Animal Collective

[Marisa]

May 18th. :shocked2: And it's less than 10 blocks from where I live. Afterparty at my place?:laugh3::inquisitive:

[BostonSportsTD]

yeahhh summertime clothes is soo good!! it's probably my 2nd favorite.

 

and i waannnt to wallllk arouuund with you

[Marisa]

 

and i waannnt to wallllk arouuund with you

 

 

 

It's so romantic. :kiss:

 

:laugh3:

 

I'm trying to get my friend to like them so he will go with me. We listened to Strawberry Jam together but he didn't quite get into it. I will not quit, he needs to see the genius that is Animal Collective.

 

On the other hand, he did like Panda Bear's EP.

[Riku_88]

New album (Merriweather...) is masterful. Probably the best of the their career so far, which is impressive considering their previous albums were great too.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Waiting on a response re age limits for the Dublin gig.

[MrMagpie]

I still can't believe how there are no weak tracks on such a long album.

[the_gloaming09]

relfecting back on the concert i really like the new song they played (not on mpp). from what i've found it it's called "Blue Sky"... here's where you can hear a live recording

 

http://www.prefixmag.com/media/animal-collective/blue-sky-new-song-live-in-london-mp3/24987/

 

i like this song quite a bit... i can't wait to hear what the studio version will be like

[the_gloaming09]

fleet foxes posted a blog on the new animal collective album:

 

 

 

 

Merriweather Post Pavilion Worship

 

What a beautiful thing. This record makes me want to cry. Seriously special human beings... sigh. I saw Noah Lennox backstage at the Pitchfork festival and could hardly contain myself, like meeting Elvis. I bumbled a couple dumb words and cursed myself for looking like a Black Crowes monster.

 

Blah.

 

Anyway, I really admire this band. It filled my heart with pride to see that for a few days the top iTunes record sales were Bon Iver, Animal Collective, and us dudes. That is awesome, legitimately individual music makers doing their own thing and lots of folks being receptive and not requiring those musicians to concede anything to find success. Life is rad and weird. Our record has since fallen off the chart but Bon Iver and AC hold strong - even radder. How amazing would it be if this could be the new popular stuff for real? What if SNL had Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Department of Eagles, Panda Bear, Joanna Newsom (gimme new songs plz), Vetiver, Cave Singers, etc etc etc etc etc etc on the show and that was the new paradigm? That would be so amazing. So much great music exists. A humbling and terrifying amount of amazing music. Yeah.

 

Me and olivia watched My Kid Could Paint That last night and it resulted in one of those clumsy conversations about what's art and what's not art (I was trying to argue that dancing is athletics more than art but she vehemently disagreed and is right, in hindsight). All I could really come up with as a personal definition for what makes something "artistic" in my eyes is when that thing gives you some new and clearer insight into the creator. I can listen to Bob Dylan sing "Buckets of Rain" and feel like I know Bob as a person better in a way I couldn't ever get from a conversation with the guy. I feel like Dan Rossen of Grizzly Bear's guitar playing is a weird window into his soul, it's so unique and expressive (probably wrong about this but that's just the feeling it gives me). Every choice made on Merriweather Post Pavilion is an insight into that band. It's like a weird avenue of really refined personal communication that you could never achieve with just words.

 

I love MPP.

-----------

 

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=7279488&blogID=466172395

[MrMagpie]

^Great post! I love MPP and Fleet Foxes :)

[Dejan]

Is Animal Collective the New Moby?

 

SPIN's Charles Aaron on music's latest originals whose transcendent album runs the risk of cultural oversaturation.

 

Since back in October when I first heard the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavillion, and later enthusiastically trekked through a windswept rainstorm to a listening party at Manhattan's River Room -- an oddly swelegant bar/restaurant ("Harlem's Tavern on the Green") perched hard on the Hudson River at the end of an endless concrete walkway off Riverside Drive -- I've been babbling about how wonderful and original and transcendent it is, how it single-handedly reinvents indie rock and electronic dance music, and how it makes me wish I still took E (or 2CB) or whatever designer party pill is making the clubscum rounds.

 

After several free whiskeys at the River Room, a co-worker and I were concocting plans to throw a way outer-borough warehouse party where we'd get some cool-ass young DJ (like James Murphy's current weed carrier) to spin and rewind and cut/mash up Merriweather Post Pavillion for, like, 10 hours straight (some insane Danny Tenaglia, where-we-gettin'-brunch? marathon) backed by, say, the best visual extravaganza you could finagle from a Pratt Institute Digital Arts major. Yep.

 

Three months of universal gushing later -- after even Entertainment Weekly weighed in with an "A-" review (what's next, Vanity Fair pumpin' "My Girls" and "Brother Sport" at their Oscars Party while Brangelina space dances?) -- the hype-o-meter has hit Orange Alert.

 

Last time I remember hearing an album this far in advance and unexpectedly, perhaps irrationally, thinking that it was a semi-historic reinvention, was Moby's Play in 1999. I wrote Spin's rave lead review of that album without having talked to anybody else who'd heard the record and legitimately believed that, if not artistically momentous, it was an ingenious and accomplished, even moving, achievement. It nodded to so-called electronica's often-overlooked African-American roots in a clever, evocative way, hack hack cough. It seemed to capture some sort of musical/cultural zeitgeist, for lack of a better word (though the opaque harmlessness of the term actually fits perfectly).

 

But after all 18 songs were flogged on countless soap operas, sitcoms, DiCaprio vehicles, and commercials for Microsoft, Maxwell House, et al., I prayed I'd never have to hear the godforsaken thing again (every time I blearily pulled into a Starbucks on the New Jersey Turnpike, I trembled in fear of Bessie Jones' poor decontextualized voice floating up from some asswipe's grande Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha). And now, an oversaturation similar to what Moby willfully engendered via multi-platform licensing over more than a year could be happening, somewhat organically, to Animal Collective -- even before their album's official release and without the attendant financial windfall -- via blogs, websites, YouTube, and assorted online jabberwocky.

 

But eventual overhyping aside, with both Play and Merriweather Post Pavillion, I realized from the very beginning that a decent amount of my exhilaration had nothing to do with the quality of the music -- it stemmed partly from a feeling that this artist I'd liked/ respected/ rooted for, but who had remained pop-culturally marginal, had finally made a record so immediately pleasurable and accessible that it might appeal to people who generally hate this kind of shit.

 

But why does that remotely matter? Why care that people who are predisposed to hate Moby or Animal Collective might grudgingly admit that they don't really suck? Is it simply because of an altruistic urge to share great music with the world, and as a result, make the world a better, more enriched, place? Well, if I were a DJ at an NPR-affiliated station, that line might work, but otherwise, nah. Is it because Spin has thrived on documenting that moment when underground bands emerge onto a larger, more mainstream stage and belaboring/ speculating upon the issues related to said evolution makes for reliable copy? Possibly.

 

More honestly, it's likely just due to some low-self-esteem personal validation (see, my taste isn't that arbitrarily bad) or because I don't wanna think of myself as a dickwad elitist, or because it's a hoot to have something you genuinely enjoy be popular for a change, rather than convince yourself to appreciate something after the fact (Radiohead), because it's vastly better than all the other garbaggio out there that lots of people like. Of course, by acknowledging this nagging desire, I'm also acknowledging that my critical judgment is pathetically flawed.

 

In other words, will I be sick of hearing/hearing about Merriweather Post Pavillion six months from now (though it's hard to imagine them licensing "Lion in a Coma" to Nokia)? Probably. Unless there's a backlash, and then I can get in on the cutting edge of defending it. How hopelessly lame is that?

 

Frankly, though, the only reason I'm worrying about any of this (instead of listening to the record), is because of an obsessively ingenious deconstruction of the entire phenomenon titled "Animal Collective Is a Band Created By/ For/ On the Internet" by Hipster Runoff's enigmatically brilliant impresario Carles. If Merriweather Post Pavillion is the year's No. 1 Album so far, then this is the year's No. 1 Blog Post (and to call it a "post" feels insulting and ridiculous, since it's among the most imaginative creative writing/performance pieces about pop culture ever).

 

Like the best of Carles' spew, the "AnCo" project is so specifically and exhaustively (and viciously) satirical, while at the same so dizzying self-aware, that it literally can be terrifying to read if you're invested at all in what's being discussed. In this case, he may leave the most devoted, aesthetically risk-taking Animal Collective boffin bereft on a Brooklyn streetcorner, moaning wanly: "Does this mean I have to give up and listen to Justice remixes and shop at American Apparel for the rest of my natural life (or until daddy shuts off the spigot)"?

 

Carles simultaneously makes you feel like a delusional douchebag for caring about anything vaguely "alternative" (a.k.a., an "alt-bag") while also inspiring you to enthusiastically question everything you believe (which is what "alternative" culture should be doing, if it's got any meaning or value whatsoever). Like so many of my favorite songs, it makes me wanna embrace the wonders of existence one day, and fucking off myself the next. It's a public service, it's a public menace, it invalidates the very essence of Spin, and it's what you should be reading right now.

[Dejan]

The role of a music journalist often requires using language to describe the sounds of artists who don't easily lend themselves to description, and few bands embody this challenge like Animal Collective. Oftentimes, they don't even sound like Animal Collective. Their albums can dislodge our sense of time and context, often seeming completely independent of earlier works. And any attempt to categorize them carries with it the understanding that no matter how close you come, you're still off the mark. Their fans' pseudo-religious intensity is unrivaled outside of the jam scene and their status as cult rockers is firmly in place.

 

But it appears that AC's cult status may be on the decline after their new release, Merriweather Post Pavilion (released January 20 on Domino Records, you can read our review here). Although critics called their last album, 2007's Strawberry Jam, their "pop album," it seems as though Merriweather has the fluidity, and more importantly, the accessibility to bring a whole new demographic of mainstream listeners into the Animal Collective universe.

 

While overseas, supporting Merriweather, Geologist, born Brian Weitz, got on the phone with JamBase to talk about their new release, their live show and what's slated for the future.

 

Even though Merriweather was just weeks away from its release at the time of our conversation, the first topic of discussion was the highly anticipated "visual album" that Animal Collective has been working on since before they recorded Strawberry Jam.

 

"We sort of work on it during our breaks on supporting Merriweather," says Weitz. "It's just a really learn-as-you-go process for us. There's no overseeing technical producer doing the technical work for us; we're doing it ourselves. The director doing the visuals knows what he's doing, but we're the ones scoring it. We're trying to work on the music and the visuals as simultaneously as possible. He also does stuff with the band Black Dice, so we try to work on it when we have time."

 

As blown away as Collective fans may eventually be by this project, you can count on some being disappointed by the fact that they probably won't have the opportunity to hear any of the music off the "visual album" in a live setting.

 

"Now, we're in a unique situation where it's the first time we're working on a batch of material that's purely for a studio project and not intended to be performed live," Weitz says. "We don't see the visuals and music as being separate. A live performance of screening the film while we play live also wouldn't work because every scene has different instrumentation."

 

Weitz explained that they usually record an album and then when they perform live they start playing new material they're working on for the next album. It's an unconventional approach to developing material that has the potential to throw off fans expecting to find album tracks on a setlist. This production method underscores the band's emphasis on progression. With Animal Collective, it often seems as though anything in the present might as well be a thing of the past, an attitude that justifies the impression by many diehard fans that if you blink you might miss something.

 

However, at the moment, Animal Collective seems to enjoy living in the present. "Right now we're still playing a similar set, still enjoying playing the Merriweather songs and stuff like that. So, people won't get a taste of the next project until this thing is officially released on DVD, or if we do a screening tour where we just show it at different theatres and places," Weitz says.

 

As for the buzz about Animal Collective breaking into the mainstream, Weitz shrugs these suggestions off.

 

"Since Sung Tongs [2004], people have been saying, 'This is the pop record,' or whatever, and we totally understand why it comes across that way," offers Weitz. "[Merriweather is] definitely easier to swallow. To us, it sort of feels like a natural progression. It's hard for me to say how an outside listener would see them, but [the roots of today's sound] go way back to the early stuff, in the early 2000s that was more chaotic and maybe challenging to the average listener. It still has pop songs and structure within it, it's just buried beneath this production we were feeling at the time that was a lot more harsh and chaotic and maybe disjointed. It was a reflection of our lives and mental states at the time, and we always wanted our music to be really personal to that moment in time."

 

On Merriweather Post Pavilion, songs like "Also Frightened" utilize homemade samples layered over vocals reminiscent of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, which build upon swelling rhythms that bring to mind The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" AND tribal exorcism chants. But, for Animal Collective sounding like anything from the past is far from the objective.

 

"Even though we listen to a lot of music from 40 years ago like psychedelic stuff, The Beatles and the Grateful Dead - and we're very inspired by it - we've always been pretty conscious to not try and sound like a band that was looking backwards or being retro in any way," Weitz says. "We've always wanted to sound very much like a moment [in time]."

 

When asked what contributes to the polarized response the band often receives, Weitz says, "I don't know if I could name one thing. I often say something like, 'Well, we're not a rock band,' but I don't think that really explains it. Plus, I like rock music and I like us, so those things aren't mutually exclusive. We even polarize our own fans because we change our styles so much. Some of our fans love some of our records and hate others. I think every record of ours is one Animal Collective fan's favorite and another fan's least favorite or most hated. It doesn't bother me though. I think it's cool to offer different things to different people as opposed to offering one thing to one steady group of people. It also doesn't bother me to be polarizing on a large scale. It's kind of like cilantro or something. That's a really polarizing herb, and the people who love it can't really say why anymore than the people who hate it. It's just something in the taste. Personally, I love it, so I don't mind being musical cilantro."

 

During their performance at last summer's All Points West Festival, Animal Collective fans were overheard saying that the group deserves to be appreciated like Phish, where every performance is bootlegged and listened to like the Zapruder footage. With this kind of fanbase, it could be easy to feel as though you've got a safety net that allows some wiggle room with experimentation. On the other hand, disappointing fans can carry a high price. However, Weitz feels that neither of these scenarios is accurate.

 

"There is definitely no safety net," Weitz says. "If anything, I think our hardcore fans are the most critical of us. But at the same time, we're not concerned with blowing them away each time. We hope we do but we can't anticipate it and would probably fail if we tried. It's like that sports quote about the coach who listens to the fans will wind up sitting next to them. You have to trust your own instincts, and the only pressure we feel in terms of creating something mind-blowing is put on us by us."

 

"Coming out of our early twenties, we were living in New York in dive apartments, not living the healthiest lifestyle [and] that's reflected in that music," recalls Weitz. "Now, we're all hovering around 30, either just below 30, or just over 30. A few of us are married. I'm engaged; now I have a kid. We all have pretty stable, healthy lives that are a lot less cluttered, so it just feels more natural to produce the music in a way that's less cluttered."

 

The fact remains that on a national-scale Animal Collective remains yet-to-be discovered by the mainstream. With that in mind, Weitz offered some advice to anyone who might be thinking of investing energy into exploring the group: "These days, you don't have to pay to listen to music. So why go in with ANY expectations?" As for the live show Weitz cautions, "If you're going to stand near the front bring sunglasses."

 

(jambase)

[BostonSportsTD]

at this exact moment... i honestly feel as though fireworks is the greatest song god has ever allowed humans to make.......

[MrMagpie]

You're hooked!

 

I listened to them on the bus ride home. I can't really listen to them when I'm doing schoolwork. Too exciting/complex for me to handle.

[the_gloaming09]

so then what's everyone's favorites off the album?

 

for me it's My Girls, Lion in a Coma, Taste and In the Flowers

 

at first i really did not like Lion in a Coma at all, but after seeing it live i really like it now

[MrMagpie]

Right now in order:

 

1. My Girls

2. Guys Eyes

3. Bluish

4. Summertime Clothes

[BostonSportsTD]

You're hooked!

 

I listened to them on the bus ride home. I can't really listen to them when I'm doing schoolwork. Too exciting/complex for me to handle.

yeah that's sooo true. i've been listening to them all night and now i'm too hyper to get any work done.

 

my favorites from MPP are brother sport and summertime clothes. but i agree.. there really arent any weak tracks.

[BostonSportsTD]

oh and today i bought my tickets for their show in boston in may. i'm absolutely pumped.

[the_gloaming09]

very cool... they put on a good show. also look out for a new song called "Blue Sky"... it's really good, even though it kind of stays the same until the middle

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A1M6sJnIxY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A1M6sJnIxY[/ame]

[anna111]

I'm pretty hooked!!

[BostonSportsTD]

the songs i'm obsessed with this week are peacebone and for reverend green. i feel like my concert is soooooo far away...

[MrMagpie]

When do you see them?

[MrMagpie]

Full concert video:

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/tv/#/41396395/41723347/1

[the_gloaming09]

When do you see them?

I saw them the day that MPP came out, which was January 20th, because I remember it being Obama's Inauguration day.

 

 

Full concert video:

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/tv/#/41396395/41723347/1

awesome! thanks! :thumbsup:

[Yellow Hill]

MPP is so good <3

[MrMagpie]

agreed.

MPP has really been growing on me.