grizzly bear

Grizzly Bear are quickly becoming one of the biggest names in indie rock, especially after the release of their highly-toted album, Veckatimest, earlier this year. After spending quite a bit of time with the album, I've fallen in love with every track, but most recently have been stuck on the ethereal "Ready, Able." It's probably the most comparable song to Yellow House-era Grizzly Bear, which is one of my all-time favorite albums, so it's understandable why the song is in heavy rotation. Their most recent video for the song is a oddly crafted, rainbow-swirled forested wonderland of little melty creatures and geodesic spacecraft. The video was crafted by artist Allison Schulnik, and would definitely be much better to watch on loads and loads of LSD.

Brooklyn indie-rockers Grizzly Bear made their late night debut in support of their latest effort, Veckatimest. After a failed try at performing on David Letterman's Late Show earlier in the year due to the show running out of time, the foursome more than made up for it with an ethereal performance of the track "Ready, Able" backed by a string quartet. Check it out:

I finally had the chance to see Grizzly Bear at Bonnaroo, and they were very good live. I'd really like to see them in some dark dank club though, as that's where I believe they'd shine. Great music.

Guesting with Wilco seems to be the in thing for indie rockers to do as of late. First, Austin group Okkervil River joined the storied alt-rock band at Red Rocks, and now a few more friends have stepped into the inner Wilco circle. For their performance at Keyspan Park in the famed Coney Island district of Brooklyn, Wilco brought along Yo La Tengo, Leslie Feist and Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste to help them out on several songs throughout the set. Yo La Tengo served as the evening's opener, but also joined Wilco for a fuzzed-out version of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" to close the extended first encore. Leslie Feist, who recently reunited with her old band, Broken Social Scene, also joined the Chicago sextet for several songs, including "You & I," a track she recorded with Wilco for their latest album. Already known for his friendship with Feist, Ed Droste was probably there just to hang out, but couldn't resist joining her in singing along on both "California Stars" and "You Never Know," as well as banging away on percussion during "Hoodoo Voodoo" to help finish out the second encore.

Wilco feat. Yo La Tengo - "Spiders (Kidsmoke)"

Check out clips of "California Stars," "You & I," "You Never Know" and "Hoodoo Voodoo," all of which feature Feist and/or Ed Droste on vocals and/or percussion after the jump.

Today's Grizzly Bear day! First we get a new video from the Brooklyn quartet of their single "Two Weeks," and now their new album, Veckatimest, is available for stream on MySpace. First, watch the creepy robotic-head-exploding Black-Hole-Sun-eyed video, then head over and give the new tunes a listen.

I'm really digging Veckatimest so far, especially the opening track "Southern Point," and the epic "While You Wait for the Others." BOT finally gets the chance to see them live next month at Bonnaroo, barring any major conflicts of course (they play at the same time as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Santigold and King Sunny Ade, so we'll see which band pulls us in...probably GB). Any Grizzly Bear fans in the house?

The list for this year's SXSW music festival and conference just keeps growing. A huge number of bands have been added since we last updated the list, with many of our favorites standing out from among the rest. Included in this addition are: Devo, The Prodigy, Apollo Sunshine, Back Door Slam, deadmau5, Zion I, Easy Star All-Stars, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Ruthie Foster, Gang Gang Dance, The Dead Trees, Grand Archives, Grizzly Bear, Cheesburger, Ha Ha Tonka, Black Lips, Handsome Furs, Andrew Bird, Human Highway, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, +/- {Plus/Minus}, Big Sam's Funky Nation, The Juan Maclean, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele, Kraak & Smaak, Monotonix, The Duhks, Eric Lindell, The Proclaimers, Delta Spirit, Mr. Lif, Elvis Perkins In Deerland, The Spinto Band, Crystal Antlers, The Raveonettes, Langhorne Slim, Superdrag, HEALTH, That 1 Guy, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, David Vandervelde, Deer Tick, The Black Angels, Vetiver, Project Jenny, Project Jan, The War on Drugs, Cadence Weapon, Wax Fang and about 1000 more. We are also extremely excited that several great bands from Houston, including The Wild Moccasins and Young Mammals, made it on the list. Congrats guys!

Keep checking our original SXSW post over the next few weeks for a fully updated list of bands playing the 2009 event.

Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, The Raconteurs, Wilco and Kanye West are all set to headline the 2008 edition of Perry Farrell's brainchild, Lollapalooza. Also on the bill are Lolla-alumni Gnarls Barkley, the Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, G. Love & Special Sauce, Blues Traveler and Mates of State. Other acts set to appear are Bloc Party, Cat Power, Stephen Malkmus, Girl Talk, Kid Sister, Office, the Cool Kids, Battles, MGMT, Yeasayer, Jamie Lidell and Grizzly Bear (who will be opening up for Radiohead on the second half of their tour).

The full line-up after the jump!