Grizzly Bear

The indie-pop band Grizzly Bear from Brooklyn, New York originally started out as a vehicle showcasing the talent of singer/songwriter Ed Droste. Grizzly Bear's debut album was essentially a solo album recorded by Droste with some eleventh hour contributions from drummer Christopher Bear who commented: "I basically came into Grizzly Bear after the album was already finished. I helped Ed tie up some loose ends with 'Horn of Plenty', but that record was pretty much all him." Chris Bear eventually joined the band as a full time member, augmented by bassist and producer Chris Taylor, and they performed the first few live shows as a three-piece. In Droste's own words the the early performances "kind of sucked" and it wasn't until the addition of Daniel Rossen, a friend of Bear's from jazz-camp, who came in on guitars and vocals, that the band's dinstictive sound really started to emerge. Since 'Horn of Plenty' the band have gone on to release a further four studio albums and their most recent release 'Painted Ruins' has received particularly favourable reviews amongst mainstream music critics.