Friday Bears: New Videos from Grizzly Bear and The Mantles

Apologies for the lack of posts for the past several days. Let's just put that all behind us and just say I was missing, when in fact I was just doing too much outside of this.

Grizzly Bear premiered the second video from this year's oft-blogged album Veckatimest for "Ready, Able." The video, directed by Allison Schulnik, features the eternally creepy art-forms of stop-motion animation and clay-mation. And yet, somehow, those creepy things are displayed in an even creepier than normal fashion, with clay blended together to garbage-tinged mess.

Grizzly Bear - Ready, Able



San Francisco garage band The Mantles have premiered their first video for their single "Don't Lie," from the band's self-titled debut LP (via Slumberland). The video mostly uses "Don't Lie" as a score for the 1973 film Paper Moon, starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal set in Kansas during the Great Depression. The revelance of the time period to "Don't Lie" is a mystery, but whatever.

The Mantles - Don't Lie

Tuesday Bears: Dirty Projectors New EP

Several months after the release of the band's landmark album Bitte Orca, Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors look to continue their 2009 tear with their new Temecula Sunrise EP.

The new four-song set includes two new tracks and two tracks off the aforementioned Bitte Orca, including the title song "Temecula Sunrise" and one of the year's best singles, "Cannibal Resource."

The EP is not so much a departure from the 2009 LP - both of which were recorded at the same time - but an addition to the album, with the harmonious sounds that made it one of the more prominent records of the year and the best of the band's career.

Dirty Projectors - Emblem of the World - MP3

Monday Bears: New Yeasayer - Ambling Alp

Yeasayer have been rising further and further atop the dense indie-music spectrum with their searing new-age psychedelic pop. Their 2007 album All Hour Symbols, featuring one of the year's best tracks "2080," was a rushing score with a hint of The Flaming Lips and late 60's melodies. Their single "Tightrope," featured on this year's Dark Was the Night, was a bit of a growth for the Brooklyn band, slightly departing from the long-winded psychedelic songs of All Hour Symbols and Wait for the Summer EP, giving listeners a friendlier, more accessible sound without losing their original swirls and vibe.

The band's newest single, "Ambling Alp," is featured on their upcoming studio album Odd Blood, scheduled for release next February. The song is undeniably uplifting and enticing, coursing through in a bright electric rhythm. It seems the band is continuing to improve early in their careers at an alarming rate. And if "Ambling Alp" proves anything, it's that Odd Blood should be one of the more talked about albums of 2010.

Yeasayer - Ambling Alp - MP3
Yeasayer - 2080 - MP3