I’ve done my fair share of advance cheerleading leading up to the May 26 release of Grizzly Bear’s third album, Veckatimest. Hey, so has most every other indie-leaning blogger with taste. But we’re very proud to be able to offer something a bit more substantial than mere anticipation with this post. Right now, The Music Mix is the only place where you can stream the lovely "Cheerleader," one of my favorite songs (among many) from Veckatimest. In fact, The Music Mix is the only place you can hear any high-quality new Grizzly Bear music on the Web at the moment — and we’ll be offering tons more exclusive downloads and streams from other awesome artists in the coming weeks and months.
I first fell in love with "Cheerleader" as a fuzzy live MP3 recorded by some audience member at a Grizzly Bear show last summer. The studio version really shows off just how much they’ve grown as a band in the past few years, layering singer (and friend of EW.com) Edward Droste’s faraway vocals over a tight, punchy rhythm section and some glorious choir harmonies near the end. Did they nail this one or what?
Okay, I’m obviously a raving fan. So go ahead: Give "Cheerleader" a listen for yourself below, then let us know what you think.
More on Grizzly Bear:
Grizzly Bear and the Brooklyn Philharmonic: A roaring good show
Anticipating Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest
Ed Droste’s PopWatch blog from Lollapalooza ‘08
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I think All We Ask is my favourite track on Veckatimest, though it’s hard to choose. I’ve always been impressed with Droste’s voice live, so the bands performance on Letterman of Cheerleader quickly found a high play count on my ipod. Fell in love with these guys when they toured with Radiohead and I saw them open.
Bought me and friends’ tickets for their Toronto show!
And don’t worry, I am BUYING the album when it comes out…
Also, Daniel Rossen of GB’s band Department of Eagles is blindingly brilliant. Buy their album. Do. It.
Grizzly Bear is wonderful and I think with Veckatimest they will only continue to put out wonderful music. This is also a better view of their live sound, something I hope to witness someday.
Holy Moly, used to play drums behind Chris “Grizzly” Bear at the local community college jazz band…
Kudos big guy, loved your lolla 08 set!
cool song! I love “two weeks” and “while you wait for the others,” both of which I was lucky enough to see them play live when they opened for Radiohead. I’m looking forward to the release of Veckatimest!
This song is so pretty. Ed’s voice slays me. Definitely one of my favorites from the album, although they’re kinda all favorites. Can’t wait to buy this when it comes out.
Another hyped band like “Vampire Weekend”
this version doesn’t sound as great as the leaked album version quality-wise. perhaps a little distorted? in any case this is the best band around and a great track from a phenomenal album.
not like vampire weekend. vampire weekend released one album and exploded.
grizzly bear has been around. they’re hyped because they’ve built a history of doing good things.
@SamS
They played “Two Weeks” on Letterman
Garbage. Please leave your bad imitation of the Beach Boys and Spector alone. Wordless reverb, wow! What a step. There is nothing to this song.
It’s funny you should say that, Dennis, because Droste had complained on his Twitter account about the low quality of the leak that’s been floating around. I myself am very excited for the album and have thus stayed away from the inferior leak. I want to hear the studio version of “While You Wait for the Others” in all of its glory the way the guys meant it to sound.
this is lower quality than the leak! i had finally listen to it (but just this track) since this is apparently officially sanctioned. and man you guys put a lower quality, scared the crap out of me i thought they’d suddenly gone wrong in production!
Meet the 21st Century. 21st Century, meet Paul.
ok, NOW i can hear all the wonderful details. i hear what people were talking about now. immediate but multilayered in a way that will be very rewarding. some radiohead/sufjan stylings in there. beautiful
This is such a wonderful song.
It’s amazing to hear how much their music has matured, while still maintaining the sound qualities that they’ve become known for.
I’m terribly excited for this album.
much better quality than the version from earlier today
Shamrock Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 01:33 PM EST
Another hyped band like “Vampire Weekend”
What are you THINKING?
you are like the most hottest guys ever i’am ur biggest fan!!!!!!!
you are like the most hottest guys ever i’am ur biggest fan!!!!!!!
The leak definitely has a fuller sound.
@Paul You don’t know what you’re talking about, but it’s nice of you to feign an educated verdict. Spector’s wall-of-sound production was largely typified by the use of dense reverb and orchestration in the instrumentation, not the vocals. And as for the “wordless reverb” you falsely attributed to Spector, that was a staple of the surf rock outside of the Beach Boys and certainly before Spector was involved. On top of all this, this song is clearly aiming at a sparser, reverb-punctuated rather than reverb-washed sound, which-I’d say-works wonderfully.
sounds wonderful.
still cannot wait to listen to it in the context of the album
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