Let’s be honest. When most people hear the words “grizzly” and “bear” used together, they think of an actual grizzly bear. You know, the adorable North American brown bear typically found in western North America. However, Grizzly Bear (with a capital G and B) are actually, as many of you may know, quite the opposite. They are Edward Droste (vocals, keyboards, Omni chord), Daniel Rossen (vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards), Chris Taylor (bass, backing vocals, various instruments, producer), and Christopher Bear (drums, backing vocals). And yes, their name is a nickname that Ed had for an old boyfriend of his.

So what does their music “sound” like? According to the “Pitchfork, Stereogum, Rolling Stone and Consequence of Sound” type of music publications (which I’m not here to emulate in anyway, by the way): Psychedelic pop, folk rock, indie rock, folk rock, psychedelic folk, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic rock, experimental, experimental rock, art rock, and lo-fi.

Now you’re probably asking yourself how one band possibly incorporate all these different “genres” into their music? The answer is quite simple. They make music that defies labels.

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Grizzly Bear is Edward Droste’s musical brainchild. Their first album, 2004’s Horn of Plenty, is consisted of a unique mix of just Edward and Christopher’s sounds. However, it wasn’t until 2006 that they recorded their first record as a quartet: the critically-acclaimed Yellow House (which was aptly named after Edward’s mother’s house where it was recorded). He also admits that he dreaded the idea of being a solo act and that he felt that this music sounded better with a full band and that this is when they discovered their distinct sound.

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So it should be noted 2008 was a particularly awesome year for this band. These four talented individuals got to open up for Radiohead (who actually loved their music) during the second leg of their tour of North America that summer. The success from this tour led them to retreat to Cape Cod, where their third album Vectatimest was conceived and completed in 2009 and saw much praise from the press and Billboard as well.

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Fast forward to 2012. The band took the internet to showcase “Sleeping Ute,” a song from what came to be Shields, the band’s fourth album. They included a full tracklisting of the album along their tour dates for it. It leaked on the internet on September 4th (as many albums do this day and age) and was finally released on September 18th. Check out “Sleeping Ute” and two other favorites from this amazing album below.