After nearly eight months of keeping to themselves, Grizzly Bear is back at with talk of a start to their fifth studio album and a series of shows in NYC.
Everyone knows that this year’s presidential election is more than likely one of the most influential races in American history for many reasons. There has been a long history of music playing a pivotal role in its influence on politics itself, but for the first time it can be said that politics has had a direct influence on music. More specifically a single band, Grizzly Bear, who have announced that they will end their eight month hibernation with couple of shows at a series of Bernie Sanders rallies. The rallies will be in New York City and they will be accompanied by Vampire Weekend on these shows, according to Rolling Stone. This show will be the first time in over two years that Grizzly Bear has played a show together.
The shows are just the tip of the iceberg for what the band has in store as a fifth studio album has also been announced. They will begin recording the new album in the coming month with “tons of songs” as they described in a tweet.
“We love all! We r passionate to make amazing music for years to come! And we are passionate about changing the political system in the US. Thanks so much to all of you all that still care! We are ready to unleash a fresh album and hopefully under a fresh government! once in a lifetime chance to elect a true progressive. We all know the Repubs will never hand deliver such easily defeatable candidates.”
While there is no official title or release date for the new ablum, lead singer Ed Droste told Rolling Stone in an interview back in April 2015 a little bit about the creative direction it will take. He said, “we’re feeling more adventurous with the sonic directions, changing it up a little bit – not like, a techno dance album… It’s in the beginning stages. Only a couple songs have started to take shape and it’s gotta be like, a good dozen or so before we get the picture.”
On the more political side, Droste recently wrote a post on Instagram to explain the bands support of Sanders.
“I canvassed for [John] Kerry and [Barack] Obama, and I’ve phone banked for Bernie, but never before have I felt so inspired by a candidate’s purity and integrity,” Droste wrote. “So to me, I used to vote with my own interests at heart. This election had forced me to LEARN and EDUCATE myself in a way like no other has. Does my vote help or hurt civilians abroad? Does my vote contribute to the decimation of income inequality? Does my vote sit well within my global moral compass? Only one candidate will fight for what we need. @berniesanders!”
Droste then went on to explain what voting for the other Democratic big show, Hilary Clinton, would be equivalent to.
“Accepting the corruption we’ve been desensitized to. We are allowing pointless wars. We are perpetuating a system that systematically makes it THAT much harder to get ahead as a woman or minority in politics.”
The full Instagram post can be seen below.
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