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February 8, 2007

New Grizzly Bear Video - "Knife" (Stereogum Premiere)

Well, we've been drooling over this one for awhile, and it's finally here: the world premiere of the video for "Knife"! And all we can say is, buckle up for some weirdness. From our first taste of Horn Of Plenty a few years back, we've had nothing but love for Grizzly Bear, and watching the guys make waves with last year's Gummy-beloved Yellow House was well deserved payoff. But no matter how well we thought we knew 'em, we never saw this video coming. The clip, directed by Isaiah Saxon and Sean Hellfritsch of Encyclopedia Pictura has all the intestinal machines, quicksand sequences, healing crystals, and vaginal excavations that make any video a classic, all set to your average Stonewoman-meets-worried-geologist love story. Meet our desert set Romeo and Juliet ...

Now if you think that's sexy, just wait until those tendrils branch out. So without further ado ... click here to watch "Knife."

And as much as we love Grizzly, "Knife," and this video ... we're just a little confused as to what it all means! So give us your interpretations, and Ed will judge them. And though their current tour is selling out, some lucky cities still have tix available. (Liquid latex prosthetics not included.) Check the dates:

2/8 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Blind Pig (with Dirty Projectors)
2/9 -Chicago, IL - SOLD OUT!: Subterranean (w/ Dirty Projectors and Mittens on Strings)
2/10 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St. Entry (w/ Dirty Projectors and Portastic)
2/11 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador (w/ Dirty Projectors)
1/13 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge (w/ Constellations)
2/14 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court (VALENTINES DAY! w/ We Are Seagulls)
2/16 - Seattle, WA - Neumos (w/ The Papercuts)
2/17- Vancouver, BC - The Plaza club (w/ The Papercuts)
2/18 - Portland, OR - Mission Theater (*Early Show 7pm All Ages/with the Papercuts*)
2/18 - Portland, OR - Mission Theater (*Late Show 21+ 9pm/ with the Papercuts*)
2/20 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall (w/ The Papercuts and Foreign Born)
2/21 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour (w/ The Papercuts and Foreign Born)
2/23 - Tucson, AZ - Plush (w/ The Papercuts and The Crowd)
2/24 - Marfa, TX - Ballroom Marfa (w/ The Papercuts)
2/26 - Norman, OK - The Opolis (w/ The Papercuts)
2/27 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada (w/ The Papercuts and Peter & The Wolf)
2/28 - Austin, TX - Emo's Jr (w/ The Papercuts and Peter & The Wolf)
3/1 - Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea's (w/ The Papercuts and Harlan)
3/2 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn (w/ The Papercuts and Deerhunter)
3/3 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 (w/ The Papercuts)
3/4 - Washtington DC, DC - Black Cat (w/ The Papercuts and Beach House)
3/6 - New York, NY - SOLD OUT: Bowery Ballroom (w/ The Papercuts and Beach House)
3/7 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom (w/ the Papercuts and Beach House)
4/29 - Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
5/18 - Somerset, UK - ATP vs The Fans (Butlins Holiday Resort Minehead)
5/31 - Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival

Posted at 1:55 PM in
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47 Comments

wow, that was great!

Posted by: uwmryan at 02/08/07 2:21 PM | Reply
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Wowaweewa!
You can never go wrong with the Phallus!

Posted by: the cumbersome character named Billy at 02/08/07 2:23 PM | Reply
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bejeweled codpieces and anal diving...gotta love that...

Posted by: jimm at 02/08/07 3:18 PM | Reply
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trippy weirdness. beautiful stuff.

Posted by: r martin at 02/08/07 3:22 PM | Reply
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god, i love them

Posted by: jim at 02/08/07 3:22 PM | Reply
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how indie matthew barney. at this point grizzly bear can do no wrong.

Posted by: punkphoto at 02/08/07 3:27 PM | Reply
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Quicktime!

Posted by: fuck at 02/08/07 3:46 PM | Reply
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this video is fucking amazing

Posted by: incredible at 02/08/07 4:48 PM | Reply
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The image freezes for me at like the 20 second mark and only the sound continues. What's wrong with YouTube, not corporate enough?

Posted by: Patrik at 02/08/07 4:51 PM | Reply
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yep, good job guys, i can't get this to load either. thanks.

Posted by: jen at 02/08/07 4:58 PM | Reply
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FUUUUCKKIIIING AAAAAWEEEESOOOOOME

Posted by: ben at 02/08/07 5:00 PM | Reply
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This video is one of a kind. Grizzly bear should do a Yellow House movie. Like the beatles did with Yellow Submarine.

Posted by: avery at 02/08/07 5:13 PM | Reply
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Just like their live concerts, this is too good for words to express.

Posted by: Charlie at 02/08/07 5:14 PM | Reply
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Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads.

Posted by: John at 02/08/07 5:39 PM | Reply
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That was the first music video I've watched in a long time that was able to keep my attention for the entire time. Really interesting and intriguing, nice work Encyclopedia Pictura!! I especially liked the ye olde futuristic machine that sinks into the ground. It's so odd that this fits so well with the song, I kind of had always pictured it as being darker.

Posted by: Devin at 02/08/07 6:18 PM | Reply
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I have never seen, or even imagined, anything like this.

Posted by: jayfarer at 02/08/07 6:25 PM | Reply
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that was bizarre on so many different levels. bravo.

Posted by: satisfied '75 at 02/08/07 6:43 PM | Reply
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Beautiful. Even more excited to see the Grizz in Chicago now.

Posted by: John at 02/08/07 7:29 PM | Reply
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AMAAAAAAAZING!

Posted by: Indiewall at 02/08/07 7:58 PM | Reply
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I NEED horn of plenty/more Grizzly Bear than Yellow House- anyone want to sendspace me the album?

Posted by: I need GB at 02/08/07 9:02 PM | Reply
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Oh.... now I see why you people like this band soo much. Your on drugs.

Posted by: Toto at 02/08/07 10:13 PM | Reply
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Oh man. I just found this video deeply unsettling, especially when the jewels start sinking in to the geologist's chest. The look on their faces is so angry/awkward and different from the faces that I'm used to, especially from their live shows and the takeaway concerts on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjy2P0MSVlo)
I have to say, though, I take my hat off to Grizzly Bear for making a video that is guaranteed never, EVER to play on MTV.

Posted by: Nathan at 02/09/07 12:18 AM | Reply
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Very Matthew Barney like. Awesome

Posted by: dronedream at 02/09/07 12:20 AM | Reply
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well, that was odd.

Posted by: alvysinger at 02/09/07 1:01 AM | Reply
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Strange and even frightening, but set to an amazing song.

Posted by: Mia at 02/09/07 3:10 AM | Reply
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If Monty Python made a remake of "Total Recall"...

... it still wouldn't be as weird as this. Kudos.

Posted by: Mulango at 02/09/07 6:54 AM | Reply
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Fucking rad...I love it.

Posted by: Robbie at 02/09/07 9:51 AM | Reply
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I can't tell if I am high or offended. That video is as Robbie said, rad.

Posted by: Joe at 02/09/07 1:34 PM | Reply
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Incredible, so much different than anything I've seen in a long time. I love how you guys always use nature to swallow everybody up.

Posted by: Amanda at 02/09/07 2:14 PM | Reply
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Amazing! The machine at the start that syncs with the music is brilliant.

Best video in ages.

Posted by: Bobby at 02/09/07 2:59 PM | Reply
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Wow that sucked. Way to be obsessed with one song forever.

By the way, the original acapella-on-the-street video was so much better... musically and visually.

Posted by: Dan at 02/11/07 4:48 PM | Reply
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this might be the brownest video ever made

Posted by: jim at 02/12/07 12:37 AM | Reply
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I bet they have seen "Hable con ella" if not, Almodovar should be shaking fists at Encyclopedia Pictura.

Posted by: Sarah at 02/12/07 9:37 PM | Reply
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whoooaa i just watchedd this really high and its great. just stare at the video without blinking and you'll see some great visual effects...mmuch like the optical illusion pictures that you stare at where its just a pattern or design but then a boat or a dragon appears..(im sure itll work if youre not high either...cool

Posted by: yeah dude at 02/12/07 11:43 PM | Reply
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the dudes (that wrote this) were seriously on drugs, stoned out of their minds.

Posted by: rick at 02/14/07 12:06 PM | Reply
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Beautiful short, very well done. This kind of quality doesn’t need sexual references to lean on. Actually I was turned off at the very end, kind of ruined it for me.

Posted by: concordBP at 02/14/07 2:26 PM | Reply
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It's sad that so many of these comments think creativity only stems from drug usage, simply because they (the commenters) feel they could not have come up with something like this without drugs. This video was absolutely brilliant and unique. So many different interpretations can be made! I feel the geologist trying to dive back into the womb of the rock woman is analogous to wanting to return to mother earth. The human-made technology only confuses and wounds him, while the woman - using only earth plucked from her very skin - revives him.

Posted by: GrizzlyMe at 02/15/07 2:18 PM | Reply
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Why fucking quicktime!!!?!?! Get with the program guys only flash video is cool

Posted by: WebGuru at 02/16/07 7:17 PM | Reply
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What did I just see?

Posted by: C-dog at 02/20/07 4:40 PM | Reply
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Wow, I really really really really really really really hate this. The band is great, their music is beautiful, but this video is horrible. To anyone who says they enjoyed it: I just don't believe you.

Posted by: Acela at 02/20/07 8:22 PM | Reply
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Wow, I really really really really really really really hate this. The band is great, their music is beautiful, but this video is horrible. To anyone who says they enjoyed it: I just don't believe you.

Posted by: Acela at 02/20/07 8:22 PM | Reply
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I saw these guys a couple weeks ago in Ann Arbor and it was ridiculously good. I am still smiling after seeing that video...and I think user GrizzlyMe might be on to something a few comments back.

Posted by: Bryan at 02/22/07 1:25 AM | Reply
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Wow, this video sucks.

Posted by: ophelia at 02/24/07 3:35 PM | Reply
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A lot.

Posted by: ophelia at 02/24/07 3:36 PM | Reply
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Well, those images will be lending themselves to my nightmares tonight. I didn't like it at all. It was unsettling and unbefitting such beautiful music.
"Mr. Brown's a little too close to Mr. Shit."

Posted by: Di at 02/25/07 1:54 PM | Reply
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matthew barney would be proud

Posted by: rama at 03/02/07 4:37 PM | Reply
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That was seriously horrible. I'm, like, horrified. Trembling and crying. But I liked it... in the way that I never wanna see it again. But still. Cool sinking effects. Beautastic music.

Posted by: amelia at 12/11/07 7:26 PM | Reply
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