Grizzly Bear

As Meghan already told you, TV on the Radio are playing tomorrow night. What she didn't tell you is that the opening band is one of the most anticipated acts of the year following the release of their masterpiece, Yellow House on Warp Records. Grizzly Bear, also from Brooklyn, have crafted a full and sprawling follow up to the four-track sweetness of Horn of Plenty. Armed with wonder-kid Daniel Rossen from Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear deliver a rich, incense scented tapestry decorated with ornate oriental frills, layered with thick Baroque velvet washes, and the odd playful splash of baby blue.

4 stars from Uncut, an A- from Stylus, and an impressive 8.7 from Pitchfork, Yellow House is auburn twilight haze falling softly near a pile of golden-brown leaves on a crisp autumn Sunday; it is tea with Willow Ufgood on his quest to save Elora Danan from the clutches of Bavmorda; it is the rollicking banjo twang of Oregon Trail pioneers fording the river at Chimney Rock. Taking cues from kraut-country, psych-jam, Appalachian folk rockers Califone, the lush symphonic chamber-pop of Mercury Rev, and the dreamy, underwater pop of Smile-era Beach Boys.

As for TV on the Radio, they have managed to capture the zeitgeist of post 911 (or perhaps post-Katrina) America without succumbing to cliches. David Sitek's programming propels Tunde Adebimpe's falsetto gospel of paranoia and confusion reminiscent of the post-millennial anxiety emitted by At The Drive-In, as Kyp Malone's wiry guitar evokes the new-wave post rock of Yeah Yeah Yeah's. The last comparison is applicable not only because the two bands share the same city, but also because they share the same producer in Sitek. Many will point to the the collaboration with David Bowie on the just-released album (and oddly titled), Return To Cookie Mountain, or the anti-Bush epic "Dry Drunk Emperor", but the record stands as a whole; polished and poignant. It meanders through mythological imagery, pop song and protest, repetition, electronic blips and drone, onto the dance-floor, then back into the city to lay waste to the skeptics. The New York Times puts it eloquently: an elegy, a squall, a survey of ruins, a call for resolve, an impetus to dance, a reverie, a taunt, a surge".

Or to put it another way, it's going to be soooooo HOT!