[dio]

diatomatix wrote:

awesome wrote:

solid B from the av club

https://www.avclub.com/animal-collectiv ... 456198/amp

"merriweather park pavilion" ... subjectivity is fine (nature of the beast, etc.) but from a journalistic standpoint, glaring inaccuracies like these make me seriously question how carefully these reviewers actually listen to the albums they're reviewing.

most reviews are literally gaslighting us by very confidently saying things like: "Panda's bass playing and Geologist's guitar intertwine excellently"

[popadam]

since everyone is sharing their meeting AC moments, i'll share a pretty endearing one.

saw gang gang dance/deakin a few years ago and was chillin outside the venue with some friends. bands were out there too but im not usually the type to say anything. someone taps me on the shoulder and i turn around and its the deak. he says "are you guys here to see me play?" and were all like "yeah for sure" and he's like "ok im just about to go on so if you dont wanna miss anything come inside soon". after the show he came up again and thanked us for listening. thought it was kinda cute that he seemed worried about people skipping his set.

[r_o_s_s]

that warms my heart holy moly, i love that

[unpopular]

r_o_s_s wrote:

Met PB before the first Buoys show in Manchester and he was really chill. He was actually just walking to the venue with his crew and had stopped to look at his own tour poster on the wall lol. I shook his hand, told him how much his music meant to me, told him how excited i was about the show, then moved on.

As far as "celebrity" interactions go, I was pretty happy with it. I never want to overstay my welcome and make an ass out of myself. I was once extremely drunk and introduced myself to HEALTH, luckily i can't really remember how much of a fool i acted.

I've messaged Avey a few times after the odd track or whatever has been released and just been like "cool stuff love it", and he usually just responds with a positive-seeming emoji. Not sure how he'll respond to a novel like that haha.

yeah this has been my experience. i was 18 when i met PB after a show and was extremely starstruck/a lot like mr/ms/mx DM up there telling him how much his music meant to me and that his stuff got me through some tough times, he was very gracious in the moment and took a pic with me. after i got that out of my system i love meeting artists after the shows and just shooting the shit about the tour/favorite places theyve been/great show buddy/etc trying to not overstay my welcome

when i saw avey on the cows tour some guy came up to josh after the show and started crying while talking to him, one of the more awkward interactions i've witnessed in my time on this strange planet

[Fritz]

dio wrote:

diatomatix wrote:

awesome wrote:

solid B from the av club

https://www.avclub.com/animal-collectiv ... 456198/amp

"merriweather park pavilion" ... subjectivity is fine (nature of the beast, etc.) but from a journalistic standpoint, glaring inaccuracies like these make me seriously question how carefully these reviewers actually listen to the albums they're reviewing.

most reviews are literally gaslighting us by very confidently saying things like: "Panda's bass playing and Geologist's guitar intertwine excellently"

lol

that avclub review read more like a B+ to me; it mentioned more specific musical references than most (no beach boys!!!), rightfully called Cherokee the centerpiece, got the gist of the album. I resent Phish comparisons but that's part of the package now I suppose.

Also fuck the avclub the big company that bought them just forced out some of their best writers because they wouldn't move to Los Angeles.

[r_o_s_s]

btw just wanna get across how fuckin ecstatic and excited i am that tomorrow im going to listen to a new album by my favourite band in the world, animal collective. the journey to this album has been wild and i just cannot wait to have it in my hands.

i know a lot of you have already heard the full thing, but as someone who hasn't heard the boots or anything past the first three singles, there is still so much mystery left hiding inside this record. i'm just so happy that the day is finally here. love you all.

[Andrew_VB]

Fritz wrote:

I resent Phish comparisons but that's part of the package now I suppose.

[DownthereSwampthing]

On the fist day of the Big Sur camping weekend, I managed to enter into a casual chat with Avey and fans on the campgrounds. Someone asked him about his alligator jewelry, which he responded positively to, smiled and simply explained that he liked alligators. Then it was my turn. I told him that I had seen the band play earlier that year in LA and that they had really perfected their Floridada. Crickets... (the full story is that booking that concert ticket actually gave me the courage to move from Baltimore to the west coast, but for some reason I was having trouble relating that to him). After the show, I found Avey again. He was chilling with Eric Copeland, seemingly enjoying himself. I forced myself to walk up to him and request a photo. The photo was terrible and not worth interrupting their friendly conversation for. Plus it was probably rude of me not to ask Eric to join in as the two go back and he's a strong musician in his own right.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to not approach your most cherished artists under any circumstance. If you simply must, be sure to give them love and not make it all about yourself. If you freeze up, complement the artist's clothes or jewelry. That usually works.

[Strange_Clams]

Grateful dead is a far superior band to the beach boys if were being real here

Only time Ive ever talked to the band is I had a quick chat about the tangerine reef performances with Brian at a gang gang dance show. He said they were trying to do it at an aquarium but it would have been too loud and disturbed the fish

[zarya]

I have only met Panda, after one of his shows. Very kind. I was shaky and star struck because of course I'd be an anxious wreck around someone like that, but he could tell haha. Got one of the worst pictures of me ever with him!

[Royal and Desire]

KidEatsKeyboard wrote:

Royal and Desire wrote:

I wrote avey a long and very not formatted letter of appreciation to his insta and I am afraid of his response already

Spoiler: show

I'm sure you're not actually pretentious, but this really comes off that way... I think Avey would probably get more out of something that is honest, brief, and human than something so deeply coated in metaphor. Just unnecessary.

Hahaha, I think I was just stewing in bed about a bunch of shit and I was like 'I should just say this now because why not?'

I was also just feeling mighty inspired by the usage of vocabulary, so it just happened to be really flowery in the process. The good news is that I used a throwaway instagram account that I never use

[dio]

put giant posts in spoiler tags esp if re-posting

[unpopular]

anyway to finally contribute something to the discussion:

listened to the skiffs freebird a few times on a long winter drive- this is one of my favorite records of theirs, period. love how light everything sounds while still having so much weight in the mix. major props to heba kadry and marta salogni, absolutely gorgeous mix going on here even with the vinyl rip and multiple passes of re-encoding compression. i wish the band nothing but good fortune and vibes in future creative endeavors with sonic boom and rusty santos but please do not let them anywhere near the final mix of an AC project again.

there's so much subtle movement in the tracks here. yadda yadda *comparing albums in their discography bullshit* painting with had it's moments but it felt like i was struggling to keep up with what they were doing at points. love how each transition in a song here will let another layer introduce itself- the combing steel guitar on dragon slayer, the vocal harmonies on cherokee, the sax on royal & desire... bliss.

dragon slayer, strung with everything, and royal & desire have entered the pantheon of all-timer AC tracks for me. not a dud in the bunch here either. only one i haven't cared for as much is we go back but that's mostly due to the fact that i saw them play it at desert daze off a half tab after opening with the most heartachingly beautiful rendition of banshee beat, only to veer straight off into this wormy reggae carnival-ass sounding music (which i would later find out is gem and i -> we go back). at that point it was still a skeleton of a track and they were heavily using autotune, so it just sounded like avey was singing BONER BONER BONER and it took me a very long time to shake that experience. which also, seeing the germination of this stuff from music box in 2018 -> desert daze 2019 -> pandemic boots -> pitchfork 2021 -> time skiffs has been really, really cool. hearing the original versions of we go back and prester john, those tracks were skin and bone. maybe not even skin. just bone. they really polished a little bit of a turd on some of these demos (the original walker bootleg lmao)

was also pleasantly surprised at how well the singles worked in context. kinda dumb of domino to drop an entire side of the record as singles OUT OF ORDER, but they work so well within their space on the record. walker is another standout to me, such a massive groove and those harmonies at the end...

so glad deakin has found his creative voice on here too, his contributions post-CHz have been some of my favorite AC moments. royal & desire sounds like he's the lounge singer on one of the time skiffs; the last night of the journey, singing as the sun sets and the boat passes back into the realm of the living.

[DownthereSwampthing]

zarya wrote:

I have only met Panda, after one of his shows. Very kind. I was shaky and star struck because of course I'd be an anxious wreck around someone like that, but he could tell haha. Got one of the worst pictures of me ever with him!

A collage of AC fans taking photos with the boys would be the most cursed thing.

[Royal and Desire]

hedgecore wrote:

Royal and Desire wrote:

I wrote avey a long and very not formatted letter of appreciation to his insta and I am afraid of his response already

Spoiler: show

I gotta be honest.... this sucks... lol

Maybe it does, but I've gathered a lot of reception from you fine folks that navel gazing at 5 am isn't always the best

[unpopular]

DownthereSwampthing wrote:

zarya wrote:

I have only met Panda, after one of his shows. Very kind. I was shaky and star struck because of course I'd be an anxious wreck around someone like that, but he could tell haha. Got one of the worst pictures of me ever with him!

A collage of AC fans taking photos with the boys would be the most cursed thing.

can we please make this happen? terrible pics only

the one pic i managed to get from panda from my aforementioned 18 year old starstruck simp moment was actually pretty decent, though some dude on tumblr tried to cyberbully me for being straight edge (in reality i was underage and had X's sharpied on my hands by security so the venue could prevent college freshmen like myself from puking all over the crowd)

[dio]

But ya so this record is gr8 huh. I'm still resisting listening all that much until digital on Friday.

Shoutout to Walker which bizarrely keeps growing. Whereas SWE kinda hit hard on listen 3-8 and now im kinda like hm ya word. Its sick as hell dont get me wrong, but it does feel a bit like its sticking out oddly. But why wouldn't it.

Do I kinda want Broke Zodiac or Gem & I in its place? Eh maybe. But nah it brings some really good energy and diversity to the mix. Whole album has a ton of variety.

Car Keys esp has energy that none of the other tracks really have, but still totally fits.

This is their best instrumentation since MPP. I think that's the easiest definitive comparative style evaluation I can make at this point. I just love all the instruments/playing and production/mixing.

Songwriting is also ace af and stronger to me than most band stuff since MPP too, but that feels more subjective and hard to pin down

[KidEatsKeyboard]

Royal and Desire wrote:

Hahaha, I think I was just stewing in bed about a bunch of shit and I was like 'I should just say this now because why not?'

I was also just feeling mighty inspired by the usage of vocabulary, so it just happened to be really flowery in the process. The good news is that I used a throwaway instagram account that I never use

Ha it's all good, I definitely understand and relate to that feeling of inspiration. Not sure why I was so harsh.

[TetsuoUnderFire]

Tropic wrote:

A shot of whiskey, nice. Dude was down there for sure

Yeah I remember something about him saying those other songs would probably never see daylight again because they were simply too depressing and painful for him to play and record. Devastating time for the homie. Shame he and Kria didn't work out. They made some beautiful tunes together, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Glad he seems to be in a much happier spot in life. It definitely seems his new love and lifestyle over the past 5 years have really boosted his spirits. Strung with Everything seems like one of the most upbeat things he's put out in a long time.

[Royal and Desire]

Re: Skiffs

I love it to pieces but I'm also feeling a bit upset by critical reception. It's all mostly just 'this is what anco shouldve been doing BUT it's just passable do better next time 7/10 or 8/10' insert clickbait MPP opinion

It doesn't change my enjoyment but I was hoping this could be more like a mass celebration

[dio]

buddy they're never gonna have the reception they had from Sung to MPP. That'd honestly be kinda corny at this point.

I think simply based on strength of the rest of the Skiffs era material that Skiffs 2 might skew a little more towards a more 9ish type average and this record is paving the way for that but like.

Eh, we've been talking about critics a lot past pages, let it be known most of us do not care much about reception at all. Let it be know...

[Jam]

Fritz wrote:

I resent Phish comparisons but that's part of the package now I suppose.

Honestly though.... "I build a thing and it does" delivery/melody/lyric is VERY fish ... strung with everything overall. ..

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRMfyaDlNaQ&list=PLK9V7Z35y8q-bPz576CZVQG_iFHqV3EOq&index=2[/youtube]

[TetsuoUnderFire]

Does anyone else feel like Walker is a sort of love letter to fans - "This is just for you to know, we want it just for you to know. Appreciate, we cannot wait to see you out there." Seems referential to the lock downs and being apart and away from performing.

[TetsuoUnderFire]

Jam wrote:

Fritz wrote:

I resent Phish comparisons but that's part of the package now I suppose.

Honestly though.... "I build a thing and it does" delivery/melody/lyric is VERY fish ... strung with everything overall. ..

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRMfyaDlNaQ&list=PLK9V7Z35y8q-bPz576CZVQG_iFHqV3EOq&index=2[/youtube]

I think it's a bit odd to jump to Phish though considering Phish is just Grateful Dead 2.0 essentially. Why not make the direct comparison to the Dead to begin with? Because then it seems like praise rather than saying they're trying to be a knock off of a knock off? No shade at Phish, by any means. Trey Anastazio is a beast

[Royal and Desire]

dio wrote:

buddy they're never gonna have the reception they had from Sung to MPP. That'd honestly be kinda corny at this point.

I think simply based on strength of the rest of the Skiffs era material that Skiffs 2 might skew a little more towards a more 9ish type average and this record is paving the way for that but like.

Eh, we've been talking about critics a lot past pages, let it be known most of us do not care much about reception at all. Let it be know...

It's a selfish thing for me just want to see the band succeed critically and commercially again, not that it would validate my own opinion per se, would just be like yeahhhh AnCo is hot again to the masses woo!

Also doesn't really do much of anything, I'm aware

[dio]

TetsuoUnderFire wrote:

Does anyone else feel like Walker is a sort of love letter to fans - "This is just for you to know, we want it just for you to know. Appreciate, we cannot wait to see you out there." Seems referential to the lock downs and being apart and away from performing.

^Seems like it? Its like New Town Burnout except inspired to push on through travel fatigue and so its like more upbeat than NTB. I love that song, its such a solid, strait forward tune in the middle of the LP

[TetsuoUnderFire]

Royal and Desire wrote:

hedgecore wrote:

Royal and Desire wrote:

I wrote avey a long and very not formatted letter of appreciation to his insta and I am afraid of his response already

Spoiler: show

I gotta be honest.... this sucks... lol

Maybe it does, but I've gathered a lot of reception from you fine folks that navel gazing at 5 am isn't always the best

BUY THE ALBUM GUYS! I have my deluxe LP on the way, and I am absolutely stoked.

[Royal and Desire]

It doesn't make the bird mentioning alright but didn't they want skiffs out way sooner and Domino was the one trying to make it more like a typical release schedule?

[dio]

40 hours til those digital downloads are unleashed.

Amazon says my cd will actually make it on Fri. And hoping for vinyl delivery on Saturday. A weekend of Skiffs.

I can feel the singles slowly click into place so that by this weekend it will all be this cohesive thang.

I'm considering forming my identity going forward around the worship of Spirit, MPP and this. I think that would be a strong, intriguing selection of "faves".

Sorry Strawberry Jam. Me and Avey HATE you now.

[awesome]

4 star (of 5) review from a site called the arts desk

https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/album ... ime-skiffs

[Jam]

TetsuoUnderFire wrote:

I think it's a bit odd to jump to Phish though considering Phish is just Grateful Dead 2.0 essentially. Why not make the direct comparison to the Dead to begin with? Because then it seems like praise rather than saying they're trying to be a knock off of a knock off? No shade at Phish, by any means. Trey Anastazio is a beast

What I'm hearing isn't anything to do with the jam roots of Phish, to me it sounds like the goofiness and jazziness of Phish, which is unique to them and not really what they inherited from the Dead

[r_o_s_s]

anyone in the UK heard anything from Domino about the vinyl dispatch? I’ve heard absolutely nothing. Doubt it’ll be here for Friday.

[dio]

considering creating a new website publication just 2 review this. throw my hat in the ring

[dio]

awesome wrote:

4 star (of 5) review from a site called the arts desk

https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/album ... ime-skiffs

actually a lot of unique references/comparison AND its their "disc of the day". Maybe I like this site...

[Stan]

I would love their next LP to just be called FUCK THE FANS

[bullseye]

dio wrote:

TetsuoUnderFire wrote:

Does anyone else feel like Walker is a sort of love letter to fans - "This is just for you to know, we want it just for you to know. Appreciate, we cannot wait to see you out there." Seems referential to the lock downs and being apart and away from performing.

^Seems like it? Its like New Town Burnout except inspired to push on through travel fatigue and so its like more upbeat than NTB. I love that song, its such a solid, strait forward tune in the middle of the LP

They played the song in 2019, so I doubt it's referential to the lockdowns.

[dio]

they knew something.... somehow? they knew...

[meys]

man my TS LP has been dispatched for days but it's wednesday now and hasnt even moved past "USPS awaiting item" in the USPS system. with the speed they operate at it wont even get here by saturday. domino's shipping is so fuckin bad lmao

[ingenue]

I met Dave in a hotel elevator. He thought I was the pool boy and asked for more towels.

Thanks for sharing all your thoughts on the songs guys/gals. I’m holding out till Friday. Psyched, to say the least.

[dio]

ingenue wrote:

I met Dave in a hotel elevator. He thought I was the pool boy and asked for more towels.

you win