My new-found love for Grizzly Bear

Like most bands I fall head-over-heals for, at first I disregard their initial hype, write them off as johnny-come-latelies, just something the hipsters have fallen for. Then, after about a year, someone I really respect talks about them enough that I check them out. Same is true for Grizzly Bear.

Veckatimest- I think what strikes me most about this record a is the treatments and arrangements both to the song structure (songwriting) and the production. Incredible detail has been put into creating an intensity without from-the-gut guitar angst. Instead, you get this swirling of sound and somewhere in there you find an urgency. A lot of the group's dynamic comes form the interplay between its trading-off two singers.

iTunes alert: download "Two Weeks" and you won't be sorry (except Sissy, it's on your Euro Mix 5).

Yellow House- was their breakthrough much-hyped release. I wrote it off as dissonant noise. But after getting into Veckatimest, I went back and checked out Yellow House and I'm growing to like it.

On a realistic note, I'm just not sure why these guys have become the IT KIDS of the last couple years. Not sure why MIDLAKE isn't on top in this way. As much as I have come to be a huge Gizzly Bear fan, when I want quirky abstract chamber pop, I'm gonna reach for some Midlake. Just a little RIYL.

Father's Day Bonus! Jill and a couple of my friends' wives who are also Grizzly Bear fans (my friends, not their wives) got the 3 of us tickets to see them (Grizzly Bear, not our wives) at the Fillmore tomorrow night! Will report back.