[captainlunatic]

I keep thinking about this song. It feels like the studio version is going to be the apotheosis of their entire recorded output

[Stan]

It feels to me like the recorded version will be the ultimate 'how bout them fucken boots'

[destiny]

It seems today that all you see is violence and movies and sex on tv

[Fovrodi]

WHERE ARE THOSE GOOD AND OLD FASHIONED VALUES on which we could rely?

[captainlunatic]

PRAAAAAAAISE FOR THE TALKING DOOOOOOOOOOGS

[dio]

lol

saw this baby 3x this year (ill never stop talking about this truly sorry, honestly) and honestly first time back in march killed me the most. When he sang "PRAISE FOR THE UNDERDOG/ THAT WAS YOOOOOU WITH THE GOOOOOOD DAWWWWWWWWWWAWWWAWAG"

i saw this slightly bro-y looking summertime girls stan near me look like he was really emotionally walloped and that gave me faith in humanity in then EYE was crying a lil too.

And so every show I waited for that moment again. And honestly it didnt happen, i need the perfect recorded version of the GOOOOOOOD DOOOOOOOOOOAWAWAWAAG harmonies. Panda harmonies are stupid mode there good lord jesus.

I think the very last part just kept getting better this year.

I also went from thinking that, ya, maybe at least the first section could be trimmed, to um i want all of it. in fact multiply some of the verses/"chorus"s even more. make the bassline in the middle a single note. make it 43 min idc. i dont care, kill me, let this song be the man who kills me.

[captainlunatic]

^ Yeah I feel ya

I've been into the Blast Radio version again, harrowing stuff. Panda's vocals are on point

[rohcti]

I love how Panda's voice kinda warbles on the Blast Radio recording at the "underdog" part, sorta like an Ella Fitzgerald thing or something. That one and 930 are my favorites. It's really subtle but I hope the live recording has little details like that.

I also finally listened to the music box version a while back. I don't really remember exactly what it sounded like but I get why some ppl think it wasn't a good change to the newer version, the MB version has that 'mysterious' vibe nailed down. Idk which I like more though, I don't really want to listen to the old version more than once just so I can avoid too much demoitis

[captainlunatic]

New version has grown on me so much last few days. Meow Wolf 5/16/22 might be a new peak. How does this band do it

[Saferintheflowers]

The new and maybe finished version is really sweet. Probably going to go down as their best song of all time. For me, there's still just one but I gotta add and it's if they kept the music boxs lyrics to the middle section the same, the part where it picks up, I think it would've been the most perfect song 10/10 stars 100% ever made in music history. I really loved how that part had a little story going on to it rather than the same lines being repeated as it stands now. It took me a while to come around to it but I did and I do love it and very excited for it. I just want it on a official LP and not an EP. Almost all my favorite AC songs are off EPs lol and that's why I always gotta talk in era's. Which is sweet too. But if they get the song list right for this next album, it may be their absolute best album and easily best album since Feels. And it still shocks me that they can continue to be so creative. Honestly when PW came out, I loved it and still do but I definitely started thinking we were only ever going to get great songs but never anything spiritual changing stuff again. And I'm so glad I was totally wrong. Thank you for the read.

[ingenue]

Great posts on this page. I get to hear Time Skiffs-era tunes for the first time live this Saturday. I’ll be a bit crushed if “Defeat” isn’t on the setlist. I agree with the poster that said it could go down as their best song. It’s an epic, sure, and that’s part of its allure, but there is also something ineffable and uncanny about the melodies, like it’s drawing from all of the iterations of the band. It feels like a summation. Boys, if any of you are reading this, please play “Defeat” in Missoula! Drinks on me.

[Fovrodi]

Someone on Reddit interviewed Avey about it at Day In Day Out festival, not much we didn't know already unfortunately

Spoiler: show

I conducted this at Day In Day Out in Seattle 8/14/22. You can read the rest at silent light dot Substack dot com (am I not allowed to do this)

Alexander Francis Robertson: I'm not sure how much you want to reveal here, but you have a new song [“Defeat”] that's quite long--and it's not structurally like other long Animal Collective songs, like "Visiting Friends"; it's quite different. I see it referred to as a "suite"/"not suite"...

Avey Tare: Yeah, that's part of the title, was "A Not Suite," kind of in parentheses.

AFR: What did it mean or, like, what was the process like, composing in that mode?

AT: The way I actually...uh, the way I remember it, it kinda just all came out of me one night. I was just...we had started writing, just trying to come up with songs we were gonna play at the Music Box, in New Orleans, in 2018.

AFR: Oh, cool.

AT: And, um, Josh and Brian and I were all trying to contribute some stuff, and it was--it was nighttime, and I just sat down at my Juno, my keyboard, and, uh, yeah--I just started coming up with all the parts, and...in terms of, like, now, I feel like Josh sort of plays what I kind of, like, originally...plays along the lines of the vibes of how I kind of originally wrote it, which is sort of, like, very free-form, kind of organ-y...

AFR: Yeah.

AT: But, you know, with--with a chord structure...y'know, it's basically, like, four chords, the first part, and then there's, like...yeah, and then there's kind of a middle part, which is baroque...kinda...

AFR: Baroque!

AT: Yeah–like, instrumental, y'know, um...meshed with a weird folk-y kind of singalong?

AFR: Yeah!

AT: And then it goes back into a more kind of, like, free-form-y...y'know, we all just kinda have to, to...just to link in, to know, like, how the chords change, but I wanted it to be very loose, too. Because, uh...I don't know, I guess my brain these days, too, is thinking a lot more in that way--just sort of, like, non-structured structures, and just kind of breaking apart structures again, y'know.

AFR: For sure.

AT: I feel like especially with what we've been doing with the Time Skiffs and that kind of material, it's been stuff that's all been very rhythmic and locked-in, and a little bit more maybe, like, traditional, sort of, I guess?

AFR: Yeah, that makes sense.

AT: I kind of...I'm like this, where my head is kinda moving from that space, now.

AFR: I imagine that's kind of a natural part of the creative process.

AT: But this, y'know, was written--this was 2018. But yeah, I just did--I basically just came out and I wrote it all through on the Juno.

AFR: It just flowed forth.

AT: Yeah, yeah, and then I got together with Brian and Josh and actually kind of did the first incarnation of it, where I played the keyboard...Josh might have played piano? Or maybe another keyboard. And then, um, once Noah got involved...um, because Noah really responded to the song, so we didn't want to do that yet, so we brought Noah in and reworked it.

AFR: Cool. Alright, thank you, that was very thorough.

AT: [Laughs]

AFR: So, I'm an English teacher; I just finished my first year, and I love throwin' the most bizarre stuff at my ninth graders. And one of the essays that means a lot to me, it's this guy named Viktor Shklovsky, and he writes, "Habitualization devours work, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war," and he says that art can ward off "habitualization" by making objects "unfamiliar". What's an object that was successfully made "unfamiliar" to you by a piece of art?

AT: Object...unfamiliar...I think, to me...horror movies do that, where I sort of get myself in a frame of mind while watching horror movies where I sort of disassociate them from being necessarily these violent images, you know what I mean, and these images of death or murder, and they become more just about the colors, and, y'know, like, paintings or, like, living art, so I think...y'know, as far back as I remember and sort of, like, getting into things that are visual, and visual art and movies and stuff, like, yeah–horror movies.

AFR: Cool! And my last question is, some people think when it comes to the artistic process that there might be a substantive difference between an intellectual faculty that tries to figure stuff out and an intuitive faculty that just feels. Does that seem true to you, and if so, how do you keep those faculties in balance? Or maybe it's not true.

AT: I definitely think that's true, um, and I feel like I'm definitely the kind of artist or musician that weighs more on the intuitive side of things--I think having a balance of both, or a balance of anything in life, is probably the best...the best way to attack anything. I think there...there are artists, maybe, that approach things from a more intellectual, kinda thoughtful way, and artists that push things maybe from a more intuitive way. I guess I probably, like I said, lean more towards an intuitive way of playing, and I think it comes a lot from how, y'know, I'm used to playing with Animal Collective, but, uh...yeah, I dunno, I think you gotta try to find the best of both worlds.

AFR: Yeah.

AT: It's cool--I think...you can think too much, I think, um, about anything, and I--I'm, uh, not too much of a fan of...y'know...overthinking anything.

AFR: For sure.

AT: I think the best...sometimes the best versions of things are the first, kind of intuitive representation of the mood; the first thing that comes out is from the heart, y'know, and I think after that, you can start to overthink things, and you can lose sort of, like, the rawness, or the original intent, so in that sense I find intuition to be a great force.

[jfw7]

feel extremely justified that i keep tagging it "A Not Suite" in boots

[robertsona]

The descriptions were off-the-cuff so the vagueness probably compounds the “nothing we haven’t seen before” sense. Experience was a ripper tho, favorite band for half my life. Got a pic with all but Geologist too lol #greedy

[Fovrodi]

What is substack?

[robertsona]

It’s like a mix of Medium and Patreon—people sign up to receive hopefully periodic pieces of writing from you; often, you are made to pay for this content. It’s not a publication per se if that’s what you’re asking—more a platform

[rohcti]

jfw7 wrote:

feel extremely justified that i keep tagging it "A Not Suite" in boots

Haha good call

[nothingmaster]

just noticed panda's harmony in the middle section is an ascending melody.

[Avey Tane]

[blindmowing]

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

what!?

so is that.... are they saying "Defeat" is going to exist solely as a 12" single? i feel like we mighttttttttttt get it this year if that's the case!?

[tay's tee games]

Yeah I can very much see this happening... The whole conundrum of EPs vs LPs vs singles etc. sort of dissipates if you have Defeat as its own thing. The rest of the tracks (plus another one or two that they haven't been playing live) could comfortably fit on an LP without it. However heartbreaking it is to face, maybe a 23 minute long song doesn't have a place on an album - especially an album with two other songs pushing the 10 minute mark. Basically, they may well have done a Safer again...

But the positives here would be that if any song was going to stand on its own two feet, it would be this. And like blindmowing said, this surely means we get it this year?

[Stan]

Probably the best decision if the speculation is correct. I don't really see how this wouldn't overshadow everything else on the album, not only because of the length but scale and just how singular it is. It does mean that I'm not especially bothered about the next album, I'll enjoy it and will look forward to it but I'm now primarily interested in Defeat and whatever their next phase is.

[lhtd]

...y'all realize he's just shitting with us, right? There isn't any such "Defeat" on ASCAP.

[Tropic]

Haha another great fake AC title is revealed

[Tikwid]

but WHAT IF.....

[tulis]

Tikwid wrote:

but WHAT IF.....

oh no

[zak]

requesting perma ban lol

[blindmowing]

lol YA GOT ME AVEY TANE

i shoulda taken an extra second to look at your avatar and been like 'ya i don't trust THIS guy' hahaha

good one though, definitely got a chuckle outta me

[destiny]

Defeat is an orphan

[coral lord]

Nude Tane

[jfw7]

Tikwid wrote:

but WHAT IF.....

lol

[foxtrot]

Anyone else feel like its been too long?

The momentum and excitement is being sucked out of it a bit.

I'm sure it'll be right back the moment it actually drops but I've kind of stopped thinking about and listening to it. Its like smelling a meal that you'll never get to taste. At first its tantalising and then after a while you just get annoyed that you're never gonna eat it.

[tulis]

foxtrot wrote:

Anyone else feel like its been too long?

The momentum and excitement is being sucked out of it a bit.

I'm sure it'll be right back the moment it actually drops but I've kind of stopped thinking about and listening to it. Its like smelling a meal that you'll never get to taste. At first its tantalising and then after a while you just get annoyed that you're never gonna eat it.

I did but then I realized it’s the best

[captainlunatic]

THERE WAS NOT A SOUND

[blindmowing]

foxtrot wrote:

Anyone else feel like its been too long?

The momentum and excitement is being sucked out of it a bit.

I'm sure it'll be right back the moment it actually drops but I've kind of stopped thinking about and listening to it. Its like smelling a meal that you'll never get to taste. At first its tantalising and then after a while you just get annoyed that you're never gonna eat it.

my hype is a wave; there are weeks and months i don't think about their new stuff and then there are other periods which are very intense with anticipation, curiosity and wonder. seeing them live this month definitely increased yet satisfied my anticipation.

i've come to a point where i'm not very hungry for the studio versions to drop, because it feels imminent (ie. within a year), but if i don't hear any news about new music by around February by next year, i'm going to start getting very antsy.

[Tropic]

The Feat (Yup) is theoretically the worst possible thing they could call this

[Fovrodi]

I just want it to match this emotionally

[rohcti]

Tropic wrote:

Haha another great fake AC title is revealed

Lol I was totally hoodwinked, great title

[captainlunatic]

Okay, what *are* the words to the new middle section? Just realized I've been hearing them wrong

[wilandhugs]

captainlunatic wrote:

Okay, what *are* the words to the new middle section? Just realized I've been hearing them wrong

isn't it
"there was not a serpent in the water
the mirror, the what have we become" ?