Dismal, Bleak and Grizzly Bear's Yellow House

It’s been a weird day and a half to be honest. Last night I found myself running/jogging home from off near the loop for a brisk thirty minute stride. I feel…well, wait a minute that’s for the journal. Haha, I feel, well, I’m not sure, a bit up against it. But well, Ive been wanting to share some thoughts on this album for a while, here they are.

I used to have this old phone that I got simply because it was the newest RAZR, a black thin one, and it came with a, gasp, 2 GB SD card! I had some cheap headphones to use and this was a great way to put some nice music on while I headed to school, work, or whatever else it was that needed to get done. I remember finding out about this here album, Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House, and getting a few songs downloaded onto my nice new phone.

As I used it more and more, I didn’t really grasp the nature of the music I was trying to hear. And as sweet as I thought the phone was, it really was, just a flip phone, that was easy in my pocket – I thought it was so awesome to have some easy way to play music too. I heard “Knife” and never really understood the greatness of it until I finally got the CD like a month later, but I distinctly remember hearing the song about 60 times overall and who knows how many more now. It wasn’t the phone that mattered but it helped to finally get me into Yellow House.

There’s something so real about the lyrics and the way they paint this picture of sad heartbreak and betrayal. The song itself stretches into a little over five minutes of swelling chords, scaling guitar and stunning vocal harmonies; the words themselves are succinct and very well, to the point:

“I want you to know, when I look in your eyes
With every blow, comes another lie.

You think its alright (x4)

Can't you feel the knife? (x4)”

Theres a piano melody towards the end, after he’s asked if he/she can feel the knife. It’s about how you can look someone in the eyes and they’re lying right back? The second part, I’m not sure if he's asking or simply pointing out the obvious. Part of me says half and half but I mean, obviously they (the person causing the harm) think it’s nice. The knife doesn’t come until the end but by then, it's already done damage. The way it starts, with a tapping nature; I love the way he sings the opening lines, especially the first one: so yearning, so demanding. He's wanting to ensure he/she knows how mean and wrong she did him. It's surely a kiss off song and the one that got the album huge.


As I'm writing this, I realize how entirely too safe it is to write about this song so I'm gonna include "Easier" as well. By now I'm really in love with a few songs and then I finally buy the vinyl and it's my first time hearing it. Rumbling and soaring through the sounds, the drums charge through and it sounds amazingly spectral and all-encompassing at the same time. They flash from heavy, string-laden, classical frames into pulsing, driving pop/rock frames that both contrast and compliment each other. And it really boasts the dark and chilly and scary house they recorded in and which the album is named after; with still, a warm coating resonating over all of it.

Sure, Grizzly Bear is huge now, I guess. Who knows how popular they really are. But man, I love it enough that the year it came out I threw it on the as the ‘sixth best album that year’ but I mean who, besides arbitrary me, cares. What I do know is they sound spectacular on this album. - Bryan

Grizzly Bear - Friend EP

There are so many superlatives that have already been used before to describe Grizzly Bear’s sound: it’s aesthetically rich and substantial, it’s built around the foundation of four stellar musicians that all take turns singing, playing melodies, delivering harmonies and in the end, they create a truly gorgeous sound. I remember hearing Yellow House and being amazed at its dark palette of colors, that although their music was definitely never ‘bright,’ it was surely colorful. The Friend EP is something they did before Veckatimest came along and it features a few originals by the band, a few covers by the band and a few covers of their music by other bands. I’ve been reminded of them a lot this past week in finding someone else that also loves them, plus Blue Valentine was a terrific movie to see last night and the music in it is 90% Grizzly Bear.

For fun, here is CSS’ cover of “Knife” in its electronically-infused, poppy sheen. It’s cool to hear such depressing lyrics in this upbeat manner:


I’m still not entirely sure on the story behind “Deep Blue Sea” but I’m pretty sure it’s a cover of an old traditional song. I imagine it probably sounds entirely different to the one on Friend. I was gonna post that one here (and say some flowery stuff about how its simplistic nature leads to subtle and stunning beauty) but I can only find the version that’s found on the Dark Was the Night compilation. And they aren’t that different but well, they’re dissimilar for sure, either way here’s that one because it’s still a lovely song:


And so Blue Valentine ends with the choir version of “Alligator,” the same version used on Friend. It’s a downright classical blend of swirling instruments and voices that turn into a huge cascade of sounds. I think the fact that it’s so disjointed and never really in focus is what makes it that much more endearing and then suddenly, when it explodes and the beat kicks in, everything sounds just right. They’ve got such a knack for finding the perfect balance in their music that even when they’re singing “You are my alligator” over and over, it sounds sublime. – Bryan

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

It's always around this time of year that I start to closely look at my albums and songs for the current year and I try to place them in some kind of arbitrary ranking. And without trying to make it seem as if I only make lists for the publications I write for, I've always been a fan of lists. I feel it's a fun way to learn more about music and it's especially great to read and share lists amongst people you respect and like. Either way, in trying to get all of my favorite music of 2010 and immersing myself in it, I went back to one of top albums of 2009, Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, to find what is it that makes an album great and very importantly, long-lasting.

The entire album has a gripping pull to it, all of the band members deliver timely and fitting touches when needed. Their ear for melody is one thing but to be able to harmonize four different voices with various moods, themes and keys is something else. I always loved how everything opened with "Southern Point," and how it was just Daniel Rossen's voice and that glorious guitar line. It sets the mood for the album's colorful sounds and it starkly marks a new sound from where they were before, 2006's haunted Yellow House. Here is a cool video for a recording they did of the song:


Seeing them up close for last year's ACL was a surreal experience. Looking back, they were one of the 'buzz' bands last year and they played a gifted set in the middle of the day, around a fierce rainstorm. Anyone who knows me closely knows that I consider this band to be one of the best. (After Radiohead made In Rainbows, they were looking for awesome bands to open for them, they chose Grizzly Bear and Liars. And before that, when I got to see Radiohead in Berkeley, they had The Black Keys and Deerhoof opening for them. I saw the latter - apparently Radiohead know their stuff.) Regardless, long before Veckatimest, they premiered "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others" on late-night talk shows, a year before the album came out. It left a strong set of great expectations and surely, they didn't disappoint. The sound that Rossen gets out of that guitar is undeniably mesmerizing, everything about it still moves me. Here is the official video for "While You Wait for the Others" - Bryan