New Animal Collective album is indeed NOT a rumor

That’s right!  Animal Collective is set to release Merriweather Post Pavilion on January 20th, 2009.  Get excited.  This is their 9th full-length album.  If you have had the opportunity to see AC within the past two years, a few of the songs on the album will already be familiar to you.

The record will be released via Domino Records and was recorded in early 2008 at Sweet Tea Recording Studio in Oxford, Mississippi with the engineering expertise of Ben Allen. The album will be available on CD, 2xLP and digital formats.

Tracklist:

1. In The Flowers
2. My Girls
3. Also Frightened
4. Summertime Clothes
5. Daily Routine
6. Bluish
7. Guys Eyes
8. Taste
9. Lion In A Coma
10. No More Runnin
11. Brothersport

I have been waiting a few years to hear these songs in an album format.  I am already certain that it will be on the top of my Favorite Albums list for next year.

Pitchfork Music Festival ’08 Recap: Saturday

Well, we are back from super indie hipster music fest, Pitchfork and it was a blast. We tanned are sun deprived bodies, ate all kinds of delicious vegetarian foods and enjoyed numerous bands. Alison and I only were able to catch Saturday and Sunday of the music festival, but I heard that Public Enemy was pretty on point on Friday.

Saturday:

I was able to watch Caribou, Fleet Foxes, Fuck Buttons, Vampire Weekend, !!!, The Hold Steady, Atlas Sound, and Animal Collective

Highlights of my day were definitely Animal Collective, Atlas Sound, !!! and Fuck Buttons. I’ve seen all of these bands before with the exception of Atlas Sound (but I’ve seen Deerhunter!) so I basically knew what to expect which was pure aural pleasure.

-I didn’t get to check out all of Fleet Foxes, but I heard enough of their beautiful harmonies to make me feel like I was floating on air. They are my Grizzly Bear of this year.

-My day couldn’t get any better as the sun peeked out of the clouds as Fuck Buttons began “Bright Tomorrow.”

-The next highlight was !!! (chk chk chk) because you can’t get any better dance music as well as dance lessons at the same time. !!! always knows how to make you shake your groove thang and I was not one to disappoint them.

-I recently picked up the Atlas Sound album at the library and didn’t really get to thoroughly listen to the album because it was scaring my friends. So I decided to check out Bradford Cox’s side project regardless of hearing the whole album and I was very happy with my choice.

-Lastly, is the ever so wonderful, Animal Collective. I’m going to say that the crowd was lame because they were only familiar with Strawberry Jam. But my mind was blown away when Panda Bear performed a song off Person Pitch. That was probably the most epic moment of my life, it was probably caused by the lights. I was saddened by how short of a set they had, but what can you do?

Lowlights

This stuff is already probably known to why I didn’t enjoy the other bands that I saw on Saturday. The other bands that I was disappointed by were Caribou, Vampire Weekend and The Hold Steady.

Super Saturday Music Video Post

It’s time to watch the ever so lo fi experimental videos  of Ariel Pink, Tickley Feather and Animal Collective.  Just so happens that all are on the Paw Tracks label.

Ariel Pink – Are You Gonna Look After My Boys?

Tickley Feather – Fancy Walking

Animal Collective – Grass

God Warrior Of The Week

The God Warrior for the week of May 5 is Eric Copeland!

Eric Copeland is a member of Black Dice, works with Animal Collective’s own Avey Tare in Terrestrial Tones, and is an overall noise pioneer of epic proportions. Signed to the ever-so-incestuous Paw Tracks label, Copeland met most of his band-mates in Providence, Rhode Island while studying at the Rhode Island School Of Design. He and his cronies frequently play at art museums and have released Gore, a book that effortlessly translates their complex sound into images. Unfortunately, it is out of print.

Copeland’s solo album Hermaphrodite is quite similar to Black Dice’s sound, presenting droned-out, abstract soundscapes and a penchant for blurring the lines between electronic and psychedelic. With all of the emerging noise bands and artists these days, Copeland and crew are too legit to be overlooked.

Eric Copeland – Green Burrito [MP3] [Insound]

Black Dice – Bottom Feeder [MP3] [Insound]

Album Review | Tickley Feather – Tickley Feather

The first time I heard Philadelphia’s Tickley Feather (or, Annie Sachs), I was seeing her open for Animal Collective in St. Louis this past September. I was really intrigued by the simplicity of her set and her overall ability to present experimental yet catchy tunes. Her self-titled debut album off of the Paw Tracks label perfectly translates what her live sound is composed of. Looping samples, keyboards, and drum machines piece together perfectly in combination with TF’s raw emotion expressed through her vocals. With 20 tracks–the vast majority under the 3:00 mark–Tickley Feather’s album is like a fucking charming, whimsical storybook or something. It makes me wonder if she deliberately crafted the perfect album to echo amazingly through my apartment. Her sound is out there, in the most beautiful way possible. Eerie nursery rhyme melodies and toy synths soar on tracks like “Nothing 2 B Sad About” and “Night Train”. There are times when I’m listening to her album that all of a sudden, a phat lo-fi beat blasts through my ears (see “Tonight Is The Night”), and my mind jumps to Madonna circa 1988 had she taken lots of acid instead of club drugs. Touted as the “Next Ariel Pink”, it seems that she indeed shares a lot in common with her Paw Tracks label-mate (who I am obsessed with, by the way) in terms of lo-fi production and tons of reverb in her vocals. Interpret that as you will, but I know this album is going to be a favorite of mine for quite a while.

Tickley Feather – Tonight Is The Night [MP3] [Insound]

God Warrior Of The Week

Our God Warrior for the week of April 20th is El Guincho!

My first reaction to El Guincho was that he sounds Panda Bear en español. While there are shocking similarities between the two artists’ sounds (think ambient, echo-y vocals and repetitive, psychedelic loops), El Guincho– a.k.a. Pablo Díaz-Reixa–definitely holds his own in his native land of Spain. Check out the remix he did for Architecture In Helsinki! It scares me, but in the best way possible. The other track, “Fata Morgana”, sounds strikingly similar to the un-released “Brother Sport” by Animal Collective. ¡Escuche! (Hope that is correct, my few years of Spanish were a bit trifilin’.)

Architecture In Helsinki - Like It Or Not (El Guincho remix) [MP3]

El Guincho – Fata Morgana [MP3] [buy]

Animal Collective Drop Water Curses on May 6

According to MotorMouthMedia, Animal Collective is set to release their Water Curses EP this Spring!

The press-release reads:

“Water Curses sees the band’s capacity for re-imaging their constituent parts into ever more interesting and saturated shapes go up by a giddy notch. All four tracks have a more stripped down feel than their recent work, opener Water Curses takes an unexpected rhythm and throws it up, down and sideways to produce the sound of a smile. A technique that Animal Collective are now in a position to call their own.

Street Flash is nearly seven minutes of spaced out hollers, electronics and lullabies that luxuriate in a chord sequence running through a delay that sounds like it’s made of honey. Threatening to explode but laying back on itself instead the track is like a particularly lucid dream.

Cobwebs is equally languid. Weaving itself around a vocal that sounds like it’s imagining some new kind of space church for Al Green to conduct weddings until it slowly fades away into a sticky ether. The EP’s final track takes the celestial feel into even more blissed-out states. Seal Eyeing is the moment you realize watching vapor trails melt into the sky is not only the most constructive thing you can do, but the only real option that’s left.”

Track listing is as follows:

1. Water Curses
2. Street Flash
3. Cobwebs
4. Seal Eyeing

All tracks were recorded with Scott Colburn at Wavelab Studio (Tucson, AZ), except Seal Eyeing by Nicolas Vernhes.

Hell yeah! We are trying to get an advance copy for review, so we’ll see how that pans out!

“Appy Halloween” & Other Animal Musings

 

Ever wonder what Animal Collective was like throughout their formative years? Was Avey Tare always bouncing around like a nut? Did Geologist constantly have his light-headband on? Was Deakin always seemingly M.I.A.? Well, one thing is for sure: Panda Bear was getting his freak on at an early age.

During his brief stay at Boston University, experimental-psych rocker Panda (a.k.a. Noah Lennox) made a series of short films under the writing and direction of hip-hop weirdo Black Nasty, who now likes to spit about butts and Anne Frank. These films have gained somewhat of a cult-like following over the years due to the ever-increasing popularity of Noah and his band.

Our favorite video out of the series of three would have to be Appy Halloween. We see a young Panda who idolizes George Washington (“he did human things”), dressed up as his favorite patriot and ready to have some Halloween fun. Shit goes wrong when the elevator suddenly stops working. With seemingly no way out, a very sad Georgie is ready to hang up his powdered wig and call it a night. Lo and behold, Jason shows up and the rest is history, as they say: