Music Marathon 2009 Part 6 (Grizzly Bear – Iron & Wine)

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
After two albums that left me completely bored, I finally came around on Grizzly Bear this year, initially on the basis of a tight, rhythmic performance of “Cheerleader” on Jimmy Fallon show.  It took me by surprise, since I’d previously associated Grizzly Bear with a lethargic gauziness that spread out over all of their material, obscuring the songs that everyone else seemed to rave about.  But that live version of “Cheerleader” popped in the right places, the harmonies were in the service of a nicely formed song, and Ed Droste’s voice finally made an impression (both primary singers for Grizzly Bear always sounded relatively anonymous and flavorless to me – one guy sounded a little more like Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam than the other, and that was about as far as I could go to discerning their character).