Grizzly Bear maps spring run behind new studio effort

Indie-pop quartet Grizzly Bear plans to head out on the road in May to begin supporting the band's forthcoming studio album, "Veckatimest."

The group kicks off the outing May 24 in Portland, OR. Highlights of the 19-city trek include a pair of dates (5/28-29) in New York City, and a May 25 slot at Washington State's Sasquatch! Festival. Details are below.

The band began recording "Veckatimest," its third studio album and the follow-up to 2006's "Yellow House," early last summer at Allaire Studios in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains.

"I had said in previous interviews a 'sunnier' record [was coming], but that's not necessarily true--it's just got a few poppier songs, a few darker songs, a few stripped-down tracks, and a few really orchestrated lush ones. More dynamics, essentially," songwriter/guitarist Ed Droste told music website Drownedinsound.com last year. "I'm really excited about the material, needless to say."

The band's other chief songwriter and guitarist, Daniel Rossen, released his second album, "In Ear Park," last fall as a member of the duo Department of Eagles with his friend and former New York University roommate Fred Nicolaus.