Grizzly Bear to feed off ethereality of Vassar Chapel

At Yellow Stone National Park the grizzly bear might be nearing extinction, but it is alive and well at Vassar. Ever since ViCE announced that Grizzly Bear would be performing at Vassar this fall, a grizzly fervor has hit campus. Grrrrowl.

Grizzly Bear, a Brooklyn-based indie-rock band renowned for its calculated melodies and vocal harmonies, is scheduled to perform with indie-rock duo Beach House in the Chapel this Friday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m.
With the recent release of their third album, Veckatimist, Grizzly Bear has gained significant recognition in both the alternative and mainstream music spheres.

"I think for an indie-rock band they've gotten a lot more popular with the mainstream. We took a lot of sources of information—Pitchfork [the popular music website], CMJ [College Music Journal], radio top lists and feedback from the ViCE music committee in making our final decision," said head of ViCE music Christine Yu '10 on choosing Grizzly Bear to come to Vassar.

How popular is the band exactly? Well, to give an idea, the band has recently confirmed that that they will have a track on the Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, which will appear alongside tracks by indie-rock giants such as The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie. This proximity to popularity has also extended to the band's touring schedule, as they have performed with other indie greats like Radiohead, TV on the Radio and Feist.

Now with a tour of their own, Grizzly Bear is truly making a name for itself. This popularity has not come without significant media recognition. Much to the band's surprise, Veckatimist won the band a number eight spot on Billboard's top 200 records list when it was released on May 26, 2009.

"We didn't see it coming at all. It was a complete shock. I don't think anyone, even internally at the label, expected that," explained guitarist/vocalist Ed Droste in a June 29 interview with Pitchfork.

Despite their rising popularity, Grizzly Bear still maintains an incredibly holistic and deliberate recording process that yields undeniably beautiful tracks. The band is continually praised for its ability to craft carefully hypnotic tracks that exude an ethereal power over the listener. In Rolling Stone's review of Veckatimist, music critic Christian Hoard describes this phenomenon as it occurs in one of the record's most popular singles.
"Then there's the focused standout ‘Two Weeks,' an uptempo tune built on gorgeous choral harmonies that sounds like a teenage symphony to God, as conceived by Radiohead-loving postgrads," wrote Hoard.

Although the band never cites whether or not they mean to diverge from the secular, there is something undoubtedly transcendent about their music. Interestingly enough, the music video for "Two Weeks" was filmed in a defunct boys' penitentiary chapel outside of L.A. It seems as if ViCE could not have chosen a more suitable venue than the Chapel to showcase the band's hauntingly ethereal voices. Yu echoes these sentiments as she notes the chapel's existence as an ideal concert space.

"I always hope that everyone treats the Chapel with respect. It's a beautiful place, and I think it will look really good. Also, the acoustics in the Chapel are a lot better than other venues on campus," explained Yu.
Pitchfork has also picked up the suitabilty of religious space for the Grizzly Bear's music, as they recently featured a series of videos in which the band performs in yet another chapel setting. Aptly titled "Cemetary Gates," the recordings are an accurate preview of what is to come with Friday's performance.

The dream-like melodies of Grizzly Bear will be a sharp contrast to the beats dropped by Clipse in ViCE's first concert this year. Variety is a key element in ViCE's entertainment success and is a goal towards which ViCE continually strives.

"In the past we've had general complaints about bringing the same genre of music that brings the same sort of crowd. We like to think of the differences between concerts, like Clipse and Grizzly Bear for example. We always aim for diverse programming," explained Yu.

Students seem to be coming out in thralls to show their excitement for Friday's show. Each of the three ticket giveaway days saw students lining up outside of the Chapel hours before ViCE began releasing the tickets.

"We had really good turnouts every day. We're sold out online. We've been receiving a lot of questions on our Facebook page: ‘Do you have any tickets left?' There are definitely a lot of devoted fans out there," explained Yu.

One of these fans, Madeline Zappala '12 can barely contain her excitement as she waits for Friday's performance.

"Ah! I am so excited. Vassar rarely gets bands that I know, so this is a big deal for me. I love Grizzly Bear!" she exclaimed.

Aside from the three main ticket giveaway times, ViCE will sell a limited number of tickets the day of the concert. Also, as any student who is friends with "ViCE" on Facebook is aware, ViCE is sending students on, quite literally, a bear chase around campus to competitively win additional tickets before Friday's concert. The first of these competitive giveaways includes finding the letters V, i, C and E around campus, and the second involves reciting to costumed bears, "ViCE is nice, and I'm going to feed you."

Exhausting the bear theme in the best possible way, ViCE has teamed up with Hunger Action on the aforementioned grounds of feeding the bears, and, of course people. ViCE chair Peter Denny ‘10 explained the fruitfulness of the collaboration.

"ViCE entered into our collaboration with Hunger Action as a joint effort to raise awareness for HA's cause, and help to generate more social awareness on campus by turning an event traditionally classified solely asentertainment into a beneficial cause, in this case, encouraging concert-goers to donate food and money to Hunger Action, who work with our surrounding community," wrote Denny in an emailed statement.

Hunger Action co-chair, Ezra Roth ‘10 explained how the food and money collected will reach individuals in need not far from campus.
"Proceeds from all of these promotions go toward filling up or buying more non-perishables for Beulah Baptist Church's food pantry. The attached soup kitchen draws on food from this pantry to prepare meals that serve hundreds of people in need each week," wrote Roth.
Yu has faith that the concert will impress the Vassar community, as the band's music exudes both beauty and talent. "I fully believe that they are great performers, great musicians," concluded Yu.