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Grizzly Bear broke through in 2006, and according to a 2012 interview with Vulture, they went from playing at diners for handfuls of people and "eating beef jerky from the gas station for protein" to opening for Radiohead, having their music featured in Super Bowl ads, and being praised by Jay-Z. Still, years of indie prestige, sold-out venues, and critical acclaim didn't make the band super-rich. In fact, according to singer Ed Droste, they are pretty far from any kind of wealth at all. The band members still live in the same places they did pre-fame, and some of them don't even have health insurance. While Droste admits they're getting by, he says that the fact that no one's buying records anymore makes "bands appear so much bigger than they are," and notes that even the seemingly lucrative act of licensing a song (for advertisements and suchlike) will only bring the band members financial security at a "Yay, I don't have to pay rent for two months" level. 

Grizzly Bear generate most of their revenue by touring, but after agents, managers, tour staff, venues, Ticketmaster, and others have taken their share, the band members' bank accounts are apparently nothing to write songs about. To make things easier on their wallet, they cut costs by only sleeping in hotels occasionally and generally treating the whole operation as a "risky small business."

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