing orchestration. Grizzly Bear tightened its arrangements, amped up the production values, narrowed its focus, and have finally achieved a sound that is both expansive and intimate. This album doesn't just have its quirks—it is full-blown Spock-rock that will have audiences offering the split-finger salute rather than the sign of the devil.

Three years ago, name-dropping Grizzly Bear in most music circles would score you major points, because it meant that you took Arcade Fire seriously. The Brooklyn foursome burst onto the scene with overzealous vamping and trippy haiku lyrics that dubbed them "freak folk." Their lo-fi phenomenon, Yellow House, snuggled into many best-of '06 album picks, even though the album's tinny, reverb-heavy sound didn't always work. Pop-oriented dips like "Knife" proved the Grizzlies knew how to take a harmony or five from Brian Wilson. Then there were tracks like "Central and Remote" that swelled and swelled until the music became a dense fog. If only the Grizzlies made sense of these conceptual orchestrations, they would really be onto something.

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Crawdaddy! was founded by Paul Williams in 1966 and was the first U.S. magazine of rock criticism. John Lennon, Cameron Crowe, P.J. O'Rourke and many others have contirubted to its pages, and it is currently owned by Wolfgang's Vault, home to the legendary rock promoter Bill Graham's archive.