Update: Grizzly Bear Explain Animal Collective Leak Hubbub in Full Statement
11/26/2008 By Brock Thiessen

Grizzly Bear have responded to claims that they are the “global-leak-source” of a new Animal Collective track, with the band’s Ed Droste calling the situation “an overblown and rather silly manifestation of what I thought was an innocent and encouraging endorsement.”

As we reported yesterday (November 25), Grizzly Bear were caught sharing by the Web Sheriff, an online copyright cop who forced the band earlier this week to take down a blog link to the yet-to-be-released AC track “Brothersport.” As a result of posting this bit of Animal Collective’s upcoming Merriweather Post Pavilion, the Web Sheriff forced Grizzly Bear to make a public apology to Animal Collective, Domino and the Web Sheriff himself.

That apology, which was supposed to stay posted for seven days, has now been removed and replaced by a rather detailed explanation from Droste, the Grizzly Bear who initially posted the offending track.

Here’s what he has to say about the whole thing:

In what has become an overblown and rather silly manifestation of what I thought was an innocent and encouraging endorsement of Animal Collective’s song “Brother Sport,” [sic] I find that after numerous Web Sheriff emails and blog posts about this essential non-event, I must just explain the chain of events:

1. The song was played on a French podcast or radio program.
2. Someone (not me) ripped the song.
3. Many blogs posted the track.
4. I was one of those blogs.
5. The weekend hit, and the Web Sheriff went on patrol.
6. His email to us went into our Spam folder along with Penis Enlargement emails.
7. His email to others that work with us were in the process of being addressed, but most likely were going to wait until Monday morning, after the weekend.
8. Suddenly it was Sunday and note two made its way to us, and the tone had become more harsh.
9. Web Sheriff believed we were ignoring him, but it was an honest misunderstanding.
10. The song was taken down and the Web Sheriff’s pre-written apology letter was put up, along with his letter, which I found funny. The posting of his letter was a mistake and was the only reason the issue came to any else’s attention.
11. People took note and blogged about it.
12. I decided to take down Mr. Sheriff’s letter and do this quick-and-easy twelve-step explanation.

Again, we all value the work and effort that goes into an album, and we don’t condone “leaking” any album. We know first-hand how much work goes into it! We thought this song had made its way to radio and blogs and was being used to promote their album. If I’ve offended anyone in the Animal Collective family with my excited post, I apologize. It was meant to generate even more excitement for what will surely be a great album, and yes the Web Sheriff is just doing his job.

I hope this makes everyone happy! If Animal Collective would like to blog a song of ours in the future, I’d be more than happy to give it to them. In fact I’d be honored.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Cheers,
Ed

There is no word yet if the Web Sheriff will scold Grizzly Bear further for taking down the apology early or if he’s now fully satisfied.

Grizzly Bear “Knife”
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