Grizzly Bear Find Their Essence On The Streets Of Paris

noah | August 4, 2008 1:15 am
As longtime readers well know, Idolator has an unrivaled commitment to what’s new in indie rock, which is why I’m here today discussing a two-year-old Grizzly Bear video. I don’t much care for the much-blogged-about band, although for much of 2006 I was convinced Yellow House was a grower and I needed to give it more time to let my appreciation of the album as a whole match that of just Ed Droste’s voice. (What else could explain all the acclaim?) But I adore the above video of the band’s a cappella performance of their single “Knife” on the streets of Paris, mainly because it strips “Knife” down and reveals that it’s in actuality a really great doo-wop song.

Why do good pop songwriters hide their hooks behind baroque instrumentation? This is something Fluxblogger and Idolator guestblogger Matthew Perpetua has asked numerous times in the past, largely about noisier bands who embrace a self-consciously lo-fi aesthetic (No Age, Times New Viking). But the question holds just as true for the hyper-orchestrated music of bands like Grizzly Bear.

I’m not speaking as a mere poptimist strawman–for three months this winter one of my most-played records was Sonny Sharrock’s Black Woman!–but I wonder why so many musicians needlessly decorate their songs in this way, and why indie rock kids who would never listen to doo-wop fall all over themselves praising Grizzly Bear.

Maybe indie rock kids just hate fun, which is the other element of the Blogotheque video that’s missing from the recorded version; on record, “Knife” treats itself like it’s the most important thing in the world. But the band’s impromptu performance is positively joyful, with the band members smiling and snapping their fingers in such a way that the song turns leisurely instead of plodding.

(A moment for a coda: I do not enjoy Zach Condon’s similarly stripped-down Blogotheque cover of “Knife,” because the last thing the song needs is showoffy vocal runs from a sometime songwriting talent who is at his best with a trumpet to his mouth.)

Grizzly Bear – The Knife [YouTube]

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