So about this Grizzly Bear and Michael McDonald thing ...

For the last several weeks I've been having an internal debate on whether or not this Michael McDonald collaboration with Grizzly Bear on "While You Wait For The Others" was the worst combination I've ever heard, brilliant in its randomness or something in the middle.

My initial reaction was this: McDonald's voice - soulful as it is - doesn't match up well with the song. (Side note, McDonald working with White Denim would have been genius.)

Then, thinking how Grizzly Bear is being pushed/embraced/sold-out to the masses in ways that Jay-Z and Beyonce couldn't have imagined, I wondered if this was the work of the music machine to get McDonald (who has always embraced public adulation) critical exposure to become the latest artist to follow the Johnny Cash model to find an audience with a younger generation.

Come to find out, it was just old fashioned knowing someone who knew someone. Paste Magazine has the full details: here. And he also worked with Holy Ghost ...

Now, after listening to the song at a least a dozen times, I'm hooked. There are several awkward moments in the song, but damn it if this hasn't become one of those songs I loathe at first listen and then can't stop listening to. Damn it.

Maybe I'm just too jaded, but I still find it hard to believe that  McDonald - a savvy self-marketer (remember those commercials that were all over the place earlier this decade/40 Year-Old Virgin) - didn't see this as an opportunity to work with some buzz-worthy acts in order retain relevancy.

Even if he did - isn't that exactly what a successful musician (or anything, for that matter) is suppose to do?

I find myself hearkening back to Moz, " ... we hate it when our friends become successful".