Gorilla vs. Bear posted some new
Animal Collective tracks from the group's recent visit to
BBC 1's Rob Da Bank show and--needless to say--they are pretty out there. The best way to describe them would be to say that these dudes will still be an influence in 75 years.
Check those out:
Doggy/ Hey Light [from gvsb]
From a Beach/ On a Highway [from gvsb]Also, I wrote a review of the Animal Collective set here a few months ago. When
American Songwriter made the switch to the new site, it got lost in the fray. Check it.
I will never forget Noah Lennox’s solo Panda Bear set in Lisbon, Portugal at B. Leza. A treacherous two minute trek from our hostel, the venue was a run-down African dance club with high ceilings and a rabid audience. One that spent nearly ninety minutes trying to gain access through the clubs backwards entry system. Anyone remember that letter that Pitchfork posted from the mother angry about the Philly Animal Collective show? Well, let’s just say she probably would have held that Satan was running the door at B. Leza. Let’s also say, “Thank you, Satan, for letting us in.” Lennox—in a rare appearance and straight stuntin’ after the release of his steamin’ hot Person Pitch—paper-Mache-ed segments from that album with new tunes, such as “Laughed for A World Filled with Fantasy,” to fashion an adventurous performance and a vibrant sonic mosaic.
So as I headed into the Animal Collective show at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC, I prepared myself for anything. I really had no idea what to expect from the experimental outfit other than the fact that I knew their set wasn’t going to be what I expected. I certainly didn’t begin to suppose that Cat’s Cradle would seem more like a 3rd World dancehall than B. Leza did back in April. However, Animal Collective, a Deakin-less threesome on this particular night, fed the audience an eerie—and often primal—potion of worldly rhythms and never-ceasing madness. Drawing on a hefty dose of dazzling new material and selections from the tangy Strawberry Jam, Lennox, along with Avey Tare and Geologist, transformed the mostly college-age crowd into a possessed mass of sweaty, bobbing bodies. During numbers like “Peacebone,” “House” and “Pan Flute Jam,” the whole scene was simultaneously fanatical and tribal and otherworldly. As ritualistic rhythms blared, 80’s rave lights cast bizarre colors through skeletons that decorated the stage. The show was an acid trip without the acid; one minute melodious, thoughtful and flowing and the next menacing, scatterbrained and spastic. Perhaps the tune that best summed up the entire night was “Brother Sport,” a new song that begins in a Berlin trance and morphs into a nonsensically infectious and celebratory Carribean booty shaker. Like Animal Collective, it was a contrasting concoction that—for some odd reason—always seems to go down the right way.
I also went and picked up some new music publications yesterday. Originally, I only planned to get the new American Songwriter. However, after seeing My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses on the cover of Magnet and Filter, respectively, I had to snag those as well. I guess it's reverb month in the music publication world. Definitely drop by your nearest bookstore and grab all three of 'em.
