Nat Baldwin's most visible credit at the moment may be his longstanding affiliation with Dirty Projectors. But the classically trained bassist has been sawing away at bull-fiddle tummies for far longer than Dave Longstreth's been serenading whales. Over the years, the New Hampshire native has appeared on the Department of Eagles' In Ear Park, played casually with the likes of Deer Tick's John MacCauley and slowcore collective Tiger Saw, and far more significantly, released one of 2008's best and most underappreciared records, the chillingly intimate full-length Most Valuable Player. Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor produced that release, a bed record of 12-string panic attacks and mellifluous longings that yours truly once admitted "makes me want to fucking cry and I don't fucking cry." Ahem.

Department of Eagles play Bowery Ballroom on Monday, January 19. The show is sold out, but there's always Craigslist.

Last year was a busy year for Grizzly Bear. In the midst of playing shows with Radiohead, performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and recording the follow up to Yellow House, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Rossen also rebooted his Department of Eagles project, which started as a song-writing venture between Rossen and his old college roommate Fred Nicolaus. Last year's In Ear Park demonstrated a logical spin-off of the Grizzly Bear sound, while expanding on Rossen's soft, sometimes-haunting, often-times elegant voice.

We caught up with Daniel earlier this week, from a vehicle en route to Chicago. He did not watch the season premiere of American Idol, in case you were wondering. (Yes, we asked.)--Michael D. Ayers

Sound of the City roots for the home team and so does Impose Magazine's Jeremy Krinsley.

Parts & Labor's "Fractured Skies": the real star of this fixed-gear porn video "Empire"

While I will make no attempt to encapsulate the massive invasion of time, space, and taste that is CMJ, I would like to direct you to a few of the "best of CMJ" posts for your own amusement and perusal. If I were to make a scoreboard, meticulously calculating the bands who everyone decided were the most important and exciting to grace the Lower East Side and/or Williamsburg, I would be forced to note that Crystal Stilts have apparently shown up on more radars than anyone else. I would have preferred people to get excited about Women, but that's just me.

Zach and Camille talked about Crystal Antlers, Tripwire liked Ponytail, Tobacco, and Women (well done), Stereogum liked Ponytail and Crystal Stilts (and six others), Spin has heard of Crystal Stilts, Amy Phillips hearts Marnie Stern, and Marnie Stern watching other bands play, and digging on Molly Siegel's dolphin singing. Craziest shit? Perennially, the Panache showcase.

But who cares about lists, really, unless they're anecdotal or completely over-the-top. Right?

Parts & Labor quietly slipped out of town on the heels of the release of Receivers—their latest, smoothest, and many people's favorite of their three Jagjaguwar albums. Before leaving Brooklyn for greener touring pastures, they played the Not-CMJ Impose show-as-record-release-party, showed off their dirty toilets and fat-reducing machines on this lil blog, and were given a round of warm, fuzzy critical thumbs ups. Upon leaving for tour, they've also updated their website (it now includes a full stream of the new album) and created a toll free number (888 317 5596) where you can "leave sound" that they'll incorporate into their live show.

TV on the Radio's Dear Science isn't the only local record you should be excited about this fall. Here's the first of 10 others.

Department of Eagles
In Ear Park
4AD

Department of Eagles, "In Ear Park" (MP3)
Department of Eagles, "No One Does It Like You" (MP3)

If the Joe-Six-Schlitz apocalypse comes to pass this November, expect your Beauty Queen Veep to animal-code the government branches after Alaskan wildlife so she can remember them like sports teams—my best guess has Congress as the Wolves, the hulking judicial system as the Moose, and the Executive Branch elevated to the Department of Eagles. In the meantime, the name's taken by Grizzly Bear (Federal Reserve?) mensch Daniel Rossen, who's been collaborating with former dormmate Fred Nicolaus under the hawkish moniker since their freshman year at NYU. Named after an installation series by Belgian surrealist Marcel Broodthaers, the pair released their first full-length in 2003; the following year, Rossen joined Grizzly Bear with another kid from his frosh floor, Christopher Taylor. The rest is Stereogum history.

As for Nicolaus, he succumbed to the white-collar holler after graduation, enlisted in a 9-to-5 job, and according to the DOE's official bio, got busy “opening a savings account.” Pretty sure this is just one-sheet shorthand for “His MySpace page says he likes Vampire Weekend and the Strokes, don't hate.” But then again, maybe Fred's already bought a condo in the Edge?

Highlights. Poormouth-goofing aside, we are consequently thrilled that the Department of Eagles project was fully revived last year, unfortunately though in tandem with Rossen's father passing away, which led to him writing material deemed "too personal" for Grizzly Bear. The result is Department of Eagles' brand-new In Ear Park, a gorgeous 11-song peppermint-tea-drinker that opens like an M. Ward campfire jam with nearly a minute of John-Fahey-fanboy string trickery, followed by a ghostly wind of ooooohs—and then gets even better. Like its clear antecedent, the Beach Boys' “God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You,” the token pop song “No One Does It Like You” is for girls in knee-high tube socks, but these ones shop at American Apparel instead of Sears. “Teenagers” sounds like Harry Nilsson with a milk moustache. And “Classical Records”—I had a line but I don't remember.

Honorable mention. In Ear Park features all the Grizzlies except Ed Droste. (On Droste's absence, Rossen admitted in the Sunday Times: “I was very unhappy for about a year in the band, especially with him.” All's well in the animal kingdom now: “I don't feel that way at all anymore, and we're actually very close,” Rossen also said. And last night at the Bell House, JoJo cover "Too Little Too Late" and "If You'd Forgive Me" were both dedicated to Ed. Update: Plus this, which means, it's really all good.) So you could call Department of Eagles Grizzly Bear without Ed, or you could just call them everybody on the Internet's new birdwagon.

Honorable mention II. Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian and bull-fiddle-slinger Nat Baldwin—who also, yes, used to play with the Dirty Projectors—both appear on this record. Baldwin's most recent Most Valuable Player is a monster.