[bansheebeaten]

do you guys have certain AC songs that you associate with a time in your life or a specific memory? which songs bring up which memories?

feel free to ramble on, I'm curious what associations everyone makes.

-----

- derek and cuckoo cuckoo.. both are related to pets in my mind. derek for obvious reasons, and cuckoo cuckoo because it's a really emotional song that I got into when I found out my lifelong cat was dying. it happened in the spring, and the song mentions spring, and it was just really dovetailing with my life at that point in time. very connected with that song because of those memories, which are still raw.

- who could win a rabbit reminds me of driving around singing loudly in midsummer in high school with my friends.. carefree and raucous and happy.

- bros reminds me of christmas. hardcore.

- rosie oh reminds me of my getaway walks in senior year of college. I would go to a park by a river and swing, listening to CHz and specifically this song many times and while away my free time, imagining the next thing I was going to draw and letting my mind wander

- fireworks reminds me of bethany beach fourth of july.. since it's literally about those same beaches, lots of babies crying and colors and busy sandy stretches and funnel cakes.

I have lots more, but it's someone else's turn!

[Untitled]

Peacebone and Unsolved Mysteries remind me of riding my bike to school and(due to an iTunes failure) only having the first 3 songs of SJ. It was my first listen to AC and at the start of peacebone i thought my earbuds were broken. Lol. But it then hooked me 100% when the chorus came and i was just thinking that this was the greatest thung ever. And US just followed and were just as amazing. But i remember that i just had never heard of like lyrics such as: i bet the monster were happy when we made him a maze. And the jack the ripper line in US. I love AC and theyre one of the only bands where ive loved them from first listen

[Stigmata89]

Peacebone-being krunk on new year's eve with two fine bitches.

[MantaRay]

Winter's Love: I had a brief crush on this girl in high school who listened to AC, I say brief because soon after the crush started, she started going out with a friend of a friend. She always mentioned this as one of her favorite songs, and I'd play it and think about her. We later started a music project, but we only practiced a few times.

In The Flowers: Around late 2008, I was officially living on my own, and with two of my best friends. I was able to bring over my record player from my parents' place, so I would play records from time to time. Of course, I went out and bought MPP when it came out early on vinyl. One of those friends really hated AC, but the other friend liked what he had heard and wanted to hear more. We had one of our first big parties over at our place, so I put on MPP. And I know everyone probably has a story about the first time they heard the "...if I could just leave my body for a night" part of the song, but when those drums and intensity came in, we all started dancing and laughing. It just felt really liberating to dance around like idiots, without any parents around, and it was probably one of the first times that that giddy, anxious, scary feeling of being an "adult" really kicked in.

Alsatian Darn: It was my last semester of undergrad, near the end of the semester, and I was working at the library until close. I was leaving to head to my car and I purposely put this song on, which is kinda cheesy now that I think about it, to have some background music while I thought about the next couple of months. I had recently gotten accepted to grad school, and I was moving away from everything and everyone I knew. Most importantly, I was moving away from my girlfriend, who I'd been with for four years, and was hoping would come with me. But I dunno, I was listening to this song, it was dark, but there were these dim lights that were lit all around the campus, and it was a small campus, so nobody was really there. I had this overwhelming feeling of alone-ness, and I had some feeling deep down that my (now ex) girlfriend wouldn't move up with me. And she didn't.

Moonjock: CHz came out around my first semester of grad school. I remember listening to Moonjock every morning, walking to school, and ritualistically taking in deep breaths when those Avey screams/snare hits came in near the beginning of the song. The momentousness of that song just kind of fit that time period, being really nervous about school, living alone, feeling alone and not feeling like I knew what I was doing. I was listening to CHz a lot in general around that time, and I remember particular lyrics being weirdly poignant, too.

[He Man]

I can't even think of my years between 2008 - 20011 without an ac backdrop/foreground. So many good times and associations.

[jovian]

listening to kids on holiday coming down from acid sitting on a hotel balcony in vancouver and hearing so many different layers in it and realizing i was hearing like 10 songs at once that all went perfectly together. it's never quite sounded that good to me since then. a little while later visiting friends came on and the waves of guitar seemed to sync up with the ocean and gahhhh.

also a year before that when strawberry jam first freebirded/i first discovered this forum. chillin on a beach listening to it super loud after being dumped by my high school sweetheart. fireworks still makes me tear up usually

walking around in the snow in the dead of night listening to the mpp freebird, half drunk staring at christmas lights was pretty amazing

[ImpendingPeacefish]

I'm a do a couple that just pop right into my head.

De Soto De Son- This song reminds me of when my senior year when I was all alone on Fall nights just enjoying the cool Minnesota breeze. I'd often just listen to this song and do some homework while watching the sunset, real melancholic emotions I can remember from this song and those days.

Amanita- Freshman year, depression, everything not going my way. This song kept me through and reminds me of chilling on campus just coping with life at the time. I always attribute this song with making my year a little more enjoyable.

[bansheebeaten]

<3 I love reading these.

[IkoOvo]

abyss song - me and my best friend got really obsessed with it when we first heard it
we would play it at night every time we hung out for a while like 2 summers ago
it would either put us both asleep or keep us up laughing our asses of
still one of my all time favorites

[JohnsonNoise]

Loved reading these!

In the Flowers - tripping for the first time
Taste - (not really a memory) I just tend to associate it with a walk through a world that Dr. Seuss created. Lots of bright colors and people/object/architecture that looks otherworldly
No More Runnin' - walking on campus during a snowstorm on a specific day last year. It was one of those days where it was a comfortable temperature if you were wearing a decent coat and I remember having the urge to walk around for hours.
For Reverend Green - a day when I was on a field trip in high school and a girl I liked was sitting next to me on the bus. I must have been grooving because she asked to listen to what I was listening to. The song was For Reverend Green and I was self conscious about it and changed the song to 1901 by Phoenix before handing her my earbuds
Fireworks - Being up late at night and discovering things about animal collective on the internet
Loch Raven - Walking home late at night and freaking out a bit when passing through the cemetery near my house
Leaf House - This one night when I made a campfire with a friend for no reason and I had a moment when I stopped and realized that it was a person that I could truly be myself around

Laughing Hieroglyphic - Playing animal crossing on game cube in my living room on any rainy or overcast weekend morning when I was little

Scheherazade - a span of a few months where I was severely depressed. one day that comes to mind is when I walked out of a morning lecture and decided to leave campus early and I ended up just sitting in my car in this empty parking lot for what was probably hours... tomboy happened to be the cd in my car at the time
Carrots - walking through the halls aimlessly when I was in high school. Very happy/positive vibes. It might even be because I can remember being obsessed with Person Pitch during the time period that I'm thinking of.

[Sea Cow]

Kind of lame but Fireworks definitely reminds me of when my first real girlfriend broke up with me. That "I was dreaming of just you, now my cereal, it is warm" line really hit home.

Cuckoo Cuckoo reminded me of my step fathers death because of "Kids can't play with thing that die"

I play Bluish for my new gf so it reminds me of her.

I could probably go on for a long time. AC pulls out a bunch of memories.

Also, hello! I am new, but have lurked for awhile

[ImpendingPeacefish]

Sea Cow wrote:

Cuckoo Cuckoo reminded me of my step fathers death because of "Kids can't play with thing that die"

Cuckoo Cuckoo hits me hard too, although my dad didn't die yet he's been extremely sick for as long as I can remember so I have that similar connection but not as much right now. Sorry for your loss.

[Fovrodi]

Bleeding reminds me of a time my gf and I were mad at each other and probably traveling for too long. We went from New York to Seattle and I was listening to the boot a lot, we missed seeing AC because I lost the tickets on the way to the venue

[meys]

person pitch is my girlfriend and i's favorite album ever and any previous associations i had with that record are being overwritten as we speak. we listen to it all the time and just last week i gave her some of the bootlegs from that era. our first kiss was towards the end of "i'm not" so it's got a special significance. it's cool, it's casual

down there and (to an extent) the tomboy singles that came out around the same time remind me of really dark times on my way out of high school and dealing with "some personal issues" that i would later come to know as depression. i would kind of sit there at 2 am on my old computer and think about what the hell my life was and that's probably how i learned to deal and get out of that downswing in one piece

[Sea Cow]

ImpendingPeacefish wrote:

Sea Cow wrote:

Cuckoo Cuckoo reminded me of my step fathers death because of "Kids can't play with thing that die"

Cuckoo Cuckoo hits me hard too, although my dad didn't die yet he's been extremely sick for as long as I can remember so I have that similar connection but not as much right now. Sorry for your loss.

Hey, thanks. It can be very confusing and hits different people different ways. If you ever need to talk about it I totally would. I didn't talk about it for a long time and it really kicked my ass for awhile.

[neo]

(can i revive this thread?)

la rapet(/pretty much all of spirit) - took a trip to new mexico in the winter of 2012-2013 which was to date the worst winter of my life and i didn't know we were going to NORTHERN new mexico (just as cold as where im from (boston) if not colder) so i just remember being really sad and cold and the blue air and the mountains and i listened to this album while wearing a white coat and feeling the cold just pierce my face

for reverend green - being 16 years old and hanging out in the summer getting high with my friends and just imagining a smiling group of friends listening to that song (which is essentially what happened?)

mr fingers - watching ODDSAC for the first time stoned with my best friend in high school and having to pause it several times in the middle to look at each other and say "what the fuck"

pulleys(/most of centipede hz) - climbing up a mountain and visiting an abandoned factory with some family friends in the summer of 2012, right after the album freebirded

all of campfire songs - visiting vietnam/cambodia in the summer of 2013 and being on the bus looking outside at all of the people on the streets selling vegetables and wearing those straw hats and thinking to myself that there is no scenario more perfect for that album and no album more perfect for that scenario

guys eyes - first acid trip, alone in a dark basement and listening to this on huge headphones and hearing the "oo-oo-woo-oo" in the background of the "need her" part for the FIRST TIME even though i had listened to that song dozens of times

god i could go on forever im sorry

[we tigers]

i'll start with a few...this is the best thread idea.

all of spirit - i moved in with my grandparents after leaving an abusive relationship and bought myself a used record player from goodwill. i saved up money from my first job after leaving the guy and bought spirit. i remember the first night i listened to it, holding the record sleeve in my hands, looking at the picture, sitting on the floor, leaning my body against the desk the record player sat on. i felt free and nostalgic and painful and joyous all at once and i carry that with me whenever i listen to that album.

brothersport - i listened to mpp a lot during that six month recovery period from leaving him and brothersport really encouraged me to move forward with my life in a positive and hopeful way. i remember sun shining, putting away the dishes, and thinking that maybe my life could be something great.

centipede - freebirded the same week my grandfather was dying. i listened to that and young prayer on repeat to cope and now they're stained with that seven day span of life-crashing pain.

feels and fall be kind - always make me think of driving and freedom. no specific memories, but specific feelings.

honestly animal collective holds a lot of heavy memories for me, and i've been trying to take them back from those dark times in my life and incorporate them into this new, exciting period lately.

[dud]

ooo i gotta do some of these later

[amber]

There's a lot of these but my brain is so fried so I'll post them as I remember them.

Here's a new memory that I just made yesterday but it was honestly so great and makes me so happy to think about. As cheesy as it is, my bf "dedicated" The Purple Bottle to me when we first kinda started talking, when we had those crush high feelings (still do heh). Yesterday, when mr. carrot and i were on our way to drop me of at the train station to go home, we jammed out to TPB and sang so loud and it was just one of the happiest moments of my life. Thinking back at it, it feels like a movie moment. Just so euphoric feeling.

[amber]

Also MPP was my soundtrack to my europe trip (it was the only album I had on my phone) .
So when I go back and listen to any of the songs, I can see the Italian/Swiss/German/Greek scenery.

[nevermind]

alvin row - i was on a road trip with my family and it was my first time listening to spirit front to back. the moment right after the RUN! part where the jittery drums come in made me well up for no good reason. tension and a euphoric release. so intense.

fireworks - god there's so many! it is the first AC song which got me into them. i remember wondering what the big fuss is all about AC during the MPP hype. listened to fireworks and was floored. i used to sing to it so loudly in my room. everytime i hum it now and again, my bro and sis would recall back to that time when i was on my fireworks phase. it also soundtracked a lot of sad times in my life. it never fails to pick me back up. the first thing i did when i got stoned the first time was pick up the guitar and played this song too.

loch raven - again i was listening to this for the first time in a car, heading to a train station. i was supposed to meet this guy who i had a super crush on, to the point that it was making me quite depressed. classic case, he already had a partner. somehow the song gave me the clarity i needed to realise that emotions will pass and get renewed.

shit im such a sensitive guy

[Stanshant]

I remember learning how to dive to the soundtrack of baleen sample.

[Gool Aid]

safer - i was in high school and roadtripping with my family through norway. we were riding down trollstigen, a mountain full of curvy and intense roads overlooking the biggest mountain i had ever seen, was such a chaotic little one lane road but this song gave me such peace as we rode down the road. i remember rolling down the window and feeling the cool nordic summer breeze hit my face as the dubby part hit. what a sick track

pic of trollstigen

Spoiler: show

native bell - i had just moved to chicago for college, it was the end of summer, a bright and sunny boiling day..the kinda day where a cartoon character would boil an egg on the pavement. i put on here comes the indian. felt the sun on my stoned neck and walked around downtown(the loop) through the crowds of city people, the high pitch sounds gave me the feeling of the sun, i felt a bit like the track was scorching me in a euphoric kinda way. i remember afterwards i drank a huge glass of water and felt so refreshed

people - i was riding the bus to school and listened to this track while wearing a winter coat looking out the window, i looked at the trees breeze by and forgot about everything school like, just spaced out and felt the bus rumble down gravel roads and let the cold bus, as it seemed at the time, take me somewhere a lot better than school. i remember getting off the bus and taking off my headphones thinking about what such a good time i had by myself with the people EP, it was so singular and so special to me. they were my favorite band after that moment

person pitch - i listened to this album front to back so many times, i listened to it on christmas, on my birthday, on every day. i love this album so much, i remember my family and my old town when i listen to it, it can remind me of the old historic districs, but also trains, and my dog ruby. it reminds me of a lot of the reasons i really love music and art. its so cool omg

[WokSoRaven]

2007 Melkweg Boot-
Walking to and from classes/dorm rooms in the rainy redwood forests of UC Santa Cruz

[bansheebeaten]

mouth wooed her - this one makes me think of waking up late on a warm-ish spring day. the sun is shining bright yellow through the windows and illuminating the room. at the peaks of the song are good long stretches or yawns. throwing on a loose gown or t-shirt. cutting up an orange to wake up, no coffee this day. maybe lying down with the cat in a patch of sun, nothing to do the rest of the day but whatever you decide to. opportunity. a few more yawns. you step outside and it's breezy but a little humid and smells like summer's on the way. flower scents and soil and pollen.

that's one of my favorite tongs.

[foxtrot]

these are great!

a few of mine that immediately spring to mind:

MPP: my first listen was when i was living in japan and we were at the snow. we got into our hotel room and i hooked up internet, saw MPP had freebirded and immediately downloaded. then i went out into the snow in the middle of the night and just walked around this japanese village and listened for the first time. still now when i listen to MPP i get really strong images of these stairs up to this tori (japanese gate/entry to a shrine) and the snow falling, and the massive cedar trees disappearing up into the darkness.

my girls: right (literally a few days) before we left japan, my wife and i went to fuji rock festival and saw AC. it was just the culmination of everything. we knew we were going back to australia to start a family and MPP was all about family and we had just finished this amazing extended honeymoon year in japan. we rocked out, danced, sang, cried, held each other. my girls may have been the big hit but for me it is the song of that moment. a teary celebration of the end of one of the most amazing years of my life and the beginning of one of the greatest challenges of my life (parenthood). still see my wife and i in the mud at fuji rock belting this out every time i hear it.

chores: whenever i hear this i remember driving around in my 1989 toyota celica and blasting this track during spring/summer 07.

infant dressing table: i got into AC through this really cool and unusual dude who called himself 'Oz', only ever wore green and yellow, and always (ALWAYS, i mean at gigs and all kinds of random places) had a banana on his person. Oz loved HCTI and we listened to it together at his place once while sitting on the floor and drinking milk. Oz had a banana. whenever i hear infant dressing table i see us on the floor with our milk.

[lhtd]

He Man wrote:

I can't even think of my years between 2008 - 20011 without an ac backdrop/foreground. So many good times and associations.

This.

I wish I had saved some of the essays I'd written on the old board. I have many stories and associations!

My newest one to add to the list was driving through the Redwood forest for the past two days and jamming Feels. I haven't listened to that record in ages and it it really felt like a homecoming applying those songs to my current life situation. Plus, those trees! good trees

[jetski]

foxtrot wrote:

Spoiler: show

these are great!

a few of mine that immediately spring to mind:

MPP: my first listen was when i was living in japan and we were at the snow. we got into our hotel room and i hooked up internet, saw MPP had freebirded and immediately downloaded. then i went out into the snow in the middle of the night and just walked around this japanese village and listened for the first time. still now when i listen to MPP i get really strong images of these stairs up to this tori (japanese gate/entry to a shrine) and the snow falling, and the massive cedar trees disappearing up into the darkness.

my girls: right (literally a few days) before we left japan, my wife and i went to fuji rock festival and saw AC. it was just the culmination of everything. we knew we were going back to australia to start a family and MPP was all about family and we had just finished this amazing extended honeymoon year in japan. we rocked out, danced, sang, cried, held each other. my girls may have been the big hit but for me it is the song of that moment. a teary celebration of the end of one of the most amazing years of my life and the beginning of one of the greatest challenges of my life (parenthood). still see my wife and i in the mud at fuji rock belting this out every time i hear it.

chores: whenever i hear this i remember driving around in my 1989 toyota celica and blasting this track during spring/summer 07.

infant dressing table: i got into AC through this really cool and unusual dude who called himself 'Oz', only ever wore green and yellow, and always (ALWAYS, i mean at gigs and all kinds of random places) had a banana on his person. Oz loved HCTI and we listened to it together at his place once while sitting on the floor and drinking milk. Oz had a banana. whenever i hear infant dressing table i see us on the floor with our milk.

Loved reading these. Thanks for sharing

[ROYGBIV]

i like thinkin bout TODAYS SUPERNATURAL and the line about baltimore and how that was prolly significant for CA'ers there and when that line comes on I feel squishy about it for others and not for me cus b more is not a v special city to me personally does that make sense

[bansheebeaten]

ROYGBIV wrote:

i like thinkin bout TODAYS SUPERNATURAL and the line about baltimore and how that was prolly significant for CA'ers there and when that line comes on I feel squishy about it for others and not for me cus b more is not a v special city to me personally does that make sense

it makes me vibrate hehehe. I love all the references to my/their home. weirdly I was thinking about this line this morning as I drove across bmore to work. same as in purple bottle when avey mentions preakness, and then loch raven itself. it's the best hearing your fave band talk about your places.

[tender]

Spirit - Introduction to extreme Animal Collective fandom, MPP had just came out but i didn't know how big of a deal it was yet. Listened to it some when I peeked into their discography on wikipedia but the real memory comes from the night that i finally kissed the girl i had been crushing on for awhile. This one always has a 'love' sort of sound to me, SJ as well but for other reasons.

[terrestrialjane]

Sea Cow wrote:

Also, hello! I am new, but have lurked for awhile

HELLO FRIEND !

But I guess back in the summer of '09 I remember really listening to Merriweather justa bout everyday ...
I would go to the local donut shoppe , grab a couple and head to my friends house ...
And we would bake and listen to the album and just fell in love with it ...
We would skate after our binge of Fallout and the AC and hang out ...

SO YES MERRIWEATHER IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A SUMMER ALBUM !

[HowardTJMoon]

i can't listen to avey's lucky 1 cos it clicked for me when i was in a really bad place and listening to it brings me back there. opis helpus and banshee beat evoke similar but not as bad reactions, i really love those songs to death and bang them out whenever i'm down

STGSTV clicked for me when i was in a similar phase of innocence losing and maturing, so listening to it always reminds me of my stupid ass past self

[CokePotCrack]

MPP- The best summer of my life. This is the summer i really found psychedelia and love and myself and weirdness and AC. Went to my first festival, had an amazing time and met a beautiful girl. A friend burned me a bunch of their albums, so I guess like almost all their albums (not STGSTV or CHZ, hadn't heard those yet,) vaguely remind me of this time, but MPP especially, cause of it's summery vibe.

On a side note, I feel really sad and nostalgic right now, but halfway though writing this sentence, I decided to cheer up. Thanks Panda! I'm gonna try to remember always just to have a good time!

STGSTV- Reminds me of a time when I first moved to Florida and knew no one and had nothing. I never thought I would find another AC thing that made me feel so strange and like I was on drugs after I had listened to all their other shit for so long, but this one did it! I have a really specific memory of one of my first times listening to untitled. I took mushrooms alone in my house and eventually, I retreated to my room and turned off the lights and listened to AC. Untitled came on I was utterly floored by it's awesomeness. That's when I realized: that abrasive static? It's really a scream, a tortured scream of ultimate pain. I remember crying and feeling this emotion pull me in.

Person Pitch: Reminds me of another period of time when I lived in FL. This album really taught me a lot of things, and it influenced my views heavily. Take one day at a time, anything more really hurts your mind! I'm not trying to forget you, I just like to be alone! I know I'm being way too hard, but I know that I'm trying! It must be a little good to be on fire. etc. haha.

GOD THEY'RE SO BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING

[hazel wet lap]

visiting friends

this became a big favorite when i took some acid and listened to this, i could feel there are some friendly spirits flying around, and that rhythm was kind of a flickering flame.

bees

i remember a sunny afternoon in summer, listening to this in the garden.

[fleshprince]

Grass was so monumental to me! This tripoy realm of beautiful flowerof harmonies and emotional bursts like myself becoming consciousness of my emotions and ! maybe but this little hiding place I found near my home which I made my sanctuary and peace place was named after it. One day I found a dead dove on the road. I buried it at Grass and had a ceremony for it. I visit every once and a while. They removed the "Rainchild" stencil I sprayed on a fence there

[Tropic]

I thought that said deer haha

[guano]

soooooo many

grass- visiting my sister in brooklyn when I was 15? i think. first AC shit I heard. it opened my melon

#1- tripping in high school. walking around my town the morning after with giant pupils feeling incredible

all of sung tongs- the winter. snow and ice. melting. hardcore.

new town burn out- crying

doggy- parents' house

daily routine- my old stereo

MPP- smoking so much weed

soooo many more

[guano]

se me olvidó person pitch. shit changed my LiFe

[jetski]

This thread is so cool because it makes you realize that this band has affected many people's lives in a profound way