“Southern Point” by Grizzly Bear
From the 2009 album Veckatimest

After spending much of the summer obsessively digesting the electronic perfection of the Kraftwerk catalog, Grizzly Bear is a striking change of pace. Contemporary, low-key and low-fi, the only characteristic these two bands really share is a willingness to experiment.

I first heard Grizzly Bear in the same way I hear almost all new music these days: on The Current, the Twin Cities’ outstanding indie rock station from Minnesota Public Radio. While I enjoyed the one song that’s been getting airplay on The Current (even though I’m not sure I can identify which song it was), my efforts to muster enthusiasm for the album as a whole went nowhere. I listened to all of the samples on iTunes and Amazon MP3 several times and just could never convince myself to make the purchase.

Then, last week, something clicked (besides my mouse button, but ultimately that did as well) and I bought it. I’ve listened to it probably a few dozen times since then, and I would say it’s beginning to have as much impact on me as the Kraftwerk albums, or the new Decemberists album before that.

There’s a haunting, ethereal quality to Grizzly Bear’s music. It’s music that demands that you meet it on its own terms. But if you let yourself go, it takes you on a fascinating journey. And it’s all a lot less douchey than that sounds.

There are parts of “Southern Point” (and much of the rest of the album) that remind me of Trespass-era Genesis. The cavernous studio sound reminds me a bit of Sun Ra. And for their sheer experimentation, the band is bound to draw comparisons to Radiohead, if only because there are so few other commercially-successful (or approaching it) bands that are willing to let their experiments go this far afield.