Grizzly Bear: Out of the Woods, Into the Light

ED DROSTE is settling into the bar of his east London hotel with his Grizzly Bear bandmate Daniel Rossen, to attempt to explain their sky-rocket of a year. All but unknown this spring, the band's third album Veckatimest went straight into the US Top 10 and UK Top 30. Their fans include Paul Simon, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, who giddily announced on-stage that they were his favourite band, and Jay-Z, who attended their free Brooklyn show last month with Beyoncé and, watching the 12,000 crowd, announced, "they can push hip-hop back a little bit". The only question about their appearance in 2009's end-of-year polls is how high in each Top 10 they'll be.