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

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore described All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals recently as “the ultimate mixtape.” He’s better with words than we are. No, not really. Warp Films has announced today that on September 23rd, they’ll be releasing All Tomorrow’s Parties, a “DIY concert film” that features live ATP footage culled from the festival’s young history, one that includes performances by Daniel Johnston, Battles, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Portishead, Belle And Sebastian, Animal Collective, Iggy and the Stooges, Mogwai, Grinderman, Slint, Grizzly Bear, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip and The Boredoms. Directed by includes contributions from Jonathan Caouette, the film also features contributions from cinematographer Vincent Moon of Take Away Shows webfame.

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..
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In his opening column, Michael Cranston — the IM Solipsist — voices meta-concerns of how to be interesting in a market already grossly oversaturated in blogs and opinions to Tripwire Editor Derek Evers.

Are You Reading This?

I don’t know if I would be.
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