We Tigers - Animal Collective (2004)

my favorite song off of Sung Tongs and one of the most memorable Animal Collective songs ever!

prepare to dance!
prepare to jump!
prepare to scream!
prepare to sing!

prepare to dance!

listen.

Banshee Beat - Animal Collective (2005)

i don't know what it is. that's probably a good starting point.

if there are such things as favorites, this is my favorite Animal Collective song. if you know what the sublime is, this song is it.

and no, it's not just because it's one of the band's longest songs. it has to do with how this song FEELS.

i'm trying to be eloquent about this, but it's coming out terse.

how fitting, i continue, that it comes to how this song FEELS, because that's the name of the album you find it on. this whole song just FEELS good. it FEELS like head nodding. it FEELS like dancing, swimming, climbing, loving. it makes me want to stretch my arms out, kiss the Earth, hug the solar system, and inhale the whole universe like a delicious sea breeze. you couldn't take enough bong rips to FEEL the way this song makes you FEEL. i want to mail a letter to the President asking him to listen to this song. i want to ask you to listen to this song because i want you to tell me if it's even remotely possible to experience happiness without sadness. i want you to tell me if it's possible to love without feeling a chill run down your spine. can you hug the solar system without burning your belly button?

'Banshee Beat' FEELS like life. 'Banshee Beat' is life. it's sublime.

it doesn't start with a wailing, panning guitar or tribal drumming or a wave of distortion or dazzling, psychedelic strings... no, no, no, it starts with a whisper of a strum. reverberating whispers of strums. crackling.

a man's voice. also reverberated. a hint at a piano. reverberated.

guitars coming from all sides now. whispering. walking past us talking about something. piano tones growing and dying. crackling. crickets. chirping. crackling

the man's voice stops and something starts happening. the crackling, chirping, strumming, ripping, tapping, all that noise grows in intensity. it gets braver. it approaches you, face to face.

the guitars sidle this way and that. and the voice comes back.

a booming bass drum.

every line he sings = every chill i feel.

So I duck out, go down to find the SWIMMING POOL
Hop a fence, leave the street and wet your feet to find the swimming pool
Cause when I'm snuffed out I doubt I'll find a SWIMMING POOL
Hop a fence, leave the street and wet your feet to find the swimming pool

every line he sings = every chill i feel.

the rhythms by now are at full speed, the guitar is strumming along lazily down its own reverberated river, ah ah ah ah.

every line he sings = every chill i feel.

So I duck out, go down to find the SWIMMING POOL
Hop a fence, leave the street, and wet your feet to find the swimming pool
'Cause when I'm snuffed out I doubt I'll find a SWIMMING POOL
Hop a fence, leave the street, and wet your feet to find the swimming pool

every line he sings = every chill i feel.

cue monkey sounds.

listen. download. buy.

Merriweather Post Pavilion Art

I am in love with color, and lots of it, solely because of Animal collective and their recent album, Merriweather Post Pavilion.

first there is the eye tantalizing cover


then their is their first video for 'My Girls'



and then there is the first single for 'Summertime Clothes'. I could stare at this for hours.



and then there is the video for 'Summertime Clothes' with many dancers, balls of light, excellent textiles, and of course colorful light!





I must admit, that the sounds and colors of this album are so complementing. a full frontal on your ears and eyes. if only I could get to one of their shows these days :(

Animal Collective- Winters Love (live circa 2009)

quick personal animal collective recap: I first started to hear about this band after freshman year of college. It truly was from my friend Mark Quines, contributor to this blog, who had an advance copy of Strawberry Jam (2007). I return to santa cruz at at the first time I see my good friend Josh at his then new house, RIP 504 Palm Street, and he was discussing how his whole house had taken a field trip to see them just a week or two before. Josh was so down, and I was curious cause I just kept hearing about them, yet I had heard noithing. Next week, he slams me a CDR with Sung Tongs, Feels, and Strawberry Jam. Im short, it wasnt love at first listen at all, but i quickly grew attached to Banshee Beat, Leaf House, and Fireworks. Fast forward to my interesting psycaledic trip, and it was the NPR live bootleg that helped calm my soul. I cant tell you how important this band is to listen to on a bootleg. I oftentimes find myself listening not to the albums, but to the bootlegs, so they truly have a special place in my heart.

Live Situation: So i had tickets to see this band in LA, and then one of the guys got sick, so after driving down on a friday, the show was later postoponed, I couldnt make the postponded show, and I requested a refund 3 minutes to late for ticketmaster. In short, I still want to see them live, and the live shows are important, if not crucial I think, to listening to this band. In the past two years, with the band's main guitarist taking a break, the band has been trying to fill in the Gap with whatever they feel like, welcome Merriweather Post Pavillion. So, for old songs, they have been remaking and reinventing them to play live.

Winters Love: This song is originally from Sung Tongs, yet has been recreated, reworked for the 2009 tour. The bootleg I have is from the Bowery Ballrom performance on 2009/01/21. The only similarity between the original and this one is the 10 second smaple they put from the original. It might be in teh same Key, yet it is sung almost entiretly without lyrics, and with Noah just, seemingly, improvising and letting sweet, beautiful noise emit from his mouth. Its slow, its atmospheric, its relaxing, its chill, it was perfect for my walk up to campus in 60% humidity with a bottle of cold green tea. This song fits best within the encorce, following the encorce break after brothersport, and before Comfy in Nautica. I'd recommend listening to the whole bootleg of course, but at least from brothersport to the end. Noah's vocals drift into the opening, calling, voices of Comfy. For me, Its pretty beautiful.



bootleg: http://www.archive.org/details/acollective2009-01-21.nyctaper.Neumann_KM150.16bit