Sure, it’s great to get the Jay-Z stamp of approval, but Jay lives in a penthouse in Tribeca or something (in our mind dude has like 18 houses- recession be damned). The man isn’t exactly down with the underground anymore.

So it’s nice to see some more, shall we say “indie” rappers also show their love for the G.B. This week Kidz In The Hall leaked the first song from their upcoming Professional Leisure Tour mixtape and to our surprise it was not a bass-heavy trunk jam but a bragacodio-filled re-interpretation of Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks.”Check it out here.

This should come as a particular comfort to Grizzly Bear fans, who are still mourning the recent loss of Ed Droste’s Twitter account. The fine folks at Hipster Runoff gave a pretty stellar eulogy of Droste’s departure from the Twitterverse…

Edward Droste (1982–2009)
a Eulogy
Edward Droste, creator and CEO of the popular indie band Grizzly Bear, committed suicide in November of 2009. He is survived by Victoria Legrand, lead singer of the band Beach House. She has vowed to avenge his death by claiming Pitchfork’s album of the year in 2010. Ed has three surviving bandmates, Daniel Rossen, Chris Bear, and Chris Taylor. They have decided to dissolve Grizzly Bear, and continue performing as ‘The Department of Eagles.’ In 10–20 years, they will consider Edward was always known to throw down a solid meme, and was one of the initial supporters of the chillwave movement. In 2 short months, Edward would have found out that Grizzly Bear’s 2009 album Veckatimest was controversially voted the #1 album of the year after a voter fraud scandal in the Pitchfork offices.

(Via: Nah Right & Daily Swarm/Hipster Runoff)

Story by Adam Daniels

Photography by Dorothy Hong

“Do you need a drink?”
”Yes, I need four double whiskeys and four PBRs.”

It was Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s record release show at Williamsburg’s Union Pool one year ago, and while he was among a roomful of friends, he was not at ease. Robinson’s former fiancé obliged the request, assuming it was on behalf of the entire band. This was not the case.

Robinson wasn’t a household name in indie rock at the time. But he had a lot of the pieces in place to be one. He had all but conquered Brooklyn through marathon-style touring. There was a close-up of his mug on the cover of FADER magazine, and a camera crew from SPIN was at the record release show waiting to document the event. What transpired after those four double whiskeys could only adequately be described as a shitshow.

He spilled beer on equipment. He picked a fight with a heckler who called him out for singing his songs not all like they appeared on the album, insisting on dedicating every subsequent song to him thereafter. Robinson blacked out just before the third song. This was the beginning of the end of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. And the funny thing is, if it wasn’t for the occasion, that particular evening at Union Pool would have only qualified as a mere footnote in his story.

The scene is a giant, rock n’ roll cliché. No one knows this more than Robinson. He practically grew up on them, an ardent student of rock biographies while coming of age in Portland. One of the first things Robinson mentions when explaining the issue with the way his own story has been written thus far was the way one of his musical idols created part of his own mythology. “Kurt Cobain never really lived under a bridge you know,” he says. “He made that up himself.”

Cobain and the muddy distortion of 90s alt rock represent just one half of the tones that show up in his music today. The relationship that much more directly spawned Robinson’s just-released second album, Summer Of Fear, was his love affair with classic rock. A heady homage to the golden sounds of Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac, it’s also a record in which Robinson might have created the youngest divorce rock album ever, devoting much time to the struggles and eventual failure of his engagement to his former fiancé and girlfriend of six years.

But the divorce theme is rarely all that direct in Robinson’s lyrics. Rather, it’s underlying layer of melancholy that tugs at the album’s narrator as he tells various stories. By way of his eponymous self-titled debut, these stories filled the bar last summer in Williamsburg, songs he’d fleshed out while befriending near half the bartenders of North Brooklyn, diving headlong into piles of drugs, sleeping in parks, and wrestling with a heavy brand of cynicism as handed down by his stand-up comedian father. These things came together through Robinson’s compulsive addiction to songwriting, a gift in which a lot of people saw a lot of potential. One such song was “Buriedfed,” a folk explosion similar to Robinson’s relationship with music as a whole: part link to the demons in his own life and part introduction to a string of characters and the way they cope with their own mortality, depression and simple daily existence. The song served as the closest thing to Robinson’s autobiographical introduction. Interestingly, a line from that song more closely resembled the crowd at Union Pool’s introduction to Robinson that night. “Didn’t like people much at all, tasted better with alcohol, you know how that one goes,” he states. That’s who he was that night: the asshole that baited the crowd to call him on it while he used alcohol to cope with expectations. It resulted in a theatrical breakdown. But that breakdown was part of a self-destruct mission Robinson had been stumbling to almost the entire time he’d lived in New York.

By age 16, Robinson felt compelled to move to the city. At 17, his acceptance to NYU made this a reality. At that point, his idea of the city was carved out much more by those same rock biographies.

“I was reading (Legs McNeil’s) “Please Kill Me” and all this stuff about ’70s New York and you know like Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, The Ramones, just like really sort of wanting to bask in that,” Robinson remembers. “Not even really understanding that New York in the ’90s and 2000 was going to be a very, very different place. I think I literally still thought it was going to be like 1979 when I got here.” But the punk scenes of ’70s era New York are little more than legends whose visual cues had been replaced by condos and food chains by the time Robinson moved in 2000. However, the New York City Robinson stumbled upon had its own bubbling scene.

Within weeks, Robinson found himself in attendance at some of the very first Strokes shows. So while the New York scene Robinson envisioned may not have existed, luck and timing gave him a front seat to the first relevant one in rock n’ roll the city had seen since.”I just had like a very zeitgeist-y kind of a, experience, the whole time I’ve been here,” he says.

A few years later he would happen upon a sort of invitation to the city’s next cultural vanguard: the indie music scene developing in and around Williamsburg. On his way to a Grizzly Bear show he stopped in a thrift store and ended up running into and befriending TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone. They went to the show together, and within a few months he was hanging out with not only Kyp, but the band they had paid to see. Eventually, both would play a vital role in Robinson’s music, initially helping turn his tales and words into actual musical landscapes and then more literally with Kyp on the production side and the Grizzly Bear guys backing him instrumentally.

But even while all this was going on, Robinson lived day-to-day life in a state of near-depression, seeming almost un-phased by the encouraging signs in both his musical and personal life. “I treat good things the way other people treat traumas,” he says. “I kind of push them down and try to get over it, you know?” Throughout his time at NYU, Robinson worked and played as hard as he could. Though he ignored class, he wrote songs and dove into pools of drugs and alcohol with equal abandon. He did it all with youthful abandon, albeit with a much larger arc in mind. Romantic only by rock ‘n roll standards, it was encapsulated further by one pivotal chapter in Robinson’s life and legend: a summer of near-homelessness, carrying a duffle bag and a guitar around while rotating between friends’ couches and strung out nights in Washington Square Park and on Coney Island benches. He likens this much more to being a bit of a troubadour than any sort of dire circumstances, but he also admits he “was getting pretty fucked up all the time then, too.”

But eventually, that all changed. “I went back (to school), ended meeting somebody who sort of helped me get cleaned up and stuff,” he says. That someone was his eventual fiancé. Soon after meeting and falling in love, the two found an apartment in Williamsburg. For a moment, he was on the verge of feeling like he had it all figured out before 25, on the verge of letting himself be happy for a bit without overthinking it.

And then it all fell apart: his relationship and in turn his sobriety. Everything he thought he’d figured out was called into question. Out of this was born Summer Of Fear: a celebration of relapse, depressions and reaffirmed self-doubt.

The concept of Summer of Fear actually began as a screenplay, a running joke between Robinson and friend Christopher Bear, drummer for Grizzly Bear, in which the questionable choices they made each night could be written off as part of a movie rather than some reality rife with consequence. However, somewhat ironically, it is this album born out of the clichés, born out of making yourself a character in your own life, that has the opportunity to finally separate Robinson from his own. It is this album that charts out the personal failures that gave Robinson a second chance to play an active role in his own successes.

Whatever comes next, the Robinson that looks back at you on stage these days is an entirely different creature than the one that created a spectacle that night at Union Pool. While Robinson admits he still knows a few too many bartenders, he no longer drinks at his shows. Headlining a CMJ showcase concert at Le Poisson Rouge the same week Summer Of Fear was released, Robinson could barely get a big goofy grin off his face long enough to look properly solemn to sing about self destruction. He played off of his band, played on his back in three feet of the ground. There’s no denying that he was having fun on stage, a notion even he seemed surprised by when he noted, a few songs in, that he was taking a sip of beer for the first time that night.

This man much more closely resembled the one you imagine when you hear his cries and wails on the first record, a man who despite the demons living in his closet is absolutely at peace within music. The more you talk to him the more you realize this may be the only place he is truly at peace.  And while his music seems almost painfully tied to these demons, maybe the fact that he can now own them on stage is but one triumph. Whatever it has become, it’s forcing the world that already knew him to break the box that contained Robinson before.

Regardless, for now Robinson will go out and relentlessly tour behind an album that champions his own failures and past misadventures. If he can make it through the experience, it might even let his music finally catch up to him. For years now, he’s been singing about traumas that have been replaced over so many times in his life they feel like reopening old scars. But who knows, maybe this time next year Robinson will be testing out some happy songs. Whatever those would sound like. The “Ocean’s 11” line he supplied un-ironically to sum up his day-to-day existence makes it seem like he might slowly be coming around on his own story, one he’s chosen to retell in the third person every night on stage.

“Are you suicidal?”

“Only in the mornings.”

Guess what y’all? British tabloid the NME successfully turned an off-handed Jay-Z comment on Noel Gallagher into a headline. Sort of reminds me of that time Lindsay Lohan didn’t wear any undies, but even less eventful. Either way, you may remember a year or so ago when the fiesty Gallagher got his panties in a twist over Jay-Z, a so called rap star, headlining Britain’s annual Rain and Mud fest, ahum, the Glastonbury Music Festival. Gallagher, who is the dude from Oasis that’s really into the Beatles, was quoted as saying “I’m not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It’s wrong.” Of course this means nothing to S Dot Carter, who, cool and calm as ever (Dude’s been listening to too much Grizzly Bear), shrugged off Gallagher’s playa hating with a simple, “I don’t have any problem, so I said anything is possible.” So there you have it folks, breaking news from the NME, Jay-Z doesn’t have a problem with Noel Gallagher, which isn’t a surprise, because, despite Black Album hit “99 Problems,” were pretty sure Jay-Z’s only problem is deciding which whip to cruise around in, the Maybach or the Bentley.

Twi-hards, rejoice: the soundtrack for the latest film in the Twilight series, New Moon, will be released this Friday, as “overwhelming and unprecedented demand” prompted the release date to be pushed up by four days. The album will be hitting stores more than a month before the film is released on November 20, so the Twilight faithful can comfort themselves with the musical musings of Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Muse, the Killers, OK Go, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Sea Wolf, and the Editors, among others, until their cinematic dreams become reality.

MTV has the full scoop on the most recent Twilight developments, of course, and is featuring an interview with OK Go and Lykke Li about their involvement with the soundtrack; check them out here and here. Stream the video for Death Cab for Cutie’s contribution to the soundtrack, titled “Meet Me on the Equinox,” here.

So the obvious question here: Will there be Jay-Z party pics? Chris Taylor and B doing the “Single Ladies” dance on a Williamsburg rooftop? Memphis Bleek doing freestyles over Chris Bear’s glockenspiel beats? We have so many questions.

Regardless, we’ll have to wait until November 2nd (on iTunes and in Europe, physical release date presumably still to come here in the ole’ U.S. of A) to find out when they release the deluxe edition to their monumentally huge (you know, in experimental indie terms) third full length. And why not? A band like this riding a buzz like this certainly doesn’t come every year, much less every day. There’s no “new tracks” per se, but there are a lot of unreleased studio sessions of the preexisting tracks. See for yourself below.

Veckatimest Special Edition tracklisting

CD1:

01 Southern Point
02 Two Weeks
03 All We Ask
04 Fine for Now
05 Cheerleader
06 Dory
07 Ready, Able
08 About Face
09 Hold Still
10 While You Wait for the Others
11 I Live With You
12 Foreground

CD2:

01 Southern Point (KCRW Session)
02 All We Ask (KCMP Session)
03 Ready, Able (KCRW Session)
04 Foreground (Duyster Session)
05 Two Weeks (BBC Maida Vale Session)
06 Dory (World Café Session)
07 While You Wait for the Others (BBC Maida Vale Session)

(Via: P4K)

We’re not going to lie. We’ve never actually seen the MTVU Woodie Awards. But then again, we don’t live in a dorm, so it sort of makes sense. We do remember the channel incessantly playing My Morning Jacket and E-40 back in the day, so they’re OK by us. And it seems logical enough MTV’s college version would get its own little baby VMAs. MTV just announced the nominations, and it seems Asher Roth is finally being rewarded for recording a generic (edit: offensive) song replicating the college experience. About damn time. But more in our lane, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective have been nominated for a Breaking Woodie and a Performing Woodie respectively. Matt & Kim are up for a Best Video Woodie. And Jay Reatard (along with the likes of Major Lazer, Janelle Monae & Tech N9ne) are up for a Left Field Woodie, which we have yet to Wikipedia but would seem the only qualification might involve being inherently bizarre and happening to make incredible music. So we’re for it. Put those four in a room and film it and we’ll watch it over whatever replaced TRL any day. Done and done. The show takes place December 4th. Hopefully Matt (or Kim) will storm the stage (naked?) and grab the mic from Wale or someone in a fit of Brooklyn pride and demand a recount for Grizzly Bear. Full nominations here. (Via: MTV)

While exciting, knowing that your album is the second ever release from a record label might not instill complete ease to the nerves of a young band. But knowing you’re album is the second release from the label just started by the dude from Grizzly Bear, this Brooklyn quintet might be sleeping a bit better at night.

Acrylics All of the Fire EP will be out October 28th on Chris Taylor and Ethan Silverman’s Terrible Records, but will also be available for purchase at their CMJ shows. Details of both listed below.

All of the Fire Tracklisting
1. Lil Ivy
2. All of the Fire
3. Avenue I
4. Conselyea
5. Honest Aims

Acrylics’ Upcoming Shows

10.03 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge w/ Besnard Lakes
10.23 New York, NY @ Bowery Electric (Cantora Records Showcase)
10.23 New York, NY @ Pianos (Terrible Records Showcase)
10.24 New York, NY @Bowery Electric (Blue Flowers Day Party)

PS: remember this? Yeah, we dig them.

Swedish indie-pop duos may not scream street cred, but then again Kanye West has turned a lot of non-traditional concepts into everyday parts of the hip-hop blogosphere (See: Mr. Hudson, uncomfortable looking chairs.) Not so long ago, it was West’s blog that debuted PB and J’s single “Nothing To Worry About.” And if we measure Ye’s excitement on a scale direcetly linked to his Caps-lock usage, he certainly liked what he heard. Then the duo were sampled on the biggest mixtape of the past year when Drake included “Let’s Call It Off” on So Far Gone. And now Mick Boogie has curated a mixtape entitled Re-Living Thing reworking all of their recent album Living Thing with the help of a legitimately interesting mix of old and new school rappers (Wale, Gza, Bun B, Fashawn) and producers (DJ Jazzy Jeff, Cookin’ Soul, Apple Juice Kid, The Kickdrums). The music molds the genres together oddly well, making the association seem almost natural. So odds tell us Jay-Z should eb attending their next Brooklyn concert, schedule permitting. Check out Re-Living Thing here. (Via: Nah Right)

Jay Z and Beyoncé showed up to the Grizzlies’ Brooklyn Waterfront show last night and set the New York arm of the twittersphere ablaze. Today Grizzly Bear should retain some of that heat by releasing the single for what is one of the year’s as well as their back tracks: “While You Wait For The Others.” But wait, this is going somewhere. The single’s B-Side is only a version of the song featuring the inimitable Michael McDonald. SONIC COLOGNE.

If you enjoy things like really complex vocal layering, men who sing like angels and bands that might just be side projects of weird cults, we highly recommend you check out Luke Temple’s Here We Go Magic, one of the best live bands going right now. They’ll be on tour with Grizzly Bear, who are probably on your mom’s shopping list by now. Huge! Take her to one of the dates listed after the jump, but don’t show her the video for “Fangela,” she’ll think they’re into the dark arts.

Grizzly Bear Tour Dates
Fri – 06.12 – Atlanta GA – The Earl
Sat- 06.13 – Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
Mon – 06.15 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Tue – 06.16 – Austin, TX – The Parish
Thru – 06.18 – Tucson, AZ – The Rialto
Fri – 06.19 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
Sat – 06.20 – West Hollywood, CA – Troubadour
Sun – 06.21 –San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Mon – 06.22 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Wed – 06.24 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios

US Tour Dates
Thu – 06.25 – Seattle,WA – Chop Suey
Sun – 06.28 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
Tue – 06.30 – Indianapolis, IN – Radio Radio
Wed – 07.01 – Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox
Fri – 07.03 – New York NY – South Street Seaport

Miles B.A. Robinson, who last year released his excellent if overlooked self-titled LP, recently moved to Portland from Brooklyn (a trend we’ve been noticing lately) to either clear his mind or muddy it further. His follow-up album, produced by TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, is supposedly still coming out soon and will presumably increase his popularity among fans of his friends’ band Grizzly Bear, but since we have heard zero songs from that record, we’ll settle for a pair of songs he recorded in the UK recently while there playing the Stag & Dagger festival. One is a Thin Lizzy cover, the other is the never before heard “Gold and Grey.” Both are available here along with an extensive interview.

In what we’re calling our Freakshow Friday video, Grizzly Bear has released the video for “Two Weeks” off their acclaimed LP Veckatimest, which features some warped facial construction on members of the band, glowing mouths, and an explosive finale — literally.

For a song full of lush choir vocal arrangements, pretty piano, and foot-tapping percussion, it’s fun and a little creepy to watch such a warped-looking video for such a gorgeous song. Directed by Patrick Daughters, who’s also lent his cinematic skills for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Feist, and Interpol videos, the guys in GB sit by their lonesome in church, sing to the camera, and get their faces owned. Our favorite part is at about the 3:02 mark. Watch below.

Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”

We’ve shown you the video of them playing it live at SxSW. There are a ton of fan tribute videos for it. It features possibly our favorite guest vocalist and we’re even giving away copies of it on both CD and vinyl, so damnit, we’re just going to play the song that everyone can’t stop creaming their pants over.

Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”

It is definitely one of the most anticipated releases of the year, so wouldn’t it be nice to know a couple of days before it hits the stores that you have already secured your very own copy of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest?

One lucky winner will be chosen at random to win both the LP and CD versions of Veckatimest a promo poster and buttons. The album officially comes out on May 26 via Warp Records, but our contest will run until next Friday, May 22, so you will know before it streets if you won the record — and possibly even receive it by the 26 (we take no responsibility for the Post Office).

All you have to do to enter is e-mail us here (contests[at]thetripwire.com) with the subject of “Veckatimest” and your full contact info*. The contest will run until this Friday, May 22. So enter now and keep your fingers crossed.

*Please provide e-mail and full mailing address. E-mail addresses not already on our mailing list will be added. Contest officially ends at 6 p.m. EST on Friday, May 22nd.

There has been a load of hype swarming around Grizzly Bear’s new record, Veckatimest, since the beginning of the year, and the album hasn’t even come out yet (but it’s not like we haven’t heard it already). Grizzly Bear has announced the first single from the album will be “Two Weeks” and will be released on May 12 (May 18 in EU, June 1 in the UK).

Live performances of the song have been filtering around the internet for quite some time now (i.e. the Letterman performance, and the performance with Victoria of Beach House at SxSW), and we have to say, it’s a great track. The single will be released as a 12″ and will have two new remixes of the song.

Veckatimest will be released just a few days after the single on May 26 via Warp Records, and on May 24 the Brooklyn natives will be heading out on tour in support of the new album, which is the follow up to the band’s critically acclaimed last album, Yellow House.

Fred Thomas has been busy plodding along, working on his latest project City Center alongside collaborator Ryan Howard. In the process, he is taking a step away from the sound of his pop-rock days with Saturday Looks Good to Me and creating a new, more ambient sound full of tornado-like loops and airy vocals.

They’ve deemed themselves as healing and easy-listening on their MySpace and if you are into the sound of Grizzly Bear you might just find the low fidelity, yet subtly complex nature of City Centers’ tracks appealing. “Young Diamond” is a completely textured track, that is layered with different sonic assortments that come together to make a unified sound that will keep you pressing repeat over and over again trying to figure out every detail of the track. If the band’s new album is anything like “Young Diamond” we’re in for a treat of epic sound proportions, that your ears won’t grow bored of. You can pre-order City Center’s new record, which is being released on Type Records, off of their MySpace. The record, which will have 500 copies pressed on vinyl, will be released in mid-May.

City Center – “Young Diamond”

During a stellar performance at SxSW, Grizzly Bear showcased some of the new material from their upcoming album, Veckatimest, and if you haven’t already heard the album’s leak, get ready to give your ears a nice surprise. The grizzly men premiered the song “Two Weeks” with guest vocalist Victoria Legrand from Beach House at the showcase, and it was the first time the two forces joined up to perform the new song live.

Veckatimest is due out May 26 on Warp Records, and after the critically acclaimed success of their previous album Yellow House, the buzz around the new Grizzly Bear record has been swarming. Both Beach House and Grizzly Bear performed separate, phenomenal sets at SxSW, but seeing the two come together for such a memorable moment, has made the anticipation for the new record even more unbearable (no pun intended). 

Grizzly Bear will be heading out on the road in support a Veckatimest on May 24, making their way throughout the U.S., where they will be making stops at Bonnaroo and the Pitchfork Music Festival. 

Grizzly Bear with Victoria Legrand – “Two Weeks” (Live)

Grizzly Bear tour dates
05.24.09 – Portland, OR (Aladdin Theatre)
05.25.09 – George, Washington (Sasquatch Festival)
05.26.09 – Vancouver, BC (Commodore)
05.28.09 – New York, NY (Town Hall)
05.29.09 – New York, NY (Town Hall)
06.01.09 – Washington DC (930 Club)
06.02.09 – Philadelphia, PA (Trocadero)
06.03.09 – Boston, MA (Berkley Performance Center)
06.04.09 – Montreal, QB (Le National)
06.05.09 – Toronto, ON (Phoenix)
06.07.09 – Minneapolis, MN (Cedar Cultural Center)
06.08.09 – Milwaukee, WI (Pabst Theatre)
06.09.09 – Bloomington, IN (Buskrik- Chumley)
06.11.09 – Carrboro, NC (Cats Cradle)
06.12.09 – Manchester, TN (Bonnaroo)
06.13.09 – Atlanta, GA (Tabernacle)
06.15.09 – Dallas, TX (Grenada)
06.16.09 – Austin, TX (The Parish)
06.19.09 – Los Angeles, CA (Wiltern)
06.21.09 – San Francisco, CA (Fillmore)
07.19.09 – Chicago, IL (Pitchfork Music Festival)

Ironically, not reported first by Pitchfork, but instead by respected Chicago Sun Times music critic Jim DeRogatis [via The Daily Swarm], the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival will be dropping their “Don’t Look Back” classic-album theme, and instead will allow fans the chance to come up with the set lists as part of a new series called “Write The Night: Set Lists By Request.”

According to DeRogatis’ posts, the acts announced so far for Friday, July 17, are Built to Spill, reunited Chicago noise-rock legends the Jesus Lizard playing their first show in Chicago in 11 years, as well as respected classics Tortoise and Yo La Tengo. Acts announced for Saturday, July 18, include the National, Pharoahe Monch and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. And the performers unveiled for Sunday, July 19, are Grizzly Bear, The Walkmen and the Vivian Girls.

Voting for the set lists begins when tickets go on sale on March 13 and ends on June 12.

After the increasing success of 2006’s Yellow House, it looks like one of our favorite Brooklyn animal-themed-bands Grizzly Bear has come out of their studio recording-hibernation to announce the supporting tour for their highly anticipated new album, Veckatimest.

The album, which will be released on Warp Records May 26, was produced by Grizzly Bear member Chris Taylor, and we’re hoping the new album employs the signature elements of the band’s experimental sounds heard on Yellow House. The twelve track album enlists the help of composer Nico Muhly and Victoria LeGrand of Beach House to help enhance Grizzly Bear’s already stellar sound.

Upon releasing Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear will then be heading out on tour in support of the album at the end of May. The band will kick off their loaded month of touring in Portland, Oregon, making their way throughout the U.S. on the 22-date tour, including performances at both the Sasquatch Festival and Bonnaroo.

Grizzly Bear tour dates
05.24.09 – Portland, OR (Aladdin Theatre)
05.25.09 – George, Washington (Sasquatch Festival)
05.26.09 – Vancouver, BC (Commodore)
05.28.09 – New York, NY (Town Hall)
05.29.09 – New York, NY (Town Hall)
06.01.09 – Washington DC (930 Club)
06.02.09 – Philadelphia, PA (Trocadero)
06.03.09 – Boston, MA (Berkley Performance Center)
06.04.09 – Montreal, QB (Le National)
06.05.09 – Toronto, ON (Phoenix)
06.07.09 – Minneapolis, MN (Cedar Cultural Center)
06.08.09 – Milwaukee, WI (Pabst Theatre)
06.09.09 – Bloomington, IN (Buskrik- Chumley)
06.11.09 – Carrboro, NC (Cats Cradle)
06.12.09 – Manchester, TN (Bonnaroo)
06.13.09 – Atlanta, GA (Tabernacle)
06.15.09 – Dallas, TX (Grenada)
06.16.09 – Austin, TX (The Parish)
06.19.09 – Los Angeles, CA (Wiltern)
06.21.09 – San Francisco, CA (Fillmore)

Grizzly Bear and Final Fantasy brought the utmost maturity to indie rock this weekend, when they performed alongside the Brooklyn Philharmonic at The Brooklyn Academy of Music. Aside from debuting several songs from their upcoming May 26 Warp release, Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear were also joined by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National, as well as composer Nico Muhly and received a standing ovation after the final encore — their rendition of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)”. And because Tripwire photographer Erez Avissar was there to catch it all, we can also tell you that the guys spent time with their folks backstage after the show and lead singer Ed Droste is starting to look a lot like Eugene Mirman’s bastard brother. Here is what Erez saw.

In the wake of the ever increasing pool of festivals and the possible merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the idea of paying $200 to see live music during a recession resulted in our pockets slapping us back into reality. But to be fair, the Sasquatch Festival — presented by Live Nation and tickets sold by Ticketmaster — is one of the cheaper weekend-long festivals and the line-up could quite possibly be the best yet.

Of course, this has left us all wondering at what point does the festival circuit become too congested, leaving them all a bit redundant and watered down? Those who remember the 90s will remember that Lollapalooza took time off for this very reason. But we digress, the Sasquatch Festival will take place May 23-25 at The Gorge in Quincy, WA and features the just-announced-today-union of Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction as the festival headliners. But the rest of the line-up is what excites us and looks like this:

Kings of Leon, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Erykah Badu, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Santigold, Of Montreal, Explosions In The Sky, Devotchka, Peter Bjorn & John, Gogol Bordello, M. Ward, The Avett Brothers, Doves, Calexico, Grizzly Bear, M83, Girl Talk, The Gaslight Anthem, The Walkmen, Chromeo (dj set), Deadmau5, Mugison, Sun Kil Moon, Airborne Toxic Event, Blitzen Trapper, Shearwater, BLK JKS, The Wrens, Tobacco, Monotonix, King Khan & The Shrines, St. Vincent, Passion Pit, John Vanderslice, Bishop Allen, Blind Pilot, AA Bondy, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, The Dodos, Beach House, Arthur & Yu, The Submarines, Owl City, Viva Voce, James Pants, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Builders & The Butchers, The Dutchess & The Duke, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele, Fences, School of Seven Bells, Death Vessel, Horse Feathers, Hockey, Point Juncture, WA, The Pica Beats, Loch Lomond, Vince Mira & more to come.

And the comedy line up includes:
Zach Galifiankas, Demetri Martin, Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, God’s Pottery, People’s Republic of Komedy & more.

Ok, got that? Now, as for tickets, beginning on February 28 (on sale weekend only), a discounted 3-day festival pass will be available until March 1 at midnight at $154.50 for the entire weekend with single tickets costing $56.50. Beginning March 2 a 3-day pass will run you $199.50 and a single ticket $66.50 and if you wait until the last minute (and tickets are still available), starting May 11 the weekend pass is $229.50 and single tickets will be $76.50.

Oh, and Ticketmaster will have all your ticketing needs. Go figure.

SXSW is just a few short weeks away, and the performance schedule has finally been officially released via the event’s website. Yes, it is only the “official” line-up, and there are sure to be tons of “unofficial” parties announced in the next few weeks, but it’s nice to get a few confirmations to add to our schedule.

While the Film festival starts earlier in the week, the musical acts will start on Wednesday, March 18 and run through Sunday the 22. With artists like Phosphorescent, The Bronx, A-Trak, and The Decemberists, Black Lips, Grizzly Bear and blog-boy Wavves confirmed to perform along an ever-increasing line-up of huge acts like Devo or the oft-rumored Metallica, it’s sure to be the gaudy, drunken experience we’ve all come to expect.

Batten down the hatches Austin, the world is coming to tear shit up. You can see the full line-up here.