It’s been a long half a decade since Grizzly Bear’s last record, Shields came out back in 2012. The Brooklyn folk group has been teasing their follow-up since last October, letting the world know that their new record was 90% done:
Album 90 percent done. Last update until you hear it
— Grizzly Bear (@grizzlybear) October 18, 2016
Looks like the other 10% has been added into the mix, because they launched a teaser video and a brand new Instagram page. The wordless 30 second clip comes with a colorful, hazy visual and not much else, but it’s enough to point at a slightly more warped sound for the band. Surely, they couldn’t hang around their folk roots forever, but there isn’t a trace of harmonies or even an acoustic guitar tone to be found. Interesting!
Back when Shields come out, Grizzly Bear rather infamously helped explain to the general public that being in an extremely successful indie rock band doesn’t even guarantee that you can pay your bills anymore. In a Vulture cover story, the band opened up about the realities of living and creating music in Brooklyn — even when you had a song like “Two Weeks” racking up attention in a VW commercial. Who knows how the band will fare in the streaming era, but this new snippet sounds pretty incredible.
