It’s June — we are now almost officially half-way through the year. Thus far – and not surprisingly – Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is, at present, ranking as my favorite release of 2009. The week of its release (May 26th) the album landed on the Billboard top 10, charting at number 8, with over 33k units sold. An impressive feat for a band described by the mainstream music media as ‘art-rock.’ If you have allowed the contrarian in you to ignore Grizzly Bear up to this point, perhaps in response to the massive hype, take a breath and do check them out both on record and in a live setting. They are presently touring the United States. As album experiences go, both Veckatimest and 2006’s Yellow House are nothing short of stunning — rewarding the patient with something unique upon every listen.
While working on my Sirius/XM show last week I dug out Grizzly Bear’s primitive cover of Yes’s “Owner of A Lonely Heart” from the 2006 Sorry For The Delay stop-gap collection (originally a vinyl only release). If nothing else the track highlights the contrast between Grizzly Bear 1.0 (read: Ed Droste) and the lush production/collaboration found as a full band with the release of Yellow House and beyond. In stark juxtaposition next to Veckatimest’s multi-layered “Cheerleader,” “Owner of A Lonely Heart” feels sketch-like — a precursor of what was to come.
Download:
MP3: Grizzly Bear :: Owner of A Lonely Heart (Yes cover)
MP3: Grizzly Bear :: Cheerleader
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Amazon: Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
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Grizzly Bear :: Two Weeks (Video)
+ Download Grizzly Bear via eMusic’s no risk 25 Free MP3 trial offer.
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Actually the beginning of july wold be half way through the year
1 | zap June 8th, 2009 at 6:01 pmSo much better than the original version by Yes. I hope Grizzly Bear doesn’t sell out (the Billboard statistic has me worried).
2 | Funky Rutabaga June 8th, 2009 at 6:27 pmTheir version of Yes’ “Owner of A Lonely Heart” is one of my favorite covers ever! The only one that could top it would be Cryptacize’s version of “Peg”.
Here’s “Peg”: http://www.entertainingspaces.com/ocmd/Cryptacize%2520-%2520Peg.mp3
3 | theOCMD June 8th, 2009 at 6:48 pmha, good catch, zap. thx
4 | Satisfied '75 June 8th, 2009 at 6:48 pm‘two weeks’ is an amazing track. it’s been in heavy rotation on kcrw this past month.
5 | theMike June 8th, 2009 at 6:55 pmOCMD, now you’re going to get me in a Steely Dan phase.
And Two Weeks is the best track from Veckatimest (which I am finally getting into, despite having it on iTunes and on my iPod for some time and overlooked it).
6 | Funky Rutabaga June 8th, 2009 at 7:51 pm[...] Click here to go to AD to check Grizzly Bear covering Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. Interesting take on this Yes tune…pretty cool. [...]
7 | Grizzly Bear Covers Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” « Rock God Cred June 9th, 2009 at 4:45 pmThat yes-cover was cool!
8 | G June 9th, 2009 at 7:06 pmJust saw Grizzly Bear last night in Milwaukee and they were AMAZING. I had no idea that they were THAT great live. Absolutely, do not miss…..
9 | Tix June 9th, 2009 at 7:13 pm[...] want to thank Aquarium Drunkard for reminding me of Grizzly Bear’s cover of Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” [...]
10 | Grizzly Bear - Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes Cover) at Pretty Much Amazing! June 23rd, 2009 at 4:03 am[...] me (frankly, I wouldn’t forgive myself) if I missed out on Grizzly Bear (7:25 PM) whose Veckatimist is truly neck and neck for the best album of 2009. Sunday night’s closing tandem is the [...]
11 | Aquarium Drunkard: Music Blog » Pitchfork :: Festivus 2009 July 13th, 2009 at 4:09 pm