Animal Collective

Stickk · #1 05-26-2009, 07:58 PM

Anyone else into this band? If so, what's your favorite song by them? Mine's "In the Flowers" or whatever that Pan Flute Jam song is called.

gweimer · #2 05-27-2009, 06:29 AM

I'm not real familiar with them, but they are my son's favorite band. I just got him a copy of Crack Box. I'll have to have him burn me a CD of some of their stuff. He's turned me on to Deerhoof, Starlight Mints, Muse and a few other bands.

Crunka · #3 05-27-2009, 12:10 PM

For Reverend Green, it's so epic.

Against Will · #4 05-27-2009, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gweimer

I'm not real familiar with them, but they are my son's favorite band. I just got him a copy of Crack Box. I'll have to have him burn me a CD of some of their stuff. He's turned me on to Deerhoof, Starlight Mints, Muse and a few other bands.

WOAH! You're a good dad. That thing sold out in like minutes.

I've only heard Sung Tongs (which I dug) and Feels (which I didn't). I haven't gotten a chance to check out MPP yet, but I'm sure I'll get around to it. They're a good band, but were also one of my least happy concert experiences (not necessarily there fault, but still).

Stickk · #5 05-27-2009, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crunka

For Reverend Green, it's so epic.

True that! That song is an

Greyvagabond · #6 05-27-2009, 02:19 PM

Not a fan. Melody-less hipster noise.

Silver Hammer · #7 05-27-2009, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greyvagabond

Not a fan. Melody-less hipster noise.

Where are you not hearing melody? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhHQukKXxCw I heard an abundance of melody. I love Animal Collective to just chill and listen to, you can get lost in the harmony. Panda Bear is awesome solo too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT3NVv7IZ8Q

Stickk · #8 05-28-2009, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greyvagabond

Melody-less hipster noise.

No.

Grayson C. · #9 05-28-2009, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greyvagabond

Not a fan. Melody-less hipster noise.

I'll give you two of the three. It's got melody though. I'm not a big fan of one-sound bands like this. They've got a nice feel to them, but after you've heard one song there isn't much of a reason to listen to a second. Best example of this would be Deftones.

Greyvagabond · #10 05-28-2009, 04:27 PM

Anything pitchfork gives a 9.5 on a consistent basis to has to suck.

#11 05-29-2009, 04:42 AM

I get a bit tired of the non-stop euphoria, I just can't relate to it. I think it's interesting musically, but within their own stuff they don't create enough tension for me. I know it's a classic thing to say of something new 'it all sounds the same', but I really think their music has no significant contrasts.

I went to see them also, and it was so boring. They had a sold out tour and the room I was in was dead. It was such a waste of an audience that would have bent over backwards to have a good time.

I think they're enjoying a disproportionate amount of praise and expectation because people have been so starved of new interesting sounds for a long time, and they sound undeniably different. But I think that this desperation people have for Animal Collective to be their next big trip isn't really borne out by the atmosphere (or lack of it) they create at gigs or by how exciting their music is to listen to.

The other thing that turns me off about them is that they seem to publicize themselves deliberately as being exclusive - as in, 'their last album was played to a selected room of people and wasn't even made available to normal people'. As a way of promotion you hear stories like this about them a lot. Personally I think they're selling their own credibility to other people, as in, if you like Animal Collective, you're part of a select group of people 'in the know', which doesn't really relate to whether their music is any good, but is more of an identity thing for the people who like them. I think that's a bit lame, I would rather see a band who's material can stand up by itself without having to ride a wave of pretentiousness to get across.

I think they're music does have many positive things going for it - it's massively original for one thing, but I think that the amount of patronisation it's getting from the select cool crowd (which seems to be ever-expanding as more people decide they want to be "in on it"), is kind of an emperor's new clothes phenomenon, mixed with some good branding. In ten years I don't think people will be listening to it anymore, and it will sound very dated.

Grayson C. · #12 05-29-2009, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by afromoose

The other thing that turns me off about them is that they seem to publicize themselves deliberately as being exclusive - as in, 'their last album was played to a selected room of people and wasn't even made available to normal people'. As a way of promotion you hear stories like this about them a lot. Personally I think they're selling their own credibility to other people, as in, if you like Animal Collective, you're part of a select group of people 'in the know', which doesn't really relate to whether their music is any good, but is more of an identity thing for the people who like them. I think that's a bit lame, I would rather see a band who's material can stand up by itself without having to ride a wave of pretentiousness to get across.

So, what about Hipster-ism don't you get

Din Of Win · #13 05-29-2009, 10:01 AM

Animal Collective is soundly filed away in a very specific place in my heart for bands of their ilk:

Love the band... Hate the fans.

Most of the hipstery bands are pretty much the same way... It also doesn't help living in Maryland and being surrounded by the whole Wham City! thing... I sware... if another 100 pound dude in a pink shirt, skinny jeans, addidas shoes, scarf and Sho Nuff glasses talks to me about the latest Dan Deacon track i'm going to effing loose it...

But... i can totally get down with most of the music. It's usually fun and creative to an extent...

#14 05-30-2009, 03:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grayson C.

So, what about Hipster-ism don't you get

I don't know what you mean...

Grayson C. · #15 05-30-2009, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by afromoose

I don't know what you mean...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster...ry_subculture)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM

#16 05-30-2009, 08:11 PM

Yeah, you're right it's weird that I find all this surprising considering it's so old. The weirdest part is that I play most of my gigs to rooms full of exactly these types of people, and totally feel at odds with it. Not forever though..

#17 05-30-2009, 08:21 PM

Christian Lorentzen of Time Out New York claims that metrosexuality is the hipster appropriation of gay culture. He writes that "these aesthetics are assimilated — cannibalized — into a repertoire of meaninglessness, from which the hipster can construct an identity in the manner of a collage, or a shuffled playlist on an iPod."[11] Lorentzen argues that “hipsterism fetishizes the authentic” elements of all of the “fringe movements of the postwar era—Beat, hippie, punk, even grunge,” and draws on the “cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity” and “gay style”, and then “regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity” and a sense of irony. He claims that this group of “18-to-34-year-olds”, who are mostly white, “have defanged, skinned and consumed” all of these influences “into a repertoire of meaninglessness”.[12]

From the wikipedia entry - my god. I can so identify with that. If they just add toy instruments into the mix it would be bang on.