Grizzly Bear

Hear songs from the Brooklyn-based group's hotly anticipated new album, Veckatimest, in an in-studio session at WNYC, streamed live at NPR Music.

Grizzly Bear's music is an equally intimate and intense take on indie-folk, complete with ambitious arrangements, unique instrumentation and dreamy, almost choral doo-wop harmonies. Hear an interview with the Brooklyn band, as well as a performance on KEXP in Seattle.

Grizzly Bear's gorgeously hazy second disc is a major leap forward: Titled Yellow House, it benefits from a monumental upgrade in production values, as well as the presence of tight, focused songs that place the band's experimental tendencies into a more natural-sounding melodic context.

The advance praise for the graceful rockers' new album reached such a height that the critical backlash began even before it was released. Band members Edward Droste and Daniel Rossen discuss Veckatimest with host Jacki Lyden.

Last year, the band Grizzly Bear earned the acclaim of critics with Yellow House, recorded in and inspired by the childhood home of frontman Ed Droste. The Brooklyn band's songs are warm and comfortable, yet somehow strange and new.

With the help of a plunky piano riff and layered melodies reminiscent of The Beach Boys, Grizzly Bear's buoyant "Two Weeks" functions as one of the band's most accessible and delightfully hook-drenched songs.

NPR listeners cast thousands of votes for the year's best music (so far) and kept the race tight. In the end, Animal Collective edged out every other artist in both the Best Album category, and for Best Song. Artists like Grizzly Bear, The Decemberists and Neko Case weren't far behind. One thing was clear: 2009 has been one of the strongest years for new music in recent memory.

Later this month Bob Dylan, will release his 33rd studio disc, and based on our early listen, it's going to be stunning. On this edition of All Songs Considered we've got a preview of the new Dylan record, Together Through Life, with the song "Beyond Here Lies Nothing." Also on the program: a new, self-released single from Sam Phillips, singer Jill Sobule, Malian duo Amadou and Mariam, solo music from The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson, a collaboration between Orenda Fink and Scalpelist, and an exclusive live cut from Grizzly Bear's recent South by Southwest performance.

Brooklyn art-rock band Grizzly Bear revisits the creepy 1962 Phil Spector song "He Hit Me"; new music from Brazilian singer Ceu finally makes it to the U.S.; Scottish singer-songwriter Emma Pollock releases her solo debut after leaving the Delgados; New Zealand rockers Shocking Pinks pay homage to My Bloody Valentine; Philadelphia's Valerie Project score a re-imagined soundtrack to an obscure 1970 Czechoslovakian film; indie outsiders Lucinda Blackbear make beautiful, rainy day music, from our Second Stage series.

With the help of a plunky piano riff and layered melodies reminiscent of The Beach Boys, Grizzly Bear's buoyant "Two Weeks" functions as one of the band's most accessible and delightfully hook-drenched songs.