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Hear Grizzly Bear Dismember Phoenix’s ‘Entertainment’

Phoenix, Grizzly Bear, "Entertainment," remix

Of all the acts who’ve remixed Phoenix’s “Entertainment,” from the French band’s out-tomorrow new album Bankrupt!, Grizzly Bear might be the most natural fit. While Dinosaur Jr.’s surprisingly subdued reworking places the Versailles-sprung group in a sterling indie-rock lineage, and Blood Orange’s sultry, R&B-tinged remix draws lines to newer pop arrivals like Solange and Sky Ferreira, Grizzly Bear and Phoenix are transatlantic peers: They’re established, critically acclaimed bands of a similar vintage, both with well-deserved reputations for being nice and smart. But rather than simply turn “Entertainment” into a Grizzly Bear song, the Brooklyn band chops it up into a skittering electronic track more reminiscent of IDM (kids, ask your grandparents) than today’s EDM. It’s an — ahem — entertaining head fake and well worth your four and a half minutes.

The unexpected treatment is fitting considering that when Phoenix had the chance to remix one of Grizzly Bear’s tracks, the Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix gang effectively punted, opting to try something conceptual instead: a user-generated mashup od Veckatimest‘s “Foreground” and a Brian Eno track. In related Grizzly Bear news, this weekend the Shields crew featured on a Record Store Day single by production whiz Nicolas Jaar: a 12-inch with a spacious, atmospheric remix of Grizzly Bear’s “Sleeping Ute” on one side and Brian Eno’s “Lux” on the other.

Listen to Grizzly Bear’s Phoenix remix over at Grizzly Bear Galore or below via Spotify; also listen to Jaar’s Grizzly Bear remix below.