Pitchfork

"Realistically speaking, it's probably going to leak." That's Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, talking to Pitchfork last month about the band's forthcoming album Veckatimest. Earlier this week, Droste's prophecy came true. Warp doesn't plan to release Veckatimest until May 26 (May 25 in the UK), but the album is already all over the internet, albeit in extremely low-quality 128 kpbs form. Yesterday, Droste Twittered about the leak: "So yeah, it leaked. I'm happy people are loving it. Makes me smile! Just remember it's not a top notch sonic example. So keep that in mind."

When a few people had the temerity to request that Droste leak a better version himself, he responded thusly: "You know what, screw it here's a quality version of the album! ENJOY!!!" He added a link to the Insound pre-order page for the album. Droste's pretty funny!

On Grizzly Bear's blog, Droste elaborates: "Leaking is a tricky subject; as we all know, I've had my run ins with the law O__o (Hi, Mr. Sheriff!) I have conflicting opinions about it, as it's really complicated, but ultimately it saddens me that a bummer-quality version of Veckatimest is going around. Please consider putting your energies into a pre-order or into waiting till May 26 for the album the way we intend it to be presented."

It's worth pointing out that even in shitty webrip form, Veckatimest sounds exactly as mysteriously pretty as I'd hoped it would. Uh, not that I downloaded the leak or anything...

In happier Grizzly Bear news, they've revealed dates for their summer North American tour. Mixed in with the usual club dates, they've got a smattering of shows in large, luxurious seated venues like New York's Town Hall. As the rapturous reports from the band's recent show with the Brooklyn Philharmonic make clear, venues like this are really the ideal place to hear their expansive fragility.

Dates:

05-24 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theatre
05-25 Gorge, WA - Sasquatch Festival
05-26 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
05-28 New York, NY - Town Hall
05-29 New York, NY - Town Hall
06-01 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
06-02 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
06-03 Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center
06-04 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
06-05 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix
06-07 Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center
06-08 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
06-09 Bloomington, IN - Buskirk-Chumley Theater
06-11 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
06-12 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
06-13 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle *
06-15 Dallas, TX - Grenada
06-16 Austin, TX - The Parish
06-19 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
06-21 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore

* with TV on the Radio