Yellow House (album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yellow House

Studio album by Grizzly Bear

Released

September 5, 2006

Recorded

2006

Genre

Indie rock, Folk-rock, Acid folk

Length

50:00

Label

Warp

Producer

Chris Taylor

Professional reviews

Grizzly Bear chronology

Sorry for the Delay
(2006)

Yellow House
(2006)

Friend (EP)
(2007)

Yellow House is the second album by Grizzly Bear. It was released by Warp Records on September 5, 2006.

The album received mass critical acclaim from several important publications. It ranked #8 in Pitchfork Media's best albums of 2006 list, as well as a similarly high placement in the same list of the New York Times. The music webzine Tiny Mix Tapes ranked Yellow House #7 on the Top 25 Albums of 2006.

The first single, "Knife", was only released on 7" picture disc vinyl with the exclusive B-side "Easier" (alternate edit).

A music video for both "Knife" and "Central and Remote" were released in 2007 by Encyclopedia Pictura and Jesse Ewles, respectively.

"Reprise", "Little Brother", and "Easier" are used as background music on several of Adult Swim's "bumps." "On a Neck, On a Spit" was featured on the show "Reaper."

[edit] Writing & Recording Process

Many of the demos for the album were what the band refers to as 'sketches' done by mostly singer/guitarists Daniel Rossen and Ed Droste. 'Marla' itself is actually a song written by Droste's great aunt, a failed musician. As he explained in an interview with Pitchfork Media,

'Well, the whole "Marla" story of my great aunt being this failed musician that dies at an early age in the 1940s was, basically, I got this CD a few years ago from the last remaining sibling of hers, who had finally decided to transfer this stuff to disc. For me, this was the one song. Much in the way that I kind look at the "Owner of a Lonely Heart" thing-- even though that was just myself-- and see this melancholic, slower edge that I heard in it. Not that it was exactly the same because this was obviously the four of us working on it, but I took the song and said, "Look everybody, I'm not sure how we'll do this, but it will be really cool if we slowed it down and tried to give it our own spin." Luckily, everyone was really into it, but it was very much a blank page for a few days.'

The album title Yellow House is in reference to vocalist Ed Droste's mother's house where a majority of the recording took place. As Horn of Plenty was a solo effort by Droste, this record is truly the band's 'debut' as it has all members contributing to the writing and production of the album. Recordings took place throughout July of 2005 and then, according to the band, went through much post-production and mastering which took around six or seven months.