In just a few days, on November 23rd, there will be a new Animal Collective release upon us. And although we’ve only heard snippets of the Fall Be Kind EP in all it’s polyphonic glory, we’d like to think that the sparkle and carnival whirring of “Graze” is a good indicator that nothing—save for maybe Bob Dylan’s psychotic new Christmas album—is going to able get that sucker out of our hi-fi until the holidays have finally wound down. Check it out above. (via Stereogum)

It’s also a little bit insane. But then again, that’s one of the simpler ways of explaining one’s love for Animal Collective. Dave “Avey Tare” Portner’s sister Abby Portner did the directing honors and she hit this one out of the park, maybe the atmosphere. It’s warm, it’s playful, it’s great. Check it out for yourself above.

After years of their moniker simply being, well, a moniker, Animal Collective finally puts that silly music riff-raff on hold to collectively help animals. They’ve teamed up with PETA to present a PSA against Canada’s slaughter of seals, a cause that has been of particular interest to PETA in relation to the public attention to Vancouver for their hosting of the 2010 Olympics (a campaign they’re calling OlympicShame2010). The band comes across as both earnest and reasonably knowledgeable, as it turns out Brian has some background in both environmental work and marine biology. Also, if you don’t like your bands to have any interests outside of music, the clip does use “My Girls.” However, the end is NSFW unless you work at a place where watching a baby seal take it just for chillin’ on his ice patch is normal. Also, if it is, please get a new job immediately and consider taking a few weeks of to search your soul.

(Via: I Guess I’m Floating)

The 10″. An odd format. It doesn’t have the shoe-box currency and the hallowed history of the 7″, nor the expansiveness of the 12″, but damned if it’ll go away. Animal Collective know a thing or two about neglected formats. The band recorded their soon-to-be-reissued album Campfire Songs and many of the tracks on the immediatly unavailable Crack Box to the once touted MiniDisc format. (Thx, Sony!) And now comes another 10″. This time a single for MPP’s “Brothersport,” backed with “Bleeding,” which was called “Bleed” when it first surfaced back in May. Rumor has it that Animal Collective have added a whole bunch of “-ing” to “Bleed” to concoct “Bleeding.” There are a few versions of “Bleeding” floating around the web, and while the three minute DC version has its moments, any space traveler worth his weight in cosmic glitter knows you go with the 11+ minute ambient trip. Behold below!

Animal Collective, Bleeding (Live @ Henry Miller Library)

MP3 Download

We’re not going to lie. We’ve never actually seen the MTVU Woodie Awards. But then again, we don’t live in a dorm, so it sort of makes sense. We do remember the channel incessantly playing My Morning Jacket and E-40 back in the day, so they’re OK by us. And it seems logical enough MTV’s college version would get its own little baby VMAs. MTV just announced the nominations, and it seems Asher Roth is finally being rewarded for recording a generic (edit: offensive) song replicating the college experience. About damn time. But more in our lane, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective have been nominated for a Breaking Woodie and a Performing Woodie respectively. Matt & Kim are up for a Best Video Woodie. And Jay Reatard (along with the likes of Major Lazer, Janelle Monae & Tech N9ne) are up for a Left Field Woodie, which we have yet to Wikipedia but would seem the only qualification might involve being inherently bizarre and happening to make incredible music. So we’re for it. Put those four in a room and film it and we’ll watch it over whatever replaced TRL any day. Done and done. The show takes place December 4th. Hopefully Matt (or Kim) will storm the stage (naked?) and grab the mic from Wale or someone in a fit of Brooklyn pride and demand a recount for Grizzly Bear. Full nominations here. (Via: MTV)

Taking to his blog on the New Yorker’s website, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones reviews the Animal Collective’s live show, starting off by saying, “I suppose that if your parents never took you to the circus and you’ve never been to an actual dance club, Animal Collective might seem kinda hot.” He goes on to describe the band’s musical twists and turns, arguing that “I could love the band as much as their loyal fan base does if I heard some genuine [musical] synthesis. But, show after show, all I’ve seen and heard are gestures. The noises are spiky enough to be better than nothing, but they don’t bowl me over with detail or texture, nor do they have the heft to produce a serious physical sensation. Their digital thump is dull, especially when compared to the programmed beats easily accessed by anybody with a computer or a radio, and the ’songs’ laid on top are too vague and echo-laden to pull me in, as feathered and smooth as Lennox’s voice is.”

Where he and the band accord, however, is in regards to the group’s stage set up: “Their stage presentation, though, is great visual shtick.” Hm.

Big, rad Bar Mitzvah
Stomach bounce, ears bleed, Black Dice
Bubbles and arcade

Sufjan Stevens

Circulatory System


Amazing dude in the lobby



Black Dice

Wayne Coyne checking out Atlas Sound

Antipop Consortium

No Age chillin

Shellac

Deerhunter


Animal Collective

In honor of the Memorial Day weekend, we took a very small poll asking a few friends to give us their ideal summer song. You know, the kind you would want to hear if you were outside driving around right now without a care in the world. Then we narrowed it down to seven eleven (an arbitrary number, who knows, it still may expand). So, here are seven eleven summer classics from Sister Nancy, Pavement, The Pharcyde, Donovan, Dizzee Rascal, Animal Collective, Screeching Weasel, People Under the Stairs, Dan Deacon, Queen and the one, the only, The Notorious B.I.G..

Sister Nancy – “Bam Bam”

Pavement – “Gold Soundz”

The Pharcyde – “Runnin”

Donovan – “There Is A Mountain”

Dizzee Rascal – “Bonkers”

Animal Collective – “My Girls”

Screeching Weasel – “Totally”

People Under The Stairs – “Acid Raindrops”

Dan Deacon – “Crystal Cat”

Queen – “Fat Bottomed Girls”

The Notorious B.I.G. – “Juicy”

Are You Reading This?

I don’t know if I would be.

In 2009, how does one offer an over-saturated musical blogosphere another column worth reading? How does one differentiate themselves from the legions of blogs offering the same imitated or emulated musical opinions as the next? Can we expect a Darwinian effect that will see the demise of websites and blogs that have no sustainable reason for their existence? Or can we expect a continued influx of under-qualified and over-spoken neophytes wanting their own site on Wordpress? I voiced my online-existential anxieties to Stuart Berman (of Pitchfork Media and Eye Weekly) a few months ago. “Where is there left to go? What’s left to offer when there’s already a Pitchfork, already a Rolling Stone, already a BBC, etc.?” I asked, knowing full well the impossibility of actually addressing such inquiry in a casual discussion. He was unbothered. “Honestly, good writing is good writing. At the end of the day, that is the stuff that will make it.” Touché, Stuart. Cynical Me wanted to say, “Well, easier for you to say when a part of wildly reputable organization with a cult-like following.” Reasonable Me stops Cynical Me from actually saying it.

I talk to Derek about this.

mcranston: How does a music blog sustain itself?
derek: realistically, or theoretically?
mcranston: both …
derek: theoretically, it’s through ads and sponsorships, etc
derek: but realistically, it’s traffic
mcranston: isn’t that more realistically?
mcranston: theoretically, i think blogs sustain themselves through constant updates, contemporary relevance, and expositions of new bands.
mcranston: realistically, it’s obviously just about money.
mcranston: and site traffic is intrinsically linked to money.
derek: yeah, i agree
derek: ultimately good content will bring people in
derek: or i should say, keep them there
derek: but honestly, that’s not so true
derek: it’s really about luring them in
mcranston: Exactly.
mcranston: and that’s the question I’m trying to ask.
derek: it can also mean a big exclusive story or MP3
mcranston: okay …
derek: the first site to post an Animal Collective MP3 is going to get a ton of traffic, so it’s a game a little bit. bit then a pfork or fader they have a built in audience, so they can kind of expose new people and not worry about whether they have enough “big” content on their site.

We don’t get very far and my queries subsist. How does any music blog sustain itself? Berman’s right: patience, trust in quality writing, patience, a unique voice, patience and some sort of cohesive/organized body. Granting these elusive qualities, what then is the ultimate aspiration of the Music Blog? Perhaps to present a mode of thinking that allows the reader of any genre to appreciate a sound or style to which he or she may not commonly gravitate (I guess?). Successfully articulating why an artist is worth listening is no easy task. Most websites don’t accomplish this feat, and few writers come close. Besides, this presupposes the reader is willing to read past the rating.

Being Jaded Is Easy

The torrent of information has already flooded and we’re bored and stagnant. The stories on Stereogum take two minutes to read. Pitchfork’s precise numerical grading system renders a careful reading of the actual review completely extraneous (i.e. an 8.1> is worth getting when you have time, an 8.8> should be downloaded within the day). Hipster Runoff is the absolute pinnacle of a frighteningly self-aware (and self-referential) media that has come to realize the ridiculousness of its environment. It’s like a fish being aware he swims in a fish tank. William Bowers, under the Puritan Blister pseudonym, recently explored Twitter’s insidious effect on the written word. To synthesis his article (though his distinctive prose should encourage a close reading): Bowers worries about the ADD of today’s technological culture and its affect on aesthetic taste (and cerebral development). Is the 140-character limit Twitter all we have to say? Whereas Bowers worries about the macro state of reading and writing, I worry about being read at all. Sure, I post the occasional link on my Facebook page when an album is really fucking good, but familial support via social networking sites only goes so far.

It’s tough not to worry I’m the journalistic equivalent of a Pitchfork echo. What am I to offer other than further confirmation that Animal Collective reign over indie-rock, or that TV on the Radio are the celebrated post-Dubya era band, or that Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay? Hell, even further, how do I strive to not become a Pitchfork-related derivative while simultaneously lauding Deerhunter, Fucked Up or Okkervil River?

Attracting Readers

I’ve given great thought how to attract more readers to The Tripwire, particularly in the vein of new sections. But most of my suggestions were predicated on sensationalist or dumbed down journalism: giving a ranking system to our album reviews, offering 250-word controversial opinions that would at least “get people talking” or just writing trivial details on our favorite bands (you know, like, who Sufjan’s dating). Inevitably, the question comes down to site credibility and reputation. Do we want to be the Perez Hilton of music journalism? After all, Hipster Runoff is as nauseating as it is funny. Actually no, the question comes down to attracting a large and consistent reader-base. How do I get you to read our site more? Is it a matter of venerability?

mcranston: okay, so with the sites that don’t necessarily have the fortune of a “built-in audience,” how do they establish one?
derek: that’s the “game.” one is persistence. doing something well and doing it over time. the other, which is easier for sites that specifically post news (like us and Daily Swarm) is SEO-friendly titles and the kind I like to consider “yellow journalism” that help lure people in
derek: but yes, also having a unique angle like hipsterunoff
derek: oh, and social networing assets, but that’s a whole other conversation

I can only hope it’s venerability. After all, my blog created this past summer, In The Gnar, joined the landfills after just one entry (but what an entry it was).

Effable Solipsism

Can I talk my shit again?

I suppose it takes the most vain (and dubious) of solipsists to open a column with self-referential concerns. It’s very Klosteran-esque to be reviewing oneself in the first place, let alone with such scrutiny. But my considerations are not ill founded. I honestly don’t know if you’re reading his. I don’t receive feedback. I don’t know how many of you there even are.

mcranston: Puritan Blister by William Bowers of Pitchfork is one of the best columns I’ve read on a music website
mcranston: he’s wildly erudite. his prose is unique. he’s complicated. a very fascinating read,
mcranston: so why do you think his column isn’t a staple among p4k readers?
derek: you just answered it
derek: he’s wildly erudite. his prose is unique. he’s complicated.
derek: people want simple and easy to understand
derek: Filet Mignon is amazing, but more people eat MacDonalds
derek: I guess what I’m getting at is it’s so broad and generalized (his topic that is) that people don’t really understand what Puritan Blister is until you delve into it
derek: which is why it’s so great
mcranston: Yes.
mcranston: so with that in mind, what lessons do we take for this column here
mcranston: – simple idea?
derek: I think the answer is talking to these people who’s opinions we take as “experts”
derek: because that allows you/us to delve into these very broad and expansive topics under the veil of a very simple concept

Or maybe I need a change of scenery. Writing in Starbucks is too cliché, too rom-com-esque, too “You’ve Got Mail”-ish. I need to start smoking, and get a type-writer, and probably grow a better beard. I bet that’s how Pitchfork does it.

Animal Collective for the first time seem content. With each record having its own distinct sonic palette as well as instrumentation, this band works in eras: a batch of song gets written, toured for months, recorded, released, and then comes back with a new sound and new set of songs. On every tour pre-Merriweather, the majority of material would be new to all ears. Mostly unreleased new material, Avey Tare once explained that the band began doing this because in their formative years they played mostly to the same friends and handful of faces in New York and wasn’t content to play them the same stuff each time. This stuck with the band, and despite sometimes disappointing casual fans by not playing the “hits,” it gave them ample opportunity to explore and flesh out new material (check out the (ongoing) development of a jam like “Fireworks” for instance). This has allowed fans to watch the songs grow and evolve, often changing names several times (…remember when Fireworks was called “Bottle Rocket?”). It also kept things very interesting, part of the reason Animal Collective’s bootlegs get swapped so lovingly by fans.

But now, for the first time, there’s no new batch, and the band isn’t quite ready to move on yet. According to Avey, “we’re not in a new place right now, and I feel like it took a little bit of work to bring us to this point. I think we have a lot of thinking or planning to do to think about, or take the step into, the next direction, whatever that is.”

There actually is some brand new material being played on this tour, a three minute gem that goes by the working title “Bleed,” written last week, which continues Panda’s odyssey of Caribbean gold digging, just back and forth vocal interplay over a bed of washy noise and instrumentation so sparse it’s hardly there at all. It’s quick — some I heard from even mistook it for a between-song interlude — but it again finds them stroking just the right melodic nerve amidst the weirdness. The other new song played was the Grateful Dead-sampling Merriweather outtake “What Would I Want Sky.”

Another change is the band’s new way of not only bringing back songs from their back catalogue, but completely reworking them. With guitarist Deakin taking a leave and radically different gear being used each album/era, plus drawing influence from a well-documented adoration for Daft Punk’s mega-mix of a concert (my hunch), Animal Collective began to bring back more of their past songs, stretching, molding and adapting them to the time’s sound and setup. They opened the show with their epic reworking of “Chocolate Girl,” a standout from their almost-decade-old first record, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, a proper starting point. The list of tracks they’ve revamped/remixed between this tour and last reads like a greatest hits collection and their re-workings are almost always hit, not miss (I myself am not too big on the snail-paced new “Winters Love,” (although the original is one of my favorites of all time), but I find the snailed-out “Banshee Beat” totally stunning and sublime). That and their amazing hip-hop reworking of “Who Could Win A Rabbit” were both sorely missing tonight, but you can stream them at the NPR show linked below.

Other standouts included their sing-along, “My Girls,” evergreen banger “Summertime Clothes,” ANOTHER added section to the guitar jam now in the middle of “Fireworks,” a piercing “What Would I Want Sky,” and “Brother Sport,” which tore the place down and sent everyone home on a rather breathless note. To those of you who, like me, are wondering why they have never played Merriweather standout “Bluish” in the live, Panda Bear recently explained to a fan why: for no reason more than that they lost the cable of the machine holding the samples. On the upside, they plan to begin playing it out this summer. Rejoice!

It seems the band is plagued by poor venue selection here in New York; they always seem to kill at Bowery Ballroom, which they have vocalized their liking for, but they’ve outgrown that size venue (although they like to treat fans to some intimate one-offs). They have tried on Webster Hall, Grand Ballroom and now Terminal 5, but none seem to fit. Here’s to hoping they find a more inspired venue that can both house their swelled-up and growing fanbase (it was PACKED tonight) and also not suck. Perhaps this played a part, but I’ve noticed that their moods seem to be reflected by the quality of their between-song interludes, another thing that adds a whole other dimension to their show. Tonight, it seemed that this gig was not one they were exactly going all-out for. Obviously they have no trouble delivering their goods live, but it seemed like tonight was an average effort by the band. Everything sounded good though, and they’re visibly comfortable now, commanding and owning the stage and their sound. By now in their current era they have a lengthy list of songs to choose from [to play], and finally are giving themselves the set length that gives their songs the space they need and deserve (almost 2 hours).

Since experiencing Feels live in early 05 (yes, before its release), I’ve seen these guys many times, and unlike far too many bands, whenever new dates are announced it remains a consistently appealing experience as I know I’m in for something new. I can’t fault them for doing what’s actually standard by playing past and recently-released material, but the selfish id in me just really wants to hear more new stuff. (Still haven’t heard the new box set). Regardless, the guys have really mastered their game, so let them have their victory spliff: it’s live AC and it rules.

Listen to their full performance from May 11th’s DC show HERE.

May 13, Terminal 5 Set List
Chocolate Girl
My Girls
Also Frightened
Summertime Clothes
Slippi
What Would I Want Sky
Guys Eyes
Comfy in Nautica
Fireworks
Leaf House
—
Bleed
Lion In A Coma
Brother Sport

[Animal Collective]

[Grouper]
Grouper was the opener. I had seen pictures and videos, though never close up, but I honestly had thought that in no way could a voice as haunting/chilling/beautiful come out of something so haunting/chilling/beautiful. Now that I think about it, it kind of makes sense, right? But also she sounds many years older than she looks.

The music was as the photos may suggest — (here come the adjectives) dreamy, flowing, hypnotic, glowing? The songs were long and drawn-out, deceptively suggesting formlessness. As far as I know she strayed from her well-known material, as I didn’t recognize anything, not even the spellbinding “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping” (update: some have mentioned that she did play that at the end. I remember hearing that guitar progression and listening intently for the melody, but the vocal was wayy different this time). Also, check out her eyes and expression in the pics — in some she looks positively entranced/possessed. Thankfully, the audience was respectful and quiet, as this is really the kind of set that can be ruined by some impatient shmuck’s remarks (exactly what happened to Tickley Feather when I saw her open for them). Many didn’t like it as it certainly wasn’t for everybody, but if you are the type to enjoy this kind of music, chances are you could appreciate her performance.

We got an e-mail from Fusetron, you can now get your hands on a copy without having to win an Ebay auction.

Go here if you’d like to order your copy for $92 plus shipping and handling. Only one order per person.

Tracklisting:

F1 and F2 recorded live to MiniDisc July 2003 at New World Brewery, Tampa, FL by Avey/Panda. F3 recorded live to MiniDisc June 2003 at a house party in Brooklyn by Avey/Panda. F4 recorded live to MiniDisc sometime and somewhere in 2003 (recording details are lost) by Avey/Panda. F5 recorded live to MiniDisc October 2003 at Concorde 2, Brighton, UK by Avey/Panda.

Southern California’s Local Natives make it hard to draw comparisons. There are similarities here and there — Broken Social Scene and Fleet Foxes are among the contemporary names thrown around — but the Natives’ style is less erratic than BSS, more ballsy than the Foxes. Their harmonic style is indicative of the influence of hazy beach bums of 60s SoCal and Zombified Brit pop, while their percussion philosophy derives from somewhere more natural: a unifying connection between the five-piece developed over hours spent living together in their own guerilla hideaway in Silverlake, Calif.

I sat down for a little phone chat with the guys as they made the arduous journey from San Francisco to Portland. My grasp for the topography of the region is nearly nonexistent, thus making our teleconference, in my mind, just another hurdle for the group in what might be the toughest climb amidst a sea of switchbacks and sheer crags. Since this setting is always more interesting, I kept the image in my mind and forged on through the midst of cell reception woe. I hit them fast and I hit them hard, with the sort of tough grit that would make even Harry Callahan squirm. With half a day to drive from San Francisco to Portland at top speed, I tested out their mental dexterity while they navigated the treacherous mountain passes of Northern California. So after a minute or so of making sure our cell phones were indeed connected and working, my interview began with a real humdinger.

So how are you guys doing?
Kelcey: We’re doing good, on the road going from San Francisco to Portland. It’s a ten-hour drive, the longest drive on this tour we’re on right now. It’s a little brutal, but it’s all right… we started at 8 this morning.

I talked to (Tripwire photographer JENZ) earlier, said she had a little trouble getting into the show…
K: Yeah there was a little mishap with the list, a fuck up if you will, on our part. We tried to fill her full of drinks so that she could forget all about it.

That’s all right, she mentioned she’ll catch you guys again soon, opening for Ben Kweller?
K: Yeah, we’re opening for Ben in June, so we’ll have her out, it’ll be a great time.

Awesome, is that opening spot a result of meeting him down in Austin (at SXSW)?
K: Uh, well we met Ben in Austin, (through) his UK booking agent as well as his national booking agent. He brought Ben out to the show, and he really dug the music and had heard a lot about us and really likes the stuff and so he was stoked to throw us on a couple shows for him.

I was actually there at SXSW for a show you guys played where he showed up, at this little house party the last night of the fest.
K: Oh yeah, that was the place, yeah we saw him there.

How did the rest of SXSW go for you guys?
Taylor: SX was so excellent for us. It was really awesome, none of us had ever been before and we really got (thrown) into it because we had nine shows (over four days). So it was really intense, but we had a great time.

And you’d never been to Austin before that?
T: Well we had played Austin a couple times, but you know, that city is just transformed for SX. There’s like 2,000 bands and thousands of people and it’s really just like chaos for a week, which we really are akin to, we like that.

Nice. So you’ve got an album done, but no label?
T: Correct, yeah we’ve got an album but right now we’re just kind of shopping it around and talking to people.

Did that chaotic week help you guys out in the way of finding a home for it?
T: Oh yeah, it was really cool. I thought it was great to see the progression over, as I said, nine shows. I think it was the second to last show we played was one we added literally the day before, and that show was probably the most packed out of all of them. So it was cool to see this progression where you know, we made some fans early and there were some people kinda spreading the word about us, and so by that show there were all these people there checking us out, from the industry and not. So yeah, the dialogue has definitely increased a lot on pretty much all ends.

Ryan: It was really cool to meet people from the UK, too. That was a good opportunity for us to get to some people out there.

So hopefully sometime in the future a UK tour?
T: Yeah definitely, we just signed up with our UK and European booking agent, and he’s awesome and we’re really, really happy. We don’t have any firm plans yet but we’re already starting to throw out some ideas of dates and stuff and we want to get over there soon.

So it’s been a nice steep route you seem to have taken so far, you haven’t been together too long, correct?
T: Um, sort of, it’s been about two, two-and-a-half years in this lineup so not super new, but me (Taylor Rice, guitar/vocal), Ryan (Hahn, guitar/vocal) and Kelcey (Ayers, keys/vocal), the three of us met in High School. So we’ve been playing together, jamming for over six years. Then it was like everything really came together for us over the last year or so, really when we made our album, when everyone decided to throw all our eggs in the band basket and just go for it full time. We all (including Andy Hamm, bass; Matt Frazier, drums) got a house; we all live together in Silverlake and we’ve been really committed to this as our first priority. So that’s really relatively recent, but we’ve been playing together for a while.

Speaking of the album, the title is Gorilla Manor, is that right?
T: Right, yeah.

There has to be a story behind the name…
T: Well, yeah. So when we were writing the album we were all living together in a house, sort of sequestered ourselves, secluded away and it just kinda became the moniker for the place we were living, and we just came to identify (the house) with the whole process. Our band is really collaborative in terms of the songwriting process and so everyone is constantly throwing out ideas, and during this time (writing) we kinda felt like we found what was our sound and we found these threads that we felt unified us. So that’s kind of why we identified that with the album.

Well I have to say the few songs I’ve heard are excellent (I won’t go into my fan-boy-ish love for their track “Airplanes”). There’s a thoughtfulness to them, I can only hope that’s translated to the rest of the album.
T: Yeah me too. (Laughs.) Seriously, we’re very happy with it, which is actually saying a lot. We really tear all of our songs apart. As a result of the collaborative thing we work over things pretty hard.

And who did you guys get to produce the album?
T: We recorded it in L.A. in a place called Rancho Park with a guy named Raymond Richards, and he’s got an amazing studio in his house. It’s called Red Rockets Glare, and we made the album there over last summer, towards the end of summer. (To rest of band) Would we say he produced it? We kind of self-produced it, but I mean, he helped us a lot. He really is a master at all the tones and the fun toys that he has in his studio, and that was something that was really new to us. We had never done an album before, so he was so easy to work with. But we were really hands on in everything we did with the recording.

So any leads as far as what you might do with it?
T: Yeah we do, we’re talking with a lot of labels right now, but it’s all very tentative and superficial at the moment. Can’t really say much. But we’d love to find a home for it and have a goal to release around the fall so…

Awesome. Now the sound that you guys have, it’s very natural, your combination of almost tribal percussion, and the harmonies. Is that a result of your surroundings, something that naturally finds its way out, or is it something that you guys have made a conscious effort to emphasize?
T: Those two things are very much the kind of threads that we’ve found in a lot of our writing. Now way back when, we started out as a “guitar” band as most bands do, but now we spend almost all of our writing time, or most of it, on our vocals, the melody and harmonies, and also on the percussion. And I’m sure that has something to do with the area but it’s also mostly to do with our personal preferences and influences and who we listen to. You know, the 60s harmony bands is fairly evident, we’re huge fans of The Zombies, Crosby Stills & Nash for example, and we’re also huge fans of Animal Collective or Broken Social Scene, who really have that kind of strong percussive element that we’re drawn to.

I’m guessing Talking Heads is in there somewhere, seeing as you guys have that cover of “Warning Sign” out there and in your set…
T: Yeah we were actually just listening to that.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I actually find your version a little more enjoyable.
T: Oh man, wow.

I mean it’s a great song, but you guys have really taken it and made it your own. It’s almost a different song now.
T: Well, I always think, well we all do, that when you do a cover it’s way more fun to take something that’s not exactly your sound and try to make it your sound. So it was really fun to try and make these pretty three part harmonies out of these David Byrne yelps.

You should start a cover of the month club.
T: (Laughs.) Yeah, we’ve thought about it.

So the rest of this tour you’re headed up into Canada?
T: We are, we’re gonna try. We’ve got Portland, Seattle and then Vancouver. We’ve never crossed the border as a band, and we’ve learned that you have to get this immigration exemption thing from the venue and all this stuff. So we’re really kind of winging it and we really hope that they don’t charge us like $800. That would be sad.

Well at least it’ll be a fun attempt if you can’t make it. So what do you foresee, or hope to see happen in the next six months for you guys?
T: Well we already kinda talked about it, but releasing the album is a major goal of ours and the fall seems like a really good time for that. Other than that, just touring. We really want to be out on the road as much as possible. Hope to have a national tour with a bunch of dates and then go abroad. Like I said, we’ve got some dates we’re planning on.

Ryan: It’s been a dream of ours to go to the UK and tour and now all of a sudden it looks like that’s going to become a reality in the near future.

Have you guys done much touring nationally so far?
R: We’ve toured twice nationally. We went out to Chicago one time and then we did a month long tour to New York and back. Other than that, we’ve done two little West Coast tours. So we’ve done a fair amount of touring, but we really like it, we’re trying to do it as much as possible.

So how much longer do you guys have on the road today?
T: Six more hours, or something like that.

And with that I wished them luck on their way, a group of nice guys making nice music for the masses. The Canadians are going to love that.

Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox’s side project Panda Bear has been featured in the award winning short-film, I Had A Dream I Went to Coney Island, by Sherwin Akbarzadeh. The film recently won the Spike Lee Mini-Masterpiece at the second Babelgum Online Film Festival.

The track, “A Musician and a Filmmaker” is from Panda Bear’s 1998 self-titled debut and is used to accompany Akbarzadeh’s vision of New York’s Coney Island on 8mm film. The track helps accentuate Akbarzaeh’s surrealistic view of the iconic New York attraction, which is home to Siren Fest and the ever-famous roller coaster, the Cyclone.

Regardless of his obvious fascination with Coney Island, Akbarzadeh is actually an Australian-based award-winning filmmaker who has recently been focusing on music videos and video installation pieces.

Blogs, online forums and fans alike were abuzz about Brooklyn’s four-piece, Suckers, long before the release of their self-titled EP on I Am Sound Records earlier this month. Much of this was based on the strength of their live shows — though these were were mostly limited to New York — and an old four-track demo that closely resembles the new EP. That even a brief exposure to their music enables you to grasp their fresh aesthetic has probably been their greatest advantage.

You will immediately recognize Quinn Walker’s voice as something special, and hear nothing that feels like the results of following conventions or fulfilling expectations. The drums aren’t afraid of spare use, and when played assertively in unison with an additional floor tom, tambourine and shakers, the effect feels like a finished thought. Even Quinn’s voice is often used as if it were another instrument, frequently coupled with Austin Fisher’s lower-range vocals, and sometimes used for rhythmic effects. None of it, however, feels experimental or inaccessible. Despite all its quirks, the music rides a natural, harmonious flow.

On the day their four-track self-titled EP came out, I visited the band at Austin Fisher’s apartment in South Williamsburg for some tea and a leisurely chat. Present were all four members: Quinn Walker, Austin Fisher, Pan and Brian Aiken.

Your band name makes me think you don’t want to take yourselves too seriously, and some of that is reflected in your song titles and lyrics as well. Is that an important aspect of the band?
P: It’s pretty important. Can’t take yourself too seriously, it could end up being really cheesy.

AF: When people take themselves really seriously, it just becomes funny and overstrained.

QW: I think we name things according to the sounds we make while we’re trying to come up with them, too. Oh, that sounded like “Shuffle!”

P: And none of us are super serious people. It comes out of our personalities, I guess.

AF: In terms of lyrics, it’s just whatever fits the mood of the song. It’s not a conscious decision to be anything.

QW: I apply a lot of my poems.

P: He’s like Jim Morrison.

QW: I’ve books of poetry I bring to the practice space and let them choose what they’d like to play as a song.

Do you ever have to pull back when it feels like it’s getting too serious?
P: Nothing ever gets too serious.

AF: It’s kind of intuitive.

P: We’ve gotten a little too silly.

QW: I think the lack of seriousness is more like blatant honesty, which I like and agree with.

Why is Cameron Hull on the cover of the EP?
P: We’ve been friends with him for a long time and we think it’s a silly picture.

AF: And he’s sitting in an apartment where all four of us have lived. Not that you can see the apartment at all.

You just like the aesthetic of the photo?
QW: Yeah. It’s supposed to be a beagle mask that I made for him but it keeps getting mistaken for a mouse or a cat.

Does the EP packaging come with lyrics?
Brian: No. We probably just didn’t want an extra page in there.

Are you comfortable with people reading your lyrics, or are they more of a rhythmic element you want them to just listen to?
QW: I feel comfortable with people reading lyrics.

AF: I kind of like it when lyrics aren’t printed on stuff ’cause then it requires your own interpretation. Like, any of the Rolling Stones lyrics, I don’t know what he’s saying half the time. It keeps it interesting.

P: You have to spoon-feed everything to everybody all the time. It’s nice for people to make their own decisions.

BA: Hm, interesting.

AF: [To Brian] Are you doing the interview now?

P: It’s like David Lynch doesn’t like to talk about any of his his movies ’cause they’re there for you to consume. That’s it. Take it. Watch it. What else do you need?

Was self-releasing ever an option or did teaming up with a label seem like a natural choice?
P: It was a natural choice because we’re not capable of doing it ourselves. Just because we’re too busy making music to focus on all the other business stuff. As soon as we got Brooke and Kenny as our managers, everything started to happen. It was like “Whoa, they’re doing a bunch of things that none of us ever wanted to do before.” So it was a big help.

Do you think self-releasing is sustainable?
P: More power to you, if you can do it. You have to be a business man to do that kind of thing, though. As musicians, it’s a lot easier when we can just focus on making music.

AF: It seems like when someone self-releases and they get popular enough, it becomes too much of a hassle and they at least get a distributor. Or, the opposite, when someone really big like Radiohead does it. It’s a lot of work. Shipping CDs and stuff like that.

BA: Making flyers.

P: Well I make flyers, but…

BA: Oh yeah. I was just thinking, when I was in high school bands and spending all this time making flyers and posting them on telephone poles. It was just like beating a dead horse.

Do you spend much time on MySpace?
P: I do the MySpace. I don’t spend a lot of time surfing around and networking, I just answer all the messages and things like that.

AF: I never look on it.

QW: I just check two or three days’ worth of emails on Austin’s computer when I have a chance while I’m here.

BA: I’ll tag a couple of groupies now and then.

QW: That’s a sexual reference, Brian. It’s true. That’s the highlight of this interview so far.

What kind of a role do you think a record label should play?
QW: I just want freedom to do what we want to do artistically, no matter what. Nothing else about it really bothers me that much. Doesn’t matter who it is, as long as they’re gonna work hard, show their support, and make good things happen.

AF: Yeah I guess the business model isn’t too important. I don’t think it’s gotten any worse for bands or the listeners now that the music industry is changing. It’s just kind of the same. Or even better, maybe.

QW: Probably better. The record label doesn’t really play a totalitarian role anymore. They’re so worried about making it themselves that they have to give artists more leeway in order to get them on their side and have them work with them. We’re not yet familiar with the whole thing though.

P: I’m still getting used to what the label does and what the publicists do.

You had Anand Wilder from Yeasayer produce the EP, but you had the foundation of it already down in the four-song demo that’s been floating around. How do you feel about self-producing or co-producing in the future?
QW: We definitely always like to co-produce.

P: Yeah, I’d say we co-produced the EP as well.

QW: The demo was all just us, and I recorded it on this crappy little machine I used to use for all of my solo albums. Anand used that as a guideline because he really liked it. He wanted to incorporate some of that and just make everything sound a lot better for these recordings.

P: I think we’re kind of producers in our own respects, but I’m looking forward to working with different producers in the future. It’s nice to have an outside perspective and somebody to oversee a whole project. If it’s all four of us trying to produce an EP, things might get messy.

QW: But if Anand ever sends me “Which Wire character are you?” quiz request on Facebook again, I’m never working with him. I hate those quizzes, they just pile up.

BA: It’s such a hassle for you. Life’s tough.

QW: I have to check all my email within a span of 30 minutes. It clogs up the airwaves. I already know who my Celebrity Boyfriend would be. Tom Arnold.

AF: John Goodman.

QW: John Goodman and Tom Arnold vie for my attention.

Apart from “Horn Song”, the tracklist of the EP is the same as the demo. What was it about these four songs on the EP?
QW: ‘Cause that’s what our manager Brooke Baxter told us.

P: They’re probably the catchiest.

AF: They’re also our set staples and it’s good to get them recorded, produced well, put them out there, so that we can be happy with how they sound and move on.

BA: Also, it takes a long time to develop songwriting as four people, and at the time of the recording we were still developing our collective songwriting process. I feel like those four were the most finished songs at the time. These guys wrote them before I came in.

P: Except for “Beach Queen.” We almost didn’t do “Easy Chairs.” That was a last minute decision.

QW: What were we thinking of doing instead?

P: We were thinking of doing a new one but nothing was up to par.

Those four make a good introduction.
P: Yeah and they’re all different enough from one another. They cover our sound pretty well at this point.

AF: We did all the basic tracks in one day. Then we did overdubs in two additional days. We really did it fast.

QW: We squeezed everything together.

Do you like that fast process?
AF: No. It’d be nice to have some time when we record the next thing. We basically did it live. I don’t think it’s necessarily how we did it when we were doing our own recordings. We’d rather use the studio more.

QW: Yeah, I really like the sound design aspect of the studio, which we didn’t have time for. You don’t want to hear the same live band on the album. I feel like the CD should be a lot different from the live performance. More over the top. Just make it as interesting as possible, do things the way you wanted to, things you can do in the studio but not on the stage.

P: We’d definitely like to use the studio as another instrument.

Brian, you’ve said that when you first joined the band, you were responding with regular rock beats, but you soon learned to think differently. Do you feel well-versed in the Suckers vocabulary of music now?
BA: Yeah, I do. When I joined, these guys already had a pretty established and developed sound. I was coming in from Connecticut and I wasn’t really familiar with all the music they were, so I would instinctively feel really regular rock beats. These guys were like, “No, play this whacky beat only on the floor tom.” It just seemed like trying to be quirky and innovative, but now that I’ve spent more time, I find this style not only artistic and innovative, but also something I can really emote with. Now I relate to it and intuitively make my parts sound like Suckers.

P: We’ve definitely gelled a lot better over the past year and a half.

QW: It’s natural, we don’t really have to direct each other.

Suckers has a distinctly strong foundation in vocals and percussion. How do you feel about bands where the singer is just okay or the drummer is just okay?
QW: Good drumming is really essential.

AF: I say get the drums right. When you start playing that regular rock beat, it makes all the bands sound the same.

P: If you have an interesting drummer, it definitely changes the way you sound. A really amazing singer is key, too. I guess it depends on how you use it.

BA: But you can’t have a bad drummer. Otherwise your band just has no spine. I know so many really good drummers, but they’ve been trained like black labradors to just play what they’re told, which makes the band sound generic. Whenever you have that call-guy musician, he’s just filling a part, whereas you really need to blend in and contribute something original to the sound.

QW: But Captain Beefheart songs are a good example of what good singing can do. There’s a lot of straightforward drumming in the later Captain Beefheart songs, but the way he sings them makes them sound totally unique.

AF: TV on the Radio’s first EP sounds amazing to me. That’s my favorite one, and there’s barely any drums.

QW: They’ve kind of gone back to that now.

You have some songs where there’s no clear lead singer, but there are some, like “Horn Song,” where one of you definitely takes the lead. In this case, Austin does. I’m just curious how some of these songs develop.
AF: I wrote that separately and brought it in, before Brian even came in. I think that was the first song we ever played with him, that he clicked with us on.

QW: Then we just formed around Austin’s stripped-down version.

AF: Now we just work more together. Improvising, and writing bits that we come up with, but sometimes one of us will bring in something with a rough structure and we’ll fill it in. For a lot of the songs we do now, the leader singer depends on who comes up with a melody. We switch a lot, too. The verse will be sung by someone and the chorus by the other.

Has there been an instance where one of you came up with a melody but thought the other would be a better fit?
QW: There’s certain stuff that I come up with that I think I’d rather have somebody else sing.

AF: It depends on whose vocal range it works on, too.

Quinn has a wealth of recorded material lying around, about 15 CDs. Sometimes you guys play “Save Your Love for Me,” which is an old Quinn Walker song. Has it been adopted by the band?
QW: Now it’s more of a band song, but it was a single of mine as a solo artist on Voodoo Eros. I’m trying to get away from re-doing anything I’d done prior to the band. New songs I write by myself can just become band songs now, but I’m not interested in re-doing songs written and recorded before the band. I just want to leave that as is.

BA: That song’s changed a lot of character, though, from him to us. The form’s changed, and the beginning’s all soft now. It’s not quite a different song, but it almost is.

QW: We used to rework my old songs when we first started out. There are a lot of those renewed songs.

AF: It’s harder to do that sometimes because it means you have to rearrange something that’s already been arranged, whereas when you start fresh, everyone can just bring in their own thing, and it’s more natural and more fun.

QW: We come up with like three new songs during practice anyway, so there’s not really any time to include the older stuff anymore.

BA: The thing is, when you write a song by yourself, you have the whole song there, whereas when you have four people, there are four opinions every step of the way. It’s slower, but it’s more interesting.

Usually bands start out by booking themselves and touring heavily, but for Suckers it’s been the opposite. You’ve barely toured but you’re already playing huge sold out shows. Is that something that can only happen in a place like Brooklyn?
QW: I hate booking shows.

AF: It’s definitely easier for that to happen in Brooklyn. I mean, we used to book our own shows around New York but we never toured because we never had any money, and nobody knew who we were, so it didn’t make much sense. Definitely, the advantage of living in New York is that everything is concentrated here. If you get a little bit of attention here, it gets magnified really quickly.

QW: Especially since we’re probably competing with more bands here than in any other place in the world. So if you’re getting some attention, you really stand out.

And there’s no traveling costs involved if you’re just playing in New York.
QW: Except, we have to use car services. It’s nice when there’s a friend in town with a truck or a van.

All of the reviews I’ve read of you have been favorable so far. Are you almost disappointed that you don’t have any negative reviews to read yet?
AF: We just watched a negative review. It was Brooklyn Paper’s “Smash or Trash”, and the older gentleman trashed us, and the younger gentleman was a fan.

QW: It was hilarious. I don’t consider them gentlemen.

BA: I want to see that.

That doesn’t sound like a real negative review though. Not like if you were trashed by Pitchfork.
P: Yeah, one guy was just like, “Arghh I don’t like this!” And one guy was just like, “Hey this is great!” And one guy was like, “I don’t have an opinion!”

QW: I got jaded by the whole thing with my solo album. At first you’re like, wow, this is so exciting, people are reviewing my album and talking about stuff. Then after a couple of weeks I decided I don’t need to read that stuff anymore. I was definitely more fond of the negative press because it was funnier. There was this one amazing write-up for my solo album on the Baltimore City Paper that had this whole spiel about how I’m an unconventional motivational speaker through my music, and that that’s what my aim really was. Like Tom Cruise in Magnolia.

Is everyone still working at their day jobs?
P: Those of us that have day jobs are still working.

QW: I’m still a male prostitute. At night.

Austin, what do you do at the Met?
AF: I work in the media department, on this project called the Timeline of Art History. I’ve been working in museums and the arts since I graduated from college. I don’t know how I did it.

And Pan, how did you become a clothing designer?
P: When I moved here, I went to film school. Right after that I needed a job ’cause I was broke. I found a screen-printing place that was hiring. I used to work as a screen-printer in Connecticut. He hired me and I worked there for a year and a half, and through that company I met a ton of street wear brands. I started doing design on my own. I quit my job there and now I’m a designer at Mishka. I design t-shirt graphics, and I cut and sew things like jackets, bags, pants.

So who doesn’t have a job?
BA: That’s me right now. I used to do data entry. It may have been a blessing that I got fired.

What about Quinn?
QW: I bartend at some places, and I do carpentry and painting when I can. Sell things. Prostitute myself. Actually I just got a request online for all of my early CDs, so that’ll make me some money. I just played solo in Montreal and got paid well for it. I live off things like that. Or pay people back with it.

BA: Yeah, that’s right.

P: The two people without a job have to pay each other back every week.

BA: Yeah we lend money to each other.

QW: I make enough to get by usually. The only thing I spend money on is booze, cigarettes and food. And rent. We’re gonna go into the cougar masseuse biz. We’re gonna call ourselves Predators of the Predators.

How did the tradition of face make up come about?
BA: Quinn peer-pressured me into it.

QW: I’ve actually been into make up since I was a baby. I’ve been dressing up since then. My parents thought I was really strange. I’d dress up in costumes and put underwear on my head, put my mom’s lipstick around my eyes. I want to take on a different personality on stage. I get into character. When you’re performing in front of people, you get into character no matter what, whether you’re wearing make up or not. The make up just speeds the process up.

BA: I do it ’cause Andrew from MGMT does it.

QW: I don’t even think Andrew does that. Brian’s just saying that because he idolizes Andrew.

P: We just keep getting MGMT comparisons. Especially with our clothes and our artwork.

AF: That’s why I’m trying to push us into the farmer style.

QW: We’re definitely treated like the little brother of Yeasayer, MGMT, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, that kind of thing. All of the bands I really love.

Arcade Fire comparison seems kind of far-fetched.
P: Yeah, it’s just that people first hear “It Gets Your Body Movin’” and they hear the build-up. And they think, Oh they have a build-up in their song, they must sound like Arcade Fire.

I guess it’s also that none of these bands you’re being compared to have the regular indie-rock sound, so you’re all being lumped together.
QW: Yeah. We all get pigeon-holed with friends too. We get compared to Chairlift just because we’re friends with them. Amazing Baby gets pigeon-holed with MGMT just because they’re friends with them. It’s bound to happen no matter what.

AF: I guess it doesn’t help that we’re playing with MGMT pretty soon. But we are friends with them, so.

A friend of The Tripwire who goes under the production credit of Music Is Magic recently sent us a mix of songs he mashed-up. Included in the mix were a bevy of indie staples we prescribe to, including Gang Gang Dance, M83, Black Dice, Burial and MGMT among others. But the track “Gupdegup” mixes arguably three of our favorite summer jams together to make what we are deeming the perfect track to escape the city to.

By combining Dan Friel’s already catchy as hell “Ghost Town (Part 1)” with a live take of Animal Collective’s “Taste” and using Steel An’ Skin’s “Reggae Is Here Once Again” and “Afro Punk Reggae Dub” for the rhythm, we dare you to listen to this song without feeling happy and bobbin’ your head. Just wait until about 50 seconds in when the melody from the Friel track kicks in and try not to smile. It’s impossible.

Music Is Magic – “Gupdegup” (Dan Friel, Animal Collective, Steel An’ Skin Mix)

Last week, Telepathe finally released their long-awaited, David Sitek-produced LP Dance Mother to the world, and we figured what better way to celebrate than a friendly game of bowling? Shot on the exact date of the physical U.S. release (April 14), we quickly came to realize that the competitive spirit burns brightly in this duo as the game soon became anything but friendly.

Telepathe is a band I have struggled with since their inception. From the origins of Busy Gangnes teaming up with ex-Ex-Model and current-Knyfe Hyt Shahin Motia to the addition of Melissa Livaudais (who played with Busy in the band Wikkid) and formation of Telepathe as we know it, they have seemed to live on the precipice that exists between Brooklyn’s diy scene and the star-studded Brooklyn that has produced, among others, Animal Collective and TV On The Radio. This is the basis for my struggles, because this ‘edge of everything’ that they have inhabited has been widely reflected in their music.

It’s as much a testament to their musical-inclinations and creativity as it is to the influence others have had on their records. It would make sense that their two Social Registry records — the Farewell Forest EP and the “Sinister Militia” 12″ — would pay homage to the Brooklyn and New York avant-garde, while the David Sitek produced Dance Mother, patterns all of the sounds together using heavy bass and synth as the glue. While Sitek’s production hand, and the fact that the album was long overdue for release (it’s been out in the UK and digitally everywhere since January), has played a large part in this transformation, the stark contrast in their recorded sounds are ultimately, a product of Busy and Melissa’s tastes.

So with these intellectual thoughts circulating in my head, I was ready to ask Telepathe serious questions about all of these notions I had about why there have been drastic sonic changes to their recorded material and where they are now as a band. And then we did shots to celebrate the record release. And then we started bowling. And I realized that despite all of these notions I had, there was nothing to suggest this duo was anything but genuine. From their contrasting personalities (Busy being the quiet soft spoken straight-woman to Melissa’s color commentary), to the people they befriended on the alley next to us (being the only people interviewed can be quite awkward in such a public place) down to their suspect bowling skills, it was one of the most enjoyable interview moments I’ve had. They seriously battled it out until the 10th frame of the game, I still got to ask a few difficult questions and in the end, we were all a little bit sad that I won’t be able to be one of the touring Telepathe dancers.

At last, the Lollapalooza rumors are put to rest — Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Beastie Boys, Kings of Leon and (of course) Jane’s Addiction will be headlining this year’s festival, along with an impressive cast of supporting bands, Lollapalooza organizers confirmed today.

More than 100 bands/artists/DJs will take the Lolla stage this year, including TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Fleet Foxes, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, Los Campesinos! and Passion Pit. This year’s event will also introduce “Perry’s”, a nightclub style stage featuring dance and electronic music. The DJs set to spin include MSTRKRFT, Bassnectar, DeadMau5, Animal Collective and Bloody Beetroots.

After selling out last year for the first time since Lollapalooza took roots in Chicago, ticket sales don’t seem to be lagging. Early bird discount passes went on sale at the end of March for $195. Regular priced tickets are $205, and of course if you’re not like the rest of us, worrying about saving $10 on a $200 concert ticket, you can always check out the VIP options at Lollapalooza.com.

Lollapalooza 2009
Depeche Mode
Tool
The Killers
Jane’s Addiction
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Lou Reed
Ben Harper and Relentless 7
Thievery Corporation
Snoop Dogg
Rise Against
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
Vampire Weekend
The Decemberists
Neko Case
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Animal Collective
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Coheed and Cambria
Ben Folds
Fleet Foxes
Silversun Pickups
Kaiser Chiefs
Crystal Castles
Bon Iver
Santigold
Atmosphere
Dan Auberbach
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
Lykke Li
Robert Earl Keen
Peter Bjorn and John
Heartless Bastards
Gomez
Glasvegas
Federico Aubele
Dan Deacon
Passion Pit
The Raveonettes
The Gaslight Anthem
The Airborne Toxic Event
White Lies
Ra Ra Riot
No Age
Asher Roth
Los Campesinos!
Bat For Lashes
Chairlift
Gang Gang Dance
The Virgins
Amazing Baby
Portugal. The Man
The Knux
Ida Maria
Delta Spirit
Friendly Fires
Manchester Orchestra
Constantines
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
Hockey
Miike Snow
Alberta Cross
Hey Champ
Sam Roberts Band
The Henry Clay People
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam
Cage the Elephant
Living Things
The Low Anthem
Blind Pilot
Langhorne Slim
Other Lives
The Builders and The Butchers
Eric Church
Joe Pug
Kevin Devine
The Green Cards
Carney
Thenewno2

Featured performers at Perry’s
Bassnectar
MSTRKRFT
Simian Mobile Disco
DeadMau5
Boys Noise
KiD CuDi
Crookers
A-Trak
Hercules and Love Affair (DJ Set)
The Bloody Beetroots (DJ Set)
LA Riots
Kaskade
The Glitch Mob
Hollywood Holt
Rye Rye
He Say, She Say
Car Stereo (Wars)
Dark Wave Disco
Moneypenny
Yello Fever
Animal Collective (DJ Set)

Rusty Santos mixed Panda Bear’s Person Pitch (among releases by Animal Collective, Born Ruffians, White Magic and others) and is a long-time friend of the Animal Collective crew. I’ve seen him before opening for Panda Bear at Bowery Ballroom, which was an awesome, surprising freak-out set. This time, he sported a very Panda Bear-like setup of twin Roland SP-404s (even though Panda has since upgraded to 555s). However, he manipulated a vastly different palette of sounds and to very different effect.

One year strong, the band still seems to be exploring different sounds, and Santos Party House’s downstairs area was a perfectly intimate setting to witness the fruits of their experimentations so far. As a long-time follower of Rusty, it’s hard to tell where this project is going to go… the three-piece is mixing together some seriously disparate musical elements (check the differences between the songs on their MySpace) and I’m curious to see where their experimentations (and instincts) take them.

[Taka Imamura and Gang Gang Dance's Brian DeGraw (in hat) DJed]

Crystal Castles and Vega have found themselves in a battle of the bands, and no, they’re not playing some cheesy winner-takes-all show anytime soon. Instead, the bands have been bickering back and forth since last night, when Vega was kicked off the Crystal Castles’ bill, before the Castles eventually canceled the show altogether last minute, disappointing the thousands of fans that were there to see Alice Glass in all her glory.

Crystal Castles were supposed to play to a sold-out crowd at the Dallas, TX venue the Granada Theatre with Vega last night, but instead left  fans waiting for over two hours for the show to start, only to be  told at 10 p.m. that it was canceled, according to GorillaVsBear. Vega has retaliated against Crystal Castles, and has blamed them for canceling the show  and kicking the band off the bill because of “petty bullshit.” Crystal Castles representatives have retaliated against Alan Palomo of Vega’s comments, saying the band were kicked off the  bill for legitimate reasons after the band had stole an FX-pedal from Crystal Castles. Of course, Palomo denies the statements from the representative, saying it was “fucking bullshit.”

Vega has also blamed Crystal Castles for being Prima Donnas at the Granada Theatre while they were trying to sound check for the show. The band was allegedly unhappy with  the sound of the venue, and wanted to cancel the show instead of  possibly not having enough kick drum. According to the CCs crew, the venue was ill-equipped for the sound Crystal Castles was producing, and they were worried they would have blown the speaker system if they had performed at their normal  standards. The band’s reps have also said the blame should not be put on the band for not playing, but instead on whomever booked the band for the venue.

We’re not sure exactly how much sound is amped out of Crystal Castles’ set, but Ratatat and Animal Collective have both played on the same speakers and  have managed well, so the unparalleled stories between Vega  and Crystal Castles is leaving a sour taste of caddy behaviors pouring all over the internet. The Granada Theatre is refunding the ticket costs to each person who missed out on a what could have been, sweet show.

UPDATE

The folks at the Dallas Observer send us this tip. Granada Theatre owner Mike Schoder has put the blame squarely on the Crystal Castles for the canceled show last night, and defended Vega against the haughty band. Read the e-mail statement released by Mike Schoder below, and head here to read about all of the events as they unfolded.

E-mail from Granada Theatre owner Mike Schoder
Let me start with a definition: 
Pre-madonna: Pre-madonnas cannot help the way they are because their parents spoiled them and they are still developing their personalities. All a pre-madonna has to do is whine and their parents give them what they want.

Here’s how our day went at the Granada on Tue:
Vega (Alan from Ghosthustler) opened for CC in Austin Monday night. At 5pm (3 hrs before doors) we received a call from CC that Vega could not be on the bill.

Vega had been approved by CC in advance for the bill. Early on Tue CC hired a light tech from Austin that is also a DJ  to replace Vega.

CC could have communicated with Vega early in the day before they left Austin.

Vega was at the Granada waiting to soundcheck.

CC would not enter the building until Vega was gone from the premise.

Alan was super cool. No pre-madonna.

We’ve never seen this request. The other co-promoter out of Austin has never seen this kind of request.

CC whining…

CC soundchecked at 6pm instead of at 4pm.

CC didn’t “like the sound of their kickdrum”.

CC insists that “more woofers be brought in”.

Rental places close at 6pm.

It is now 7pm.

Granada has 16 – 18″ sub-woofers and 12 – 15″ sub-woofers. Also 32 – 8″ midranges. Lots of firepower.

Sound check was great.

CC says they would rather cancel the show than possibly not have enough kick drum.

Granada begs that the show goes on.

Granada even offers to dismantle sub woofer stacks and place them in different places in the room.

Granada was willing to do anything to have the show go on.

CC waits until after 10pm to give final cancellation.

The show must go on. Life is all perception. One person sees the day as beautiful, another sees the day as crap.

Why would any band crap on their fans like this?

Insecurity is a cancer. Love yourself. Love your sound guy and the system at the club you are playing.

Play the show. Then listen to your fans. If you don’t like the sound at a club never go back to the club.

We’ve had every big band imaginable in every genre imaginable and had amazing shows.

Nobody has complained about our sound. This is totally out of left field. 

The sound at Granada is amazing…and would have been if CC would have just got on stage and played.

Today, Granada is refunding ticket cost and entire service charge to each patron. No one cares for live music more than we do. We’ve put together an amazing room, staff and sound system.

We’ll see you soon fellow music fans.
Mike Schoder and all the Staff at Granada.

Rolling Stone. Spin. The Guardian. MTV. Alongside Pitchfork’s reader’s polls and several other smaller sites, the aforementioned were just a few publications to award TV On the Radio’s fourth studio release Dear Science the title of Best Album of 2008. Hailed as the musical coming of the Obama Era (not a self-ascribed label), Dear Science was (and is) an aggressive coming-of-age album that poignantly captured cultural life last year. “The age of miracles!” Kyp Malone proclaimed on “Golden Age”, and we had our soundtrack to American life. On Inauguration Day, Obama may have been ushered in to office to the tune of Air & Simple Gifts, but “Golden Age” was playing in our heads. Indeed, it’s no exaggeration to say that no band captured the cultural zeitgeist better than TV On the Radio.

Last week, we spoke to TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe. Incredibly humble and incredibly endearing, Tunde reiterated his incredulity at his band’s current stature, their impending tour, his impending movie role, fan videos and health food stores.

TV on the Radio embark on a large world tour tonight in Pomona.

Where are you guys right now?
Most of us are in Brooklyn, Dave is in Los Angeles, but we’re all going to meet up with him on Monday (April 12), and we’re doing two shows in California … with Coachella.

Do you get to relax before the tour starts?
Yeah kind of, we did Big Day Out in Australia in January. So from the second week of January until next week, that’s when we’ve had a break. Everyone’s been reassembling their lives after being away for so long, calling friends and seeing if they’re still friends …

Are they?
For the most part, yeah. Some things you can’t patch up. (Laughs.)

How has the process of touring changed for you guys? Is the tour bus bigger?
Well, the tour bus exists. (Laughs.) Since then, it hasn’t shifted in size much. We’d usually go in two vans and most of the band would ride in one van, and certain members would ride in the other because we had a smoking van and a non-smoking van.

Which van were you a part of?
I had been in the smoking van for a while, but decided I valued my voice a little more so switched to the non-smoking van.

Do you ever miss the more simplistic touring days?
The only thing that gets to me with touring is when it stops making sense. You wake up in the morning and think “what am I running away from” instead of “what am I going to do tonight”? I wouldn’t say I miss any of that stuff, we were different people then and a lot of what we did then I don’t think we would have the tolerance for now, both physically and psychologically.

What do you do in the filler hours while touring?
Super nerdy stuff. The first thing I try to do is find a health food store. It’s the easiest thing, while on tour, to eat anything. At first, you’re like “so what”? But then you realize, if you’re eating shitty food all day then sitting for six hours, and have to get up and do something — it takes its toll after a while. Every fourth grade teacher you had talking to you about nutrition appears in your dreams.

Then, I’ll try to find a bookstore. In this order: a book store, a comic book store, a record store. In the process of doing it, just try to walk around and get a sense of the place we’re going to be playing in.

So there were no health food stores in the earlier days?
Absolutely not. In the earlier days, you might find a coffee shop or a bookstore, and then a liquor store and whatever neon-sign is telling you can get the most burgers into you for cheap.

How do you deal with inter-band tensions on tour?
First thing you learn is to take your own space, because no one knows what’s going on in your head. If you’re getting annoyed, it’s just your problem. You learn from that, especially being on tour with a band, it’s necessary (to learn). With a band, not only are you working with your friends, but you wake up next to your coworkers, get on the same mode of transportation to go to work, spending all your free time, and when you’re done with your “job”, you commute home with them, but home is actually the thing you’re commuting in. There’s no escape … we’re basically family, so any spikes that arise are smoothed over pretty quickly. It’s to the point now where someone will be the way they are, and well “that’s just the way they are and that has nothing to do with me.”

That comes with maturing and age, though.
Definitely. Slapping happened five years ago (laughs) … it was the kind of thing that if it happened now it would be the end of the band cause there’s no reason for it, but back then you’re age 26 and still huffing the fumes of your teenage years out of there.

When did you find out Dear Science was award Best Album of 2008 by Rolling Stone, Spin, etc.?
The last tour we had in Europe was one of the worst times we’ve ever had. Three years ago, someone started the “God Hates TV on the Radio” theory and it was in full effect in Europe. Everything with wheels broke down. We were getting sick. It was bound to happen on tour, but during one of the worst times, we got a call saying “are you sitting down”, and we were told “Rolling Stone picked you as the number one album of the year.” We all looked at each other, and the feeling was “I don’t know if that’s a joke or not.” If it’s a joke, it’s the worst possible joke. And if it’s not a joke, it still might be the worst possible joke.

It’s great that we can make stuff that sounds like it does and gets noticed. When I first heard we got on a Billboard Chart (at no. 12), and I went to see who we were between, and Lil Wayne was no. 11 and Darius Rucker was no. 13. I just kind of stared at that for the longest time and said I really don’t know what’s going on anymore … It’s always weird to me seeing a list of anything. It’s flattering. But it’s nothing I ever paid attention to when I went out looking for music. Whenever I did pay attention to it, I was usually pretty disappointed by what someone told me the number one record is. For me, anything on the top 10, I just didn’t want to go near it.

Most “indie” fans wouldn’t even know what’s on Billboard these days.
I feel like I’ve looked at Billboard twice in my life. Once in 1989 when the Batman soundtrack was on it, and the other time cause someone told me we were on it. (Laughs.)

How did a song like “Golden Age” come about?
You’d have to ask Kyp for the best answer, because he wrote (the song) … and we don’t talk to each other about lyrics. He said he wanted to write a utopian pop song, which I thought “that’s a good idea, that’s better than ‘I’m so bummed out’”.

TV on the Radio – “Golden Age”

How did the election of Obama affect that song?
While we were writing the record, it was impossible to pull yourself away from the election. It was everywhere. Knowing us and knowing Kyp, the feeling of that song encompasses things like people dropping preconceived notions to give the best person for the job the job that needs to be done … but it’s also wider than that. In all corners of humanity, it’s a wish to get better and to crack open a couple roads … brushing away a lot of feelings that have built up over the past decade and being able to see a horizon or light.

How about the inspiration for “Family Tree”?
Sonically, it was totally different (than the rest of the album) in that it was voice and spare instruments. I wrote the melody a while ago and hadn’t done anything with it. I was going through my old stuff, and thought, “I could do something with it now.” The sentiment is vaguely about something that happened to me. It’s a culmination of friends telling me things that happened to them regarding falling in love with somebody but that going wrong because their parents didn’t approve of the race, or gender of this person.

Is that sentiment analogized through history?
Yeah, that’s what it got me thinking of. There’s a line, “They don’t know that we could be/Down where your cradle escaped the sea/and your raven haired Mama caught told you so’s.” It’ the (story) of this person’s mother who rescued them from drowning. There’s an old Nigerian story about a woman… and when her twins were born, they would be drowned because in this part of the country, twins were seen as a horrible thing, an aberration of nature … and she decided to go against this tradition and start saving these twins.

For whatever reason, you get thrown around by other people’s opinions of what you should or can be doing. By the time someone was in their youth, someone is … whatever someone older than me is telling me is wrong, by the time you get to be their age, you might have been knocked around so much that it’s easier for you to be like them.

Have you seen the fan-made video of “Family Tree” on YouTube?
Someone told me about it. Honestly, I did see part of it, but I was on tour and it’s hard for us to have internet. I’ve heard lots of good things about it. Kyp’s daughter said she really liked the “Family Tree” video and Kyp was like, “there’s no “Family Tree” video?”

I really like a lot of (fan-made videos). Someone made a video for “I Was A Lover”, they took old wedding footage and cut it to that, and it really worked in a way that none of us thought.

TV on the Radio – “Family Tree” (Fan Video)

Did you enjoy filming Rachel Getting Married?
It was the great. The entire process was awesome. The part that I had to play was one of the lighter parts of the film. Definitely, I’d take any hat I have off to everyone involved in that production, especially Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt … they had to be in that for a couple months, in a tense family environment and that I can see being exhausting. Filming is a lot of waiting around …

Jonathan Demme is one of the most generous and inspiring people I’ve ever met in my life.

What’s your favorite album of 2009 thus far?
Merriweather Post Pavillion.

Okay, well my next question, anyway, was how good is Merriweather?
So good! Still so good! I’m consistently going on for years now getting so psyched when I hear the words “Animal Collective”.

If you could meet anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
Thelonious Monk would be pretty cool.

Which TV on the Radio song would you play him?
Hmmm. I don’t know.

Want me to pick?
Yeah.

“Province”.
That works.

Celebrate Brooklyn’s Green Gala is a bit too costly for the chump change in our pockets, but really, who needs cocktails and a fancy dinner when David Byrne is playing for free? (Well, there’s a $3 suggested donation, but we are willing to throw down some spare pocket change in exchange for some amazing music in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.) Byrne will be kicking off the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival after the gala event, on Monday, June 8.

Byrne will be the first to perform for the summer series at the Prospect Park Bandshell. MGMT, Animal Collective and Jackson Browne will also be playing at the Park this summer, and the line up for the rest of the shows for the summer arts festival will be announced in a few weeks. Unfortunately, MGMT and Animal Collective are not performing for free like Byrne, and tickets of the MGMT performance have already sold out.

Celebrate Brooklyn was started in 1979 in hopes of revitalizing Prospect Park, and has been dubbed one of the longest-running free outdoor festivals in New York City. If for some reason you can’t make it to Byrne’s freebie performance in the park, you can try to catch him on the rest of his tour dates, but we’re hoping for this special event we’ll see Byrne decked out in a new fancy tutu.

The funny thing about Hopewell is that they have been sorely overlooked by those who like the psychedelic, dreamy pop being made by bands like Animal Collective, Dungen or to a lesser degree, Dirty Projectors, mainly because they brewed their cred in upstate New York versus Manhattan or Brooklyn. But that might change with the release of Good Good Desperation in May.

Hopewell was founded by Jason Russo, of Hopewell Junction who, at 19, joined Mercury Rev for a world tour before setting out on his own with a band named after his hometown. As their press release states, they do claim to be “purveyors of the new psych-rock scene,” boasting a resume that has seen them open for My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour, work in the past with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), record a Peel Session live at Abbey Road Studio, and playing Reading and Leeds Festivals.

With Good Good Desperation — out May 5 on Tee Pee Records — Hopewell’s journey continues down their own noisy path. In between tours and throughout 2008 they set out to make a record that more captured their live sound. It was during this time that Jonathan Donahue invited the band to play a 30-minute segment of music on his WDST Woodstock radio program in upstate New York. For this show the group composed a structured improvisational piece, a composition loosely dubbed “The Opus”, which would become the progenitor for many of the songs on the album to come. Immersed in heavy doses of bands like This Heat, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and early tribal Jane’s Addiction, Hopewell booked time in Brooklyn studios Seizures Palace and Seaside Lounge (Akron/Family, Psychic Ills). The result of which is Good Good Desperation.

Hopewell will also be releasing the 7-inch single version of the single “Good Good Good Desperation” (yes, there is an extra “good”) today on Tee Pee Records, and will be celebrating with a record release show this Friday at Glasslands in Brooklyn and further down in TX at SxSW.

Good Good Desperation track list
Side A
01. Preamble (pt II)
02. Island
03. Good Good Good Desperation
04. Worried Mind
05. Realms of Gold
Side B
01. 10,000 Black Masses (pt I)
02. Stranger
03. Seen the Light
04. Over the Mountain
05. Bury Me Standing

Hopewell tour dates
03.13.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Glasslands)
03.18.09 – SXSW Tee Pee Records Day Party (Skoot Inn)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Spiderhouse)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Guero’s)
03.21.09 – SXSW Live Music Capitol Day Party
03.21.09 – SXSW Showcase (Beauty Bar)

A slew of awesome artists are lending their talents to charity, making a compilation album called Causes 2, to try and help benefit charity organizations aiding in the effort to stop the mass genocide occurring in Darfur. Among the artists participating in the project are, My Morning Jacket, LCD Soundsystem, RJD2, and Gnarls Barkley.

The loaded album is due out on May 5 on Waxploitation, and 100% of the proceeds will go towards three different humanitarian organizations — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam America — that are volunteering their efforts to help end the mass killings in the Sudan region.

Causes 1 was the start of these compilation albums aimed at projecting the word about Darfur, while giving it’s proceeds to the aforementioned organizations. Causes 1 also enlisted a great mixture of artists for its tracks, including The Shins, Bright Eyes, Animal Collective and Spoon, so even if you don’t know much about what’s going on, buying the album is an attempt at throwing some sort of support to those who need it.

You can view a video for Causes 2 here, and you can pre-order the album worldwide here.

In the wake of the ever increasing pool of festivals and the possible merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the idea of paying $200 to see live music during a recession resulted in our pockets slapping us back into reality. But to be fair, the Sasquatch Festival — presented by Live Nation and tickets sold by Ticketmaster — is one of the cheaper weekend-long festivals and the line-up could quite possibly be the best yet.

Of course, this has left us all wondering at what point does the festival circuit become too congested, leaving them all a bit redundant and watered down? Those who remember the 90s will remember that Lollapalooza took time off for this very reason. But we digress, the Sasquatch Festival will take place May 23-25 at The Gorge in Quincy, WA and features the just-announced-today-union of Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction as the festival headliners. But the rest of the line-up is what excites us and looks like this:

Kings of Leon, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Erykah Badu, The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Animal Collective, Silversun Pickups, Bon Iver, Santigold, Of Montreal, Explosions In The Sky, Devotchka, Peter Bjorn & John, Gogol Bordello, M. Ward, The Avett Brothers, Doves, Calexico, Grizzly Bear, M83, Girl Talk, The Gaslight Anthem, The Walkmen, Chromeo (dj set), Deadmau5, Mugison, Sun Kil Moon, Airborne Toxic Event, Blitzen Trapper, Shearwater, BLK JKS, The Wrens, Tobacco, Monotonix, King Khan & The Shrines, St. Vincent, Passion Pit, John Vanderslice, Bishop Allen, Blind Pilot, AA Bondy, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Knux, Ra Ra Riot, The Dodos, Beach House, Arthur & Yu, The Submarines, Owl City, Viva Voce, James Pants, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Builders & The Butchers, The Dutchess & The Duke, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele, Fences, School of Seven Bells, Death Vessel, Horse Feathers, Hockey, Point Juncture, WA, The Pica Beats, Loch Lomond, Vince Mira & more to come.

And the comedy line up includes:
Zach Galifiankas, Demetri Martin, Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, Todd Barry, Jon Benjamin, God’s Pottery, People’s Republic of Komedy & more.

Ok, got that? Now, as for tickets, beginning on February 28 (on sale weekend only), a discounted 3-day festival pass will be available until March 1 at midnight at $154.50 for the entire weekend with single tickets costing $56.50. Beginning March 2 a 3-day pass will run you $199.50 and a single ticket $66.50 and if you wait until the last minute (and tickets are still available), starting May 11 the weekend pass is $229.50 and single tickets will be $76.50.

Oh, and Ticketmaster will have all your ticketing needs. Go figure.

A friend IM’d us the other day asking for our bets on what the new Animal Collective CD would SoundScan. The hype surrounding the release of Merriweather Post Pavilion was palpable — so much in fact, that some wondered if the vinyl release could actually break the Billboard top 200. And Bon Iver had us all swooning the return of heartfelt folk to the list of critical-to-near-mainstream success stories. Yet little hype or hoopla was made about Noble Beast, the newest effort from Andrew Bird, mainly because it shared the same release date as the aforementioned records. But when the increasingly unimportant Nielson SoundScans arrived on our computers this morning, it wasn’t our Merriweather predictions that had us surprised, it was who actually sold more.

First of all, let us continue by saying congratulations to all three of these artists, as having independent musicians from independent labels in the top 15 of the Billboard top 200 is pretty amazing. Especially when you consider that most of the general buying public prefers mainstream establishments like Taylor, Beyonce, Nickelback, Kanye and Twilight (rounding out the top 5 respectively). Not to mention Bon Iver’s Blood Bank was only an EP and if you count Animal Collective’s vinyl sales, it would’ve charted even higher, but we felt like framing this news piece as a glowing review and recommendation for one Andrew Bird. A career over a decade in the making, with stops at Rykodisc and Righteous Babe before his current home on Fat Possum, there are few who would be more deserving to be the current king of indie than he.

Can’t get enough of Animal Collective you say? Can’t get enough of remixes and mash-ups you say? Well then, are you in luck, ’cause the UK blog Allez-Allez has posted a mix by ex-guitarist (well, he sat out the sessions for Merriweather) Josh “Deakin” Dibb that should keep you satisfied until the next single is released.

According to Allez-Allez, the Dibb mix — whose nickname apparently translates as the “Deacon” in the UK — features “30 minutes of gentle, psychedelic wonder, from Arthur Russell, Aphrodite’s Child and their own Panda Bear to name a few — perfect for staring out of the window on a rainy day.” Unfortunately they do not list a tracklisting, but Pitchfork notes they can hear some J. Dilla, Syd Barrett and Spiritualized.

Animal Collective – Josh “Deakin” Dibb Mix

Today we have unveiled our review of the highly anticipated, much internet-sheriffed about new Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion. And like many of our contemporaries, we find it to be quite an enjoyable listen. But exactly one week into 2009 and it’s already being proclaimed the best record of the year, with some giving it higher praise than any release in all of 2008. And so I am left to wonder; am I the only one who isn’t even sure it’s the best record I’ve gotten in the last week, let alone all of this year and last?

To be certain, it is a beautiful record; one that I assigned to one of our more critical writers in the hopes that he would find something that didn’t sit well with him, only to be greeted with his overstated joy. And upon reading Flavorwire’s interview with Pitchfork editor Mark Richardson, I have a better understanding of why they chose to rate it so high. Yet earlier this week, when we simply stated that all the publications are elbowing their way to be the first to bow down to it, it elicited a comment of “don’t pretend like you’re not ready to bow down to this record as well. It’s fucking incredible and you know it.” Fair enough, but in an odd twist of irony, the commenter went on to add, “and please don’t turn into the next holier than thou Pitchfork snob website.”

That added jab became the incentive for this editorial, because it led me to hypothetically ask Chris (the name under which the comment was left), “if we — as music ‘journalists’ — are not to be critical of the music laid out before us, then who is?” I know the reason I started reading Pitchfork was not because they were critical and at times, demeaning, but because they had a definitive voice. One that you trusted, and would hope to give you insight that other, less confrontational sources like The Chicago Tribune, Paste Magazine, Spin were afraid to bring up. So does this speak more to Pitchfork watering down their content to fill a wider audience range, or — and the stance I take — that we as listeners and the music industry as a whole are looking so desperately for some reason, any reason, to believe that this year can be filled with a summery disposition like the one displayed on Merriweather Post Pavailion. That no matter what is to come in ‘09, it has to be better than last year?

It’s as though Animal Collective is the musical equivalent of Barack Obama. They don’t have to do anything extraordinary in order to save us from our daily doldrums. They just need to be. Sure, in the end Merriweather meets — or excedes — our expectations, but it doesn’t matter what it sounds like. It didn’t matter for the past three months when everyone was trying to get their hands on it, and the band and their label were successful (for the most part) at keeping it away from the masses, building the expectations even more. Maybe that’s what the anticipation was built upon. Maybe it’s not the band that we cared about or that we all were interested to hear what the album sounded like, but we wanted to be the first to say we’ve heard the record. To exclaim its amazingness before anyone else. I mean, The Tripwire is already really late in posting our review a mere three days after it’s vinyl release (note: not CD or digital yet).

Like Richardson explained in the Flavorwire interview, much of the excitement and anticipation comes from not knowing what Animal Collective will do next. The fact you cannot predict what sound they will embody from record to record is one of their biggest assets. As he goes on to say that while a lot of people will want to compare them to Radiohead because of the experimentation and departure from “conventional” pop-music, that “one thing with Radiohead, is that every album had at least a few tunes that could fairly be described as ‘rock songs.’ You could tell what all the instruments were, there are guitars, etc., but that’s not really true with [Merriweather Post Pavilion].”

The Radiohead comparisons are both justified and lofty praise for a band that used to wear masks. But in the end it doesn’t matter what Pitchfork, myself, yourself, or anyone thinks, because music is only as deep as the moment we are listening to it. Once it’s off and the criticism begins, it loses any value. So to answer Chris, I can only say that I will continue be that “holier than thou” opinionated asshole, because someone has to try and weed through the herd mentality. Even if the herd is right.

And in case Chris or anyone else is wondering, I think that Merriweather Post Pavilion is a wonderfully produced record. Possibly one of the best produced records of the last decade. And it’s the lush and sonic beauty of the production which makes it a better-than-good record. Still, the songwriting — in my humble opinion — is only average, with many of the songs sounding very similar, even repetitive and blending into one another at times. Maybe this is intentional, maybe it’s not, but as a whole it is not nearly as poppy as Strawberry Jam or innovative as Sung Tongs (still my favorite Animal Collective album to date). I will listen to it often and thoroughly many more times, but if I were to make any comparisons, it would be to another band’s monumental opus.

Merriweather Post Pavilion will inevitably be Animal Collective’s Pet Sounds. You will either think it’s the best thing they’ve ever done, or a record that will remain critically acclaimed and on your shelf while you reach for Strawberry Jam. Either way, it will forever be remembered. As for a number? I’ll give it a 7.5.

Merriweather Post Pavillion is such a colossal success that I find myself simultaneously overwhelmed and at a loss for words. I can’t separate the visceral from the critical: This album is awesome, incredible, awe-inspiring, phenomenal, breathtaking. I’m trying to articulate the integral beauty of “My Girls”, yet all that comes to mind are synonyms for unprecedented and astonishing. The process of “reviewing” each song feels wrong, diametrically opposed to the positive spirit that the album espouses. When a release is this good, why bother deconstructing each harmony or intention? How can I possibly describe Animal Collective’s perfected aesthetic?

Derek (Editor of The Tripwire) insists on being critical and balanced, but I somehow can’t — I listen to this album incessantly as I lay at home nursing my two-week old bronchitis, yet still feel an irrepressible surge of jubilation. Merriweather is a contagious celebration of daily life and the mundane — it is impossible not to feel apart of the optimism.

Beginning with “In the Flowers”, Dave Portner’s (aka Avey Tare) airy wondering and light guitar-plucking overlay hand-claps and a relentless air of anticipation until it hits at 2:30: “If I could just leave my body for a while.” We have now been launched into a musical stratosphere of exhilaration and vigor and confusion. We will not leave this area for roughly the next 55 minutes. In comes the shiny-pop “My Girls”, where Person Pitch and the token AC sound meet, which will tempt the remix urges of DJs and producers alike. Deep bass commences “Also Frightened”, where the vocals of Avey Tare and Noax Lennox (aka Panda Bear) weave into another until they finally ask: “Are you also frightened?” So in the opening three tracks, we hear psychedelia, 80s-style pop, Afro-beats, dub and folk. A musical kaleidoscope, indeed.

The idea of “accessibility” lies at the crux of the AC debate and Merriweather will be the album that transcends this criteria. The raspy yelps of Avey Tare are nearly forgotten and idle ambient tracks that characterized older AC are eschewed. Though far from “conventional”, this album sees the band appropriating their signature sound while including new ideas and nuances. Look no further than “No More Runnin’”, the bedroom soul ballad (yes, an AC ballad) promoting the stunning vocalization of its lead singers. Or the sing-a-long summer anthem “Brothersport”, fusing Brian Wilson’s tropics with AC neurosis.

The lyricism on the album conveys an older band, yet one no less excitable. Themes of partnership and family preside over these tracks accompanied by an acute sense of self-awareness: “There isn’t much that I feel I need/ A solid soul and the blood I bleed.” They’re not trying for the abstract or the oblique, they’re singing of what they know. On “Summertime Clothes”, the line “I want to walk around with you” sounds so sincere and familiar that it verges on the profound. On “No More Runnin’”, the promise is full-fledged relational commitment, and the harmonies of the chorus are perhaps the album’s most humbling and awing moment. “I really want to show my girl that I need her,” sings Lennox, the lyric serving as a microcosm for the entire album.

Animal Collective never had anything to prove. A group of avant-garde musicians from Baltimore playing “freak-folk” or “psych-folk” (or whatever you want to call it) never seem destined for international greatness. The music was too esoteric, too abrasive, and too inaccessible for the mainstream, let alone an expansive fan base. Sure, critical acclaim within a particular niche was achieved through a variety of different sounds and albums. Merriweather transgresses all of these sounds and arrives at a sort of middle ground. A little less anxious, a little more plain-spoken, this release will reach a wider audience than any other. Ultimately, for all Animal Collective fans, Merriweather Post Pavilion is a gracious and generous offering, a culmination of a fantastic career that will deservingly send this band into greater acclaim.

Domino Records

As we reported yesterday, vinyl sales are on an unprecedented upward rise in sales. This has led some to wonder if the hype over Animal Collective’s newest record — only released on LP to date — will land it on the Billboard charts.

It would be a monumental achievement in any format given the band’s oddly enticing brand of music, but considering the album, which won’t get released on CD until January 20, came out in a deluxe double-LP 180-gram gatefold vinyl format accompanied by a full album download this past Tuesday [January 6], it would be a near miracle. Or at least that was the thought only a few short years ago. In either case, we’ll have to wait and see, but for all of us audiophiles who have been proclaiming wax as the best format available, we told you so.

From MTV.com: In an age when downloads are routinely trouncing physical sales, the prospect of one of those old-school albums crashing the party is as quaint as, well, having a bandleader named Panda Bear (as Animal Collective does). Based on the low-hanging-fruit figures on the most recent Nielsen SoundScan tally — which represents the typical early-January dead zone in sales — Merriweather could chart in the mid-160s thanks to the immediate sellout of all 4,500 copies of the initial run.

But because so many of those albums were sold in independent stores that don’t report to SoundScan, it’s impossible to know until Wednesday if the official figures will put the band on the charts. At press time, an unofficial tally on SoundScan put sales at less than 200 copies. To put this feat in perspective, though, Domino Recording Company spokesperson Peter Berard said that Merriweather sold almost as many vinyl copies in one day (including preorders) as the band’s September 2007 album, Strawberry Jam, has sold to date on vinyl.

Because unlike everyone else, we’re still not certain if Merriweather Post Pavilion is the best Animal Collective album, we’ve decided to bring back their beautiful video for the single “Peacebone” from Strawberry Jam. After all, it is an unspoken music-website rule to make at least one Animal Collective post a day.

Animal Collective – “Peacebone”

2009 has started with bang, as critics have already proclaimed Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion the best record of the year. Mind you the year is 5 days old and the record has only been released on vinyl (as of today), but now you can listen to the heavily-hyped, closely-watched-for-leaks album in its entirety. And legally.

It’s only been officially out for a few hours, but already The Chicago Tribune, Paste Magazine, Spin and Pitchfork are elbowing each other out of the way to bow down in front of it. Why don’t you be the judge?

With a current listener rating of a rather paltry 5 out of a possible 10, NME is hosting the entire album on its website. The only catch is you need Windows Media Player installed (c’mon NME — don’t you run on Mac’s?), so we sent this to our intern who works on a PC to indeed verify they are the entire songs and the entire album. To listen, just click here.