new: Ducktails Killing the Vibe 12" w/ Panda Bear

Duck

Ducktails is taking to Kickstarter to make put "Killin the Vibe" with Panda Bear on wax. In addition the 12" features two new tracks from the duck, as well as another rendition of "Killin the Vibe" featuring Spectrals, whom Matt has befriended along his travels. They even recently served as his backing band in the UK.

Pledge to Ducktails Killin the Vibe 12" here.
Ducktails - Killin' The Vibe (Feat. Panda Bear) by weallwantsome1

polaroid: All Tomorrow's Parties New York 2009

"what costume shall the poor girl wear"
Panda Bear.

Caribou Vibration Ensemble playing ping-pong.


Ed Rodriguez of Deerhoof outside P4K room.

The Low Lows.

Deerhunter setting up.


Leopard Darth Vader dude.

The Sammy Davis Jr. Wing at the Raleigh.

Playground.

Post- Animal Collective hotel lobby dance party.

Kutsher's check-in.

Saturday sunset.

WFMU guys playing tonal piano.

live: Animal Collective @ Terminal 5

"A Guy On The River Really Can't Make You Change"
(photo by rezflicks)
Like clockwork, Animal Collective continues to absolutely crush. That might seem a little dry and 'bro-y", but it's true. The show started with "Chocolate Girl," a choice opener to get the ball rolling, before getting down to business. They got "My Girls" out of the way early, subsequently working the crowd into an ecstatic fervor. As expected, it was jam packed and the kids were really getting down on MPP cuts, especially "Summertime Clothes," which I've heard 4 times live and it just keeps getting better. While the band didn't reach too far into the back catalog and the set was pretty much what I expected, having seen them on MPP release day in January, I was once again blown away by how tight Geologist, Avey and Panda have become on stage, and just how far their sound has truly come. It's almost at the point where we have to start guessing what they'll do next? My guess, back to their more acoustic roots, as it'd probably be the most unexpected thing. Then again, AC always have two feet firmly planted in the future, so maybe the next record will be recorded in Space? or 20,000 leagues under the sea?

Setlist
Chocolate Girl
My Girls
Also Frightened
Summertime Clothes
Slippi
Why Would I Want The Sky (new)
Guys Eyes
Comfy In Nautica->
Essplode->
Fireworks->
Leaf House

Encore
Bleed
Lion In A Coma
Brothersport

Animal Collective- Why Would I Want The Sky (Live on BBC's Rob Da Bank sessions)

we saw: Animal Collective @ Grand Ballroom

"Am I Really All The Things That Are Outside of Me?"

(Photo by Jonny Leather)
Wow. That was one hell of an Inauguration. As if they'd been locked in a travel dog cage for months, Animal Collective absolutely tore the 7th floor of the ole Manhattan Center apart. Frightening squiggles of sound, industrial strength polyrhythms and guttural bass, the evening felt as much like a celebration of all things AC as it did a welcoming party for some bizarre new world order. The folks at BV said "the show could have been louder", which is perplexing considering the sound was, for lack of a better term, "in your fucking face." When Geologist dropped the bass during "Guys Eyes", I could literally feel my legs buckle. The sheer physicality of it was so raw, you couldn't help but feel moved. So much so that during "Brother Sport" I was fairly convinced the floor at the Grand Ballroom would give out and a handful of revelers would fall through and end up on the 6 floor only to continue dancing, listening as sound trickled through an Alice-like rabbit hole above. Not only did this show eclipse the mega-hype of MPP, but it proved, once and for all, that, if anything, Animal Collective are band of the people, and they do a damn good job of making the people happy. As if my general lack of hearing, and the "my face was melted by the arch of the covenant" look wasn't enough to take away from the show, NYC Taper, God bless his soul, captured the evening and has made the whole thing available in both FLAC and MP3. Download Animal Collective Live at the Grand Ballroom HERE.



Setlist (from NYC Taper)
In The Flowers
Leaf House
Blue Sky
Guys Eyes
Summertime Clothes
Daily Routine
Lion in a Coma
Lablakely Dress
Fireworks
My Girls
Brother Sport
Encore
Beat
Slippi

tonight: Animal Collective @ Grand Ballroom

"Oh Oh"
Animal Collective on Inauguration day. New World Order here we come.

live: Animal Collective

"The Sweet Aroma"

Everyone's getting really "stoked" on the new Animal Collective...even though it hasn't leaked and most people haven't heard it. It's gotten so out of hand that there are over 600,000 page views in the AC-MPP atease thread and even a Twitter account dedicated to the Merriweather Post Pavillion leak. As one of the lucky few able to attend the NYC-MPP listening party, I can attest to the freaky joyous bounce fest that is MPP. If you've heard the "Brother Sport", or the "My Girls" rip, or have seen the band live in the past year, you're probably feeling the same way. That said, it's important to look to the past to remember how far AC have come, and this live set from Other Music in 2004 is a great example. Remember when Animal Collective was a "freak folk" band? Yeah me neither, but some people said they were. Anyway, this in-store performance, recorded a few months after the release of Sung Tongs, is all the drone-y vocal, shuffling acoustic strum and Avey screaming you remember from the pre-sampler AC. Notice the "On A Plain" cover, it's money. These guys sure have a way with Nirvana covers.

Animal Collective Live at Other Music 8/16/04

New Animal Collective due in January

"You've got so much inside..."

So this somehow escaped me over the weekend, but one of the most Bobka'd bands out there, Animal Collective, has (cryptically) revealed the title to their new album, as well as a tracklisting (via Stereogum). It's called Merriweather Post Pavilion, which you may know as an outdoor amphitheatre in Maryland, and includes the following tracks:

01 In The Flowers
02 My Girls
03 Also Frightened
04 Summertime Clothes
05 Daily Routine
06 Bluish
07 Guys Eyes
08 Taste
09 Lion In A Coma
10 No More Runnin
11 Brother Sport

The rumor mill (aka stereogum's comments section) purports the following possible song name translations from AC's recent live shows. In order of most likely to be true, based on commenters confidence:

Old Name - New Name
"Bearhug" = "Summertime Clothes"
"House" = "My Girls"
"Dancer" = "In the Flowers"

Here's some video, and mp3's of "Brother Sport" and "Daily Routine" from earlier in the year. Enjoi.

Animal Collective- Daily Routine (5/28/08 Lisbon, Portugal)
Animal Collective- Brother Sport (5/28/08 Lisbon, Portugal)

Animal Collective "Summertime Clothes" @ Hove Festival

Animal Collective "Daily Routine" @ Hove Festival

Pitchfork Day 2: Animal Collective

"Your Only All I See Sometimes"
What can I say about Animal Collective that hasn't already been said? Nothing. They absolutely destroyed Union Park on Saturday night. Anyone who was there will say the same thing. It was just outerwordly, like a space ship landed and we all willing got the anal probe....and it was good. Strawberry Jams like "Peacebone" and "Fireworks" were highlights, as was Panda Bear's "Comfy in Nautica", but the real madness came down on some of the new stuff. Not sure about exact names, but this bootleg from a May concert in Lisbon has a few of the new songs and they should not/will not be ignored. I can't recommend this live set enough. And now, for the next few weeks, I shall only think about two things: more Animal Collective and Radiohead. It's so on at All Points West. {Ed Note: GVB has some sick video of AC performing new jam "Lion In A Coma" from Pitchfork. Yes, you should check it out asap.)

Animal Collective 5-28-08 Lisbon, Portugal
01- The Dancer
02- Daily Routine
03- House (Material Things)
04- Lion In A Coma (new song)
05- Peacebone
06- Fireworks > Essplode > Fireworks
07- Walk Alone With You
08- Leaf House
09- Chocolate Girl (new song)
10- Comfy In Nautica
11- Brother Sport / Encore
12- Who Could Win A Rabbit?
13- Grass

Animal Collective "Peacebone" at Pitchfork

review: Dominique Leone

"High up on top, how do you feel..."

Dominique Leone has been one of the better writers at a certain score-obsessed website over the years, and his reviews tended to be of two varieties: either waxing historical about re-releases by the Beatles, Miles Davis, the Beach Boys, Can and John Lennon, or enlightening us on the forefront of burgeoning indie-superstars with reviews of early records by LCD Soundsystem, Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart. It would be easy to say that his self-titled debut draws inspiration from both sources, one foot in the past and one in the future, but that would be a mistake; although the (largely indecipherable) vocals contain allusions to Beach Boys harmonies and Beatles melodies, this record is uncompromisingly set in the 21st century.

Synths dominate, as melodies weave in and out and feedback explodes. Hyperactivity seems to be the running theme, with a touch of prog here and a dab of dance music there. Traditional song structures are abandoned save the gorgeous closer, “Conversational" and album highlight “Goodbye," an unbelievably catchy melding of neo-soul beats and stratospheric Beach Boys harmonies, almost like a lost track from 2007’s best (not a) mashup, Bullion's Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee. Elsewhere, “Tension” and “Duyen” feature vocals with minor-key melodies that, for someone reason, remind me of Sgt. Pepper’s “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” though no one would ever confuse the music behind them. “Nous Tombons Dans Elle” is extraordinarily fun, a schizo-dance track in the vein of Dan Deacon’s more psychedelic stuff.

In what seems to be a growing trend, this album is adorned with a massive centerpiece of a song, the 13-minute “The Return.” But while Panda Bear’s “Bros” was transcendental in its commitment to melody, Leone’s commits to nothing, wandering between quiet passages and massive bursts of feedback similar to the first few minutes of Avey Tare and Panda Bear’s Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. “The Return” is an abstract piece with a lot to decipher, but as of right now, it’s my least favorite thing on the album, feeling self-indulgent and unnecessary, even cold. There’s some good stuff in there, but it’s woefully buried.

It’s tempting to label this album as exceedingly “critic-friendly,” partly because it was made by one, and partly because it is the kind of mix of abstraction and familiarity that you can picture most critics getting behind. But that’s not really fair, is it? That’s like saying something is not good because it’s trying to be good. In reality, this is a fantastically ambitious affair that rewards multiple listens, even if you’re not sure what the fuck you’re hearing the first few go-rounds. For now, we should all be giving thanks that Dominique has put down the pen, and picked up the, err, Pro Tools.

Dominique Leone - Nous Tombons Dans Elle
Dominique Leone - Duyen

video: El Guincho "Kalise"

This might constitute plagiarism, but it's impossible not to think El Guincho sounds like a lysergic Spanish Sangria made withs tons of fresh fruit, a whole Os Mutantes & a wedge of Panda Bear. Everyone fucking loves it. I could guzzle intoxicating nectar all day, everyday. Guaranted to make Spring and Summer that much better for years to come. El Guincho Alegeranza; get down, ya heard.

If you like tropicalia, bossanova, afrobeat,Canary Islands, steel drums, acid, tribal rhythms, life, sun, loops, dancing, and the beach, then you should buy this right now from Other Music, the exclusive distributor of Alegranza in the States.

It's so on.

"Kalise"

classick albums: Odessey & Oracle

"A sweet vibration seemed to fill the air"Recorded at Abbey Road in the Summer of '67, Odessey & Oracle was produced during the height of the psychedelic movement in London, and The Zombies were smack dab in the middle of it. As you can probably tell the album cover (above), The Zombies were riding a wave of psychotropics, which when filtered through their novice Brit Invasion crops, conjured a hazy dream world, thick with cloud 9 eccentricities and the stoney sheen of a magically sunny day in the Summer of '67.

Odessey & Oracle opens with the skeletal "A Rose for Emily", which moves from a minimalist piano composition into a soaring breeze of harmonic wonder and back down, before drifting softly into "Maybe After He's Gone," a bass heavy British Invasion jam with thumping jazz drums and carefully constructed "la-la" harmonies wrapped underneath Colin Blunstone's breathy vocals. In a bizarre bit of ancestry, the off kilter clicks of a typewriter during the breakdown in "Maybe After He's Gone" play like an unlikely great-grandfather to the rhythmless glitch tech of IDM.

A bit stoney from the beginning, a feeling of chemical imbalance comes alive on "Hung Up On A Dream",where orchestral sweeps envelope the dreamy song, whose ambiguous lyrics straddle the line between a child's mystical dream and a young man's transcendental trip.

A sweet confusion filled my mind/ Until I woke up only finding everything was just a dream/ A dream unusual of its kind/ That gave me peace and blew my mind/ And now I'm hung up on a dream

The glow only grows from there with "Changes", a loopy flute laden cut with 4 part harmonies swelling in unison over simple hand percussion and extremely minimal piano parts. Like the Beach Boys, The Zombies used harmonies as vehicle for psychedelic experimentation, using layer upon layer of effected vocal to form an ethereal feeling of drifting through space and time, as if everything were a dream.

On the other side of the psyche coin is the rumbling, squeezebox fueled "Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)", which would sound fitting on the Incredible String Band's The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. Propelled by a fully overdriven organ and lyrics like "My hands won't stop shaking/ My arms won't stop shaking/ My mind won't stop shaking/I want to go home", "Butcher's Tale" is the quintessential bad trip song, in a totally good way. I don't think I have to mention how lovely uber classics like "Time of the Season", "This Will Be Our Year" and "I Want Her (She Wants Me)" are. Y'all already know that.

Unfortunately, by the time the album was released, The Zombies had disbanded. Odessey & Oracle was their last work, their definitive artistic statement, an undeniable masterpiece. While Brian Wilson and Pet Sounds continue to get all the critical nods for influencing the psyche popsters of the moment (Panda Bear, Miracle Fortress, Of Montreal, etc), The Zombies have clearly left a similar influence on Generation X/Y, especially on Panda Bear, who thanks them in the liner notes of Person Pitch (His loopy harmonies are much more comparable to the songs on Odessey & Oracle than the highly orchestrated choral arrangements of Pet Sounds & Holland). Now only if someone from Continuum would do 33 1/3 book on The Zombies master work.

The Zombies- A Rose for Emily
The Zombies- Changes
The Zombies- Hung Up on a Dream

McG's Best of 2007

"And the Beat Goes On..."

2007. Hmmm, what can I say? Well it was a damn good year for new music and it all started in 2006 with early leaks from The Shins, Of Montreal and LCD Soundsystem, albums which still resonate a year later, which says a lot given our fickle ADD blog-fueled music scene. 2007 will surely be remembered as the year indie went mainstream, with Neon Bible and Wincing the Night Away debuting at #2 on the Billboard charts and Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank popping in at #1, something I never would have dreamed of listening to "Wild Pack of Family Dogs" in high school. Which goes to show people aren't stupid, when they hear something good they immediately gravitate towards it (ie. Feist).

The year was dominated by French electro (Daft Punk, Justice, Ed Banger Records), Swedish Indie Pop (Jens Lekman, Shout Out Louds, Taken By Trees), the Italo-Disco revival (Glass Candy, The Chromatics, Italians Do It Better Records and Sally Shapiro) and, once again, Brian Wilson's LSD influenced hypnotics and harmonies (Panda Bear, Miracle Fortress).

The blog world blew up the Black Kids, helped Columbia grad's Vampire Weekend score a deal with XL on the strength of a Blue CD-R (and one of the most beautiful 7" singles I've ever seen). Not to mention The Explorers Club getting picked up by Secretly Canadian/JagJaguwar cousin Dead Oceans and Grand Archives, project of former Band of Horses member Mat Brooke, inking with Sub Pop. On those signings alone 2008 is shaping up to be just as action packed as '07, giving us no time to sleep. With that said here are my lists, I hope you enjoy and have a kick ass rest of 2007. Check back tomorrow when I'll have a stocking stuff (aka .zip file) of all the years best songs to keep you sane for the rest of the year.

Artist of the Year

James Murphy/LCD Soundsystem- Not only did President Murphy hit us with the colossal Sound of Silver but 2007 also saw the proper release of his Nike/iTunes collabo, the heart pounding 45:33, which gave birth to one of the best songs of 2007, "Someone Great." ("I'm wishing we could talk about it..."). Murph could've rested on his laurels and just toured with the Arcade Fire and !!!, but no he kept releasing compelling material under the LCD moniker, including the All My Friends EP with covers by Franz Ferdinand and John Cale as well as A Bundle of Stuff EP which features remixes by Soulwax and Carl Craig, among others... And then he & LCD drummer Pat Mahoney went and put together the funkiest, finger pointing collection of head hunting disco I've ever heard. As best said through Chic "I feel your love coming on, like the calm before the storm, your love is out to get me."

Favorite Albums of 2007 (in no order)

Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

Panda Bear- Person Pitch

Blitzen Trapper- Wild Mountain Nation

The National- Boxer

Glass Candy- B/E/A/T/B/O/X

Jens Lekman- Night Falls Over Kortedala

Vampire Weekend- Blue CD-R

James Murphy & Pat Mahoney- Fabriclive.36

Favorite Mix (Non Fabric/DJ-Kicks/Radio 1 Essential Mix)

Bullion- Pet Sounds: In the Key of D

Best Podcast

Mad Decent- Can't Forget Dilla

DJ/Producer/Remixer of the Year

XXXchange (of Spank Rock)- Bjork- Earth Intruders remix; Thom Yorke- The Eraser remix; Kid Sister- Control; Kid Sister- Let Me Bang; Spank Rock Fabric.Live 36

Best Demo (three way tie)

Grand Archives

Black Kids

The Explorers Club

Best Concert

Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem @ Red Rocks

Best DJ Set

James Murphy @ Hiro Ballroom, CMJ week

Bands I Wish I Had More Time to Absorb
The Acorn
Yeasayer
Burial
Santogold

Panda Bear: "Comfy In Nautica"

"Try to Remember Always / Just to Have a Good Time"

Panda Bear's critically-acclaimed Person Pitch is bound to end up on pretty much every "best of" list at year's end, and with good reason. His "Wilson-esque" indie-psychedelia is full of inventive sound collages and complex vocal harmonies, creating a vibe that is uplifting, mesmerizing, original, and above all, enjoyable. Check out the warm and fuzzy, skater-friendly video for the latest single "Comfy in Nautica" above.

And for those of you trying to figure out a way to put Panda Bear on your next Saturday night jamzz playlist without interrupting the flow of booty-shakin' dance beats, we also present you with the fantastic B-More Club remix of "Comfy", courtesy of Devlin from the Spank Rock crew.

Panda Bear- Comfy In Nautica (Mr. Devlin's Jamaica Plain Humpbacks Remix) [thanks to GvsB for the rip]

(PS- The remix was originally featured in a mix Devlin put together for our friends over at Discobelle in July. Check that out HERE)

Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam

"A Thousand Weeks in Brooklyn/ So Depressed"

Animal Collective. Two very simple words, yet utterly impossible to define without incorporating 'psychadelic.' Luckily, 'psychadelic' is sweet. It's been a pretty big year for the Collective, with Panda Bear's Person Pitch blowing minds around the world, and soon the Collective's Strawberry Jam will do the same, spreading hallucinogenic sounds around the globe with jamz like "Chores" and "Fireworks." I've been listening to Strawberry Jam consistently for over a month now and can't get the melodic tribal screams of "For Reverand Green" out of my head. I was a fan of Sung Tongs, Feels and the Prospect Hummer with Vashti Bunyan, but the new jam (along with the Peoples EP and Person Pitch) has made me a disciple. I can honestly say that you will never hear anything like Strawberry Jam. Even if you're a huge Animal Collective fan (which you should be, but we'll understand if you're not), Strawberry Jam will sound like a breath of f**ked up fresh air from a band that has consistently reinvented themselves, experimenting with a plethora of outerwordly sounds and schisms. It's the stuff dreams are made of (Acid dreams...on peyote). It's not for everyone, but if you clear your mind, let your consciousness expand and allow the music to seed in your brain, I guarantee you will become an obsessive fan of the collective. There is nothing as mindblowing as what these guys are doing and even if you don't like it, you at least gotta give them credit for being original. With that said, if you don't like it, fuck off. Check out some Strawberry Jam below and the insane video for "Fireworks."

Animal Collective-For Reverand Green

Bobka Love/Panda Bear/ Blog Fresh

"Try to remember always just to have a good time"

Alex from Blog Fresh Radio was nice enough to have us on her radio show this week to discuss Panda Bear's mind blowing Person Pitch. If you want to hear me pontificate on the Panda Bear song "Comfy in Nautica", click here. You can download "Comfy in Nautica" below. Get this record, save your soul. period.

Panda Bear- Comfy in Nautica