Bear Chasers

If, like me, you're just getting hip to the Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear, you'd better check the mirror and wipe the giant L off your forehead. About a zillion cultural eons ago—well, in August—Grizzly Bear went from being just another hitless, quasi-ambitious folk-psychedelic outfit with a name derived from nature (Panda Bear, Deer Tick, Deerhunter, Deerhoof, Animal Collective, etc.) to being the cool band that cool people describe as cool to show off how cool they are. Now the band, along with other alt-starlets such as Anya Marina, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Sea Wolf, and Band of Skulls, is riding the Twilight: New Moon  soundtrack into the mainstream. The first Twilight installment sold 3.5 million copies, but that version was stocked with a more bankable mix of pop-metal and emo. Why the sudden stampede toward the dysfunctional freaks on the fringe? Oh, right—when recessions loom and cash-strapped audiences back off from the overblown celebri-pop the music industry excels at force-feeding, executives develop instant creative consciences. It happened in the late '70s with British punk bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols, and again in '91 with Nirvana and grunge. Even the post-9/11 dip had its boomlet of gritty underground rock with the White Stripes and the Strokes.

Critically speaking, the New Moon soundtrack beats the skinny lowriders off Twilight No. 1. New Moon ventures through a broad variety of moods and textures without sacrificing a central theme of lost love: Hurricane Bells' "Monsters" borrows a fat bass line from '70s glam-rockers T. Rex, while Lykke Li's creeping, morbid "Possibility" feels like a funeral chant from a church of the damned. I'm happy that the Twilighters are being challenged to expand their musical horizons, but I'm not sure it will sell. For one thing, modern-day indie is more delicate and withdrawn than the kind of snide anti-authoritarianism Nirvana or the Sex Pistols represented; teenagers need explosive outlets, but they don't necessarily need encouragement to navel-gaze. Worse still, punk and grunge were genuine grassroots movements that drove themselves, snagging mainstream attention almost by accident. Quality aside, New Moon is more of the same top-down branding; I just can't see suburban girls clamoring for the highbrow nerdism of Grizzly Bear. That's not to say they're not an intriguing band, worthy of attention and discovery. But now that they're Twilight material, their coolness days are over.

© 2009