Grizzly Bear at the 930 Club

The now beast of an indie rock band that is Grizzly Bear will be playing the 930 Club this Monday night. The band released Veckatimest this week, their massively anticipated third full length.

Songs from Veckatimest have been rearing their heads here and there for almost a year, and all signs lead to the band's first pop masterpiece. Don't get me wrong, songs like "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others" are stellar in their own right.

But after spending some time with Veckatimest, I can't help but being a bit let down.

Grizzly Bear's Yellow House was and remains to be one of my favorite albums of recent times, but the Brooklyn based band took another route with the new one. The album focuses more on each song's structure than the album as a whole, while Yellow House was a dark but enlighteningly cohesive journey.

Veckatimest isn't a bad album. The production is impeccable, there are numerous outstanding tracks, and it's filled to the brim with the peak moments of Yellow House. But the balance just isn't there, and the multi-instrumentalist band may have taken it up one notch too many.

Still, I look forward to hearing these songs live. I saw the band play the 2640 space with Beach House a few years back, and the way the harmonizing vocals echoed off the old church's walls is something tough to forget. The show in DC on June 1st is sold out, but ask your good friend Craig if he's got an extra.

4 Names, 1 Dude, & 1 Ridiculous Album

While picking up some other awesome records during my lunchbreak yesterday, I stumbled upon Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's debut LP. The first track off this album has been on repeat for me over the past couple weeks, so naturally I grabbed it.

When you have Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor on production along with fellow bandmates Chris Bear and Daniel Rossen collaborating, chances are your going to produce an amazing album. Oh, and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio also makes a few appearances. Wow.

The thing is, I'm pretty sure that even without all of the extra talent helping him out, this record would have been remarkable anyways. His songwriting style and lyrics are truly unique, which will certainly draw much attention to this new Brooklyn-based artist.

The album will be released on Say Hey Records July 1st, but Soundgarden has copies of it now. Check out a few of the tracks for free right here. "Burified" is the jam that has not left my head for the past month.