Grizzly Bear [rank: 40] based on users subscribed

"Home-recorded songs can feel incomplete whilst being as tantalizingly indicative as the sketches before a painting. The outlines, though interesting in their own respect, are not as satisfying as the finished version. Grizzly Bear, however, have approached song writing as a craft to master from their very first album, Horn of Plenty onwards. Enamored by how a song 'reads', they were fully present from prologue to denouement even though singer/songwriter Edward Droste recorded them by himself in his Brooklyn bedroom. Fuelled by a bout of post-relationship inspiration, those first songs celebrated the creative liberation of the ProTools era. They explored the depths of break-ups through crystal-clear tones, field sounds and woozy, complex harmonies.

Droste has now gathered a band: Christopher Bear (name entirely coincidental) played drums and helped polish Horn of Plenty in its final stages; Chris Taylor soon followed the duo post HOP release and was responsible for electronics, woodwinds, bass, and vocals; Daniel Rossen sang, played guitar and contributed new songs. The line-up was complete, and as a newly established four piece, they began musical exploration. The music was sweet, and the instrumentation and live show grew in ambition. The songs were remixed by figureheads at the forefront of the electronic music scene: Efterklang, Dntel and Soft Pink Truth.

Magical, haunting melodies are still their mainstay. Grizzly Bear always craft their songs from start to finish - meticulous instrumentation and arrangements are their specialty. On Yellow House, Grizzly Bear still flex their lo-fi connoisseurship, but with a better recording - DIY embellished with Taylor's fine sonic engineering acumen. Droste and Rossen share initial song writing duties, although the entire band collaborates to breath life into the tracks."

[reproduced or excerpted from band website linked above]

Bandega Interview with Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear (September 2007)

There will be an all-animal indie band name battle royale and there will be only one king.

Q: How have your shows changed over the years? Has your perspective on performing live changed?
A: Our shows have evolved a lot from the beginning stages of the band, because it really took us a great deal of time to figure out exactly how to recreate the songs in a live setting considering how layered both the debut and Yellow House were. At first it was just three of us, then we added Daniel and we had to really recreate them for a live setting, which is partially why we are releasing an EP this fall, with a bunch of recordings of the "live" versions that people have grown to know and have asked us about. I definitely feel much more comfortable performing now than I did in the beginning, I used to have intense stage fright, but a few years down the road I can say that's pretty much fully gone now.

Q: Describe the most memorable live show you've played.
A: We've had a few, some are memorable for being bad and some amazing. One of the most amazing chance performances we had was early on in our career before even Yellow House was released and we were playing a festival in France called Route Du Rock. It had 2 stages: one sit-down theater and then a huge stage that was outdoors and in front of thousands. We played the amazing theater more than happily but the head of the festival caught us and loved it so much, when there was a chance drop out on the main stage he asked us to fill in and then suddenly there we were getting to play to 10K people! It was really amazing.

Q: What venue do you consider to be your "home", where you feel most comfortable, with the crowd and the place itself?
A: I love the Bowery Ballroom in New York. I always feel at ease there and love playing the room because the sound is so great. It's a reliable amazing space, and it's still intimate and pretty small at about 650 people capacity.

Q: Describe the most enjoyable show you've ever experienced as a fan.
A: I had a really ecstatic experience at SXSW a few years back seeing Dead Meadow in a church. It was hot, sweaty, but not too crowded, I stood on a pew and was a bit tipsy and just had the most intense sonic wall wash over me. My favorite show ever though? Bjork at Radio City Music Hall for Vespertine, saw her for Volta which was good but had nothing on the Vespertine tour!

Q: As a band whose name is also the name of an animal, do you feel marginalized among the Dodos, Sabertooth Tigers and Pandas of the indie world? Would you be in favor of an all-animal festival - a battle royale of the indie animal kingdom - to determine the one true king?
A: Well, I feel a bit silly about having an animal name now that everyone does and it's not like we were the first at all, but when I first started recording on my own in my apartment, I wasn't as in tune with the indie world and didn't know about all the animal named bands, but here we are with one, so maybe we should all just embrace it and do a festival, why not? One thing I've noticed I tend to really like a lot of the other animal bands, so let's just Band of Horses together and do a festival together!

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