Collected Animals • General The Animal Collective Talk (...cont'd)

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Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 4:18 am

Hellomark wrote:

Merriweather era Chocolate Girl is one of my favorite things the band has ever done. Definitely my favorite version of that song. The 09 9:30 Club boot version just melts me every time.

it's a crime that chocolate girl didn't end up in ballet slippers

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 5:41 am

Ballet Slippers was just disappointing all around. Maybe the performances were good idk. The quality was too low to tell. And the packaging was just…unnecessary.

They should have just bottled and sold the Big Sur performance.

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 12:24 pm

Agree that Ballet Slippers was disappointing.

Some absolutely killer 07 shows that would have been treasured forever if released as a live album.

Totally separate thing: Wake My Door is fucking great and deserves more love.

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 2:26 pm

Ballet Slippers should've just been the 2009 9:30 Club show

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 2:59 pm

^shoulda been a 4LP release with 2007 and 2009 9:30 club

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 3:10 pm

i know we've had this exact thread at least a half-dozen times over the past decade, but I still wish CA could come up with a definitive list of essential boots per year/tour including solo stuff. so much good material.

listening to the 09 chocolate girl now and it's amazing/semi-heartbreaking that only super fan mega nerds like those of us who post here have heard it. so fucking pretty, the intro is one of the best pieces of sound they've ever done. i'm sure this was never on the table, but i reworked version on Fall Be Kind would have made that probably the best work they ever did.

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 3:13 pm

09 chocolate girl is just 12 straight minutes of rising action and it's perfect

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 4:14 pm

09 Chocolate Girl is peak fart bass

Post **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2023 8:14 pm

KidEatsKeyboard wrote:

09 Chocolate Girl is peak fart bass

This is extremely true. Only on goalkeeper would they dare try and challenge it

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:26 am

I have no problem with a great EP, but when you've got a shot at making an LP with your leftovers that still hangs together thematically to be an LP, man....... GO FOR IT.

So what I'm saying is that AC had the greatest run of LPs ever from 2003-2009, but it could've been even better had they decided to turn Water Curses and Fall Be Kind into LPs.

Water Curses:
OG WC first 4 songs
5. Safer
6. Playpen
= 37 minute LP

Notes: Yes, this is kinda SJII, and the band notoriously does not repeat themselves from LP to LP, but the material here is too strong to care about that. Plus, "Playpen" (resurrected from a few years earlier) would work as a great extended outro to "Safer," and Safer deserved to be within a full collection of songs.

---

Fall Be Kind:
1. Graze
2. WWIWS
3. From a Beach
4. Bleed
5. On a Highway
6. Atiba Song
7. I Think I Can
= 37 minute LP

"From a Beach/Maya" was worthy of being finished/released. And I'd like to think "Atiba Song" could've been written in 2009, in time to end up being worked on with AC for FBK, as it fits the vibe of the record. This would've been a very different vibe from MPP, a really nice dark-sounding counterpoint. 2009 was already massive with MPP + FBK EP, but I really think they could've enhanced FBK even more had they believed in Maya...

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:38 am

Did they ever record the original version of taste during the MPP sessions or was it totally scrapped and reworked before or in studio?

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:54 am

memememe wrote:

Did they ever record the original version of taste during the MPP sessions or was it totally scrapped and reworked before or in studio?

I think they lost the original samples they were using because a piece of gear died before they got in the studio, which is why they rewrote it

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 5:45 am

Putting playpen on Water curses is a fucking power move. I love that song.

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 7:16 am

dip at the tail-end of the melody on banshee beat on ballet slippers makes the whole thing worth it to these ears

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 9:51 am

roopn wrote:

memememe wrote:
Did they ever record the original version of taste during the MPP sessions or was it totally scrapped and reworked before or in studio?

I think they lost the original samples they were using because a piece of gear died before they got in the studio, which is why they rewrote it

Really? I think that was My Girls where the original piano sample was lost. They played Taste on BBC in 2009.

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:58 pm

"'My Girls' was definitely the most difficult to record,” Portner admits. "Just because we had one version of it and some of the instruments that we recorded were out of tune. It used to be more of a piano loop and not a synth loop, and tonally it was slightly off, so the first version we weren't happy with at all. We did an overhaul on it and built it up from scratch.”
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/ani ... t-pavilion

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 6:08 pm

2007 piano loop My Girls was pure magic. But was so weird with the lack of any substantial drums.

Post **Posted:** Wed Jul 05, 2023 6:18 pm

Piano was well better but fair play, good effort on how it turned out. Was listening to MPP this morning on a coastal drive, actually felt some of that Ecstatic Truth for the first time in a long time.

Post **Posted:** Thu Jul 06, 2023 5:12 pm

wrote:

There are some songs that I’m proud of, but as a collection and as a lingering experience, Strawberry Jam is my least favorite Animal Collective record. Though the audience reaction at that time…

Found this Avey quote in that redbull oral history thing. Strawberry Jam is as of now for all intents and purposes my favorite album, had no idea it was his least favorite. The "lingering experience" of that album so to speak is probably heavier than anything i've gotten from any other work of art. I have reoccurring dreams about aquariums that are always really vivid, had one recently and I forgot what the through-line was but sj had something to do with it and when i woke up I just felt that album really heavy if that makes sense. When u wake from a dream that's so euphoric and you're in that groggy freshly awake state and you're still clinging to the feelings from that dream. Not sure if this one was the one where all the aquariums were empty or if that was a different one.

SJ feels (lol) like the most definitive piece of art in my life thus far. There are songs in the ac canon that resonate with me more than a lot of the tracks on here but I don't think anything else I've encountered has been able to capture the entire spectrum of human emotion the way they do on sj, which is even crazier when you think about how its only 43 minutes which is kinda short for ac standards.

Post **Posted:** Thu Jul 06, 2023 5:55 pm

SJ is the most emotionally and creatively impacting record in my life as well. It is such a dynamic piece, and the journey has so many peaks and valleys that by the end it really feels like you've spent a whole day with AC. That runtime is a bit misleading. It feels longer than 43 minutes, but it's also really spectacularly concise which makes it such a perfect album. They crammed so many sounds and emotions within that runtime that you really get your money's worth for each second.

Also, I love that feeling when a dream reshapes your understanding or appreciation of an album. Nothing like it.

Post **Posted:** Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:56 pm

blindmowing wrote:

SJ is the most emotionally and creatively impacting record in my life as well. It is such a dynamic piece, and the journey has so many peaks and valleys that by the end it really feels like you've spent a whole day with AC. That runtime is a bit misleading. It feels longer than 43 minutes, but it's also really spectacularly concise which makes it such a perfect album. They crammed so many sounds and emotions within that runtime that you really get your money's worth for each second.

Also, I love that feeling when a dream reshapes your understanding or appreciation of an album. Nothing like it.

Yea definitely looking forward to that happening more in the future with dreams and albums. The aquarium link is kinda cool cause i feel like its a good analogy for their music, that album in particular. Kinda struggling to articulate why it makes sense but something along the lines of preserving a natural sense of chaos within synthetic borders. Kinda weird to think about too considering the whole fried desert vibe they described in regards to sj. guess water curses is a good medium for that and also my favorite thing they've released probably.

Post **Posted:** Thu Jul 06, 2023 11:19 pm

Read in some interview recently where Panda mentioned that a track with Erykah Badu might be in the works. I'm beyond hyped to hear what comes of that. There two voices are so different, but i know that the two have similar talent in finding a whole song while singing over loops. Hopefully Russell Elevado can connect them. I think it'll be a memorable one if it happens. I remember Badu mentioned being an AC fan in a video interview like around Chz era.

I've been obsessed with this Kaytranada remix lately. Feels like 1997 when i'm listening to it.
https://soundcloud.com/kaytranada/eryka ... of-my-life

Post **Posted:** Thu Jul 06, 2023 11:52 pm

If that's the interview I'm thinking of I believe he cited her as being the person he'd most like to collab with rather than there actually being a track in the works, but I completely second being hyped for them potentially working together, especially if it's a track where they both sing. New Amerykah Pt 2 definitely has some Person Pitchyness to it, plus it's just music that makes you feel good to be alive yknow

Make it happen Elevado!

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 12:14 am

studio cuckoo cuckoo is another perfect translation of a live song by the band (besides defeat of course). coming back to it now, it feels like i'm in a hazy room with them playing all around me, just like in the '05/'06 days. maybe my favorite song on strawberry jam that wasn't a single tbh.

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 3:07 am

blindmowing wrote:

SJ is the most emotionally and creatively impacting record in my life as well. It is such a dynamic piece, and the journey has so many peaks and valleys that by the end it really feels like you've spent a whole day with AC. That runtime is a bit misleading. It feels longer than 43 minutes, but it's also really spectacularly concise which makes it such a perfect album.

so, so true. SJ is incredible.

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 3:23 am

captainlunatic wrote:

studio cuckoo cuckoo is another perfect translation of a live song by the band (besides defeat of course). coming back to it now, it feels like i'm in a hazy room with them playing all around me, just like in the '05/'06 days. maybe my favorite song on strawberry jam that wasn't a single tbh.

yea it was my favorite song of all time at one point if it still isn't. can't think of anything that can top it rn other than maybe good lovin outside or reversed opis helpus.

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 3:45 am

Does anyone ever wonder what things might have looked like for the band if they had released CHz after SJ? It kinda makes stylistic sense to go from SJ to CHz to MPP to Painting With. Wonder how it might have changed the reception?

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 4:20 am

foxtrot wrote:

Does anyone ever wonder what things might have looked like for the band if they had released CHz after SJ? It kinda makes stylistic sense to go from SJ to CHz to MPP to Painting With. Wonder how it might have changed the reception?

Chz is very apparently an artistic negation of their success, it’s diametrically opposed to MPP, which is unfortunate because MPP is perfect music. I don’t believe avey would ever have started writing in his 2010s style if the bizarreness of total artistic success didn’t warp his soul. This all sound negative but that’s not how I mean it

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 4:26 am

Cooper wrote:

foxtrot wrote:
Does anyone ever wonder what things might have looked like for the band if they had released CHz after SJ? It kinda makes stylistic sense to go from SJ to CHz to MPP to Painting With. Wonder how it might have changed the reception?

Chz is very apparently an artistic negation of their success, it’s diametrically opposed to MPP, which is unfortunate because MPP is perfect music. I don’t believe avey would ever have started writing in his 2010s style if the bizarreness of total artistic success didn’t warp his soul. This all sound negative but that’s not how I mean it

it's also impossible to know how much of an impact his divorce from Kria impacted his feelings around MPP/success and how much that disintegration was the impetus for him wanting to just come back with a "fuck it all" era, Down There through Slasher Flicks

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 4:40 am

Cooper wrote:

foxtrot wrote:
Does anyone ever wonder what things might have looked like for the band if they had released CHz after SJ? It kinda makes stylistic sense to go from SJ to CHz to MPP to Painting With. Wonder how it might have changed the reception?

Chz is very apparently an artistic negation of their success, it’s diametrically opposed to MPP, which is unfortunate because MPP is perfect music. I don’t believe avey would ever have started writing in his 2010s style if the bizarreness of total artistic success didn’t warp his soul. This all sound negative but that’s not how I mean it

yea it's definitely got that "band that makes 'weird' music that accidentally cracked the code and made an album that defined a particular era of music and is adjusting to newfound fame" kind of adversity(?) to it. They've spoken a lot about the different factors that had a big influence on the way the album turned out and it definitely makes sense why it ended up sounding the way it did. and yea i cant lie i am one of those people that feels it's a bit of a decline in quality after releasing the greatest album of all time eight times in a row prior to that but that also almost makes me respect it more for just being an album where everyone was like "fuck it lets just take everything the four of us have come up with that we like and throw it all in the mix and only cut three of the original songs from the tracklist" and not some perfect sequel to mpp cause it was never supposed to be that.

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 4:44 am

Way more curious about what if Russell Elevado engineered CHz. Know the D'Angelo thing was mentioned a lot, but his Beatles/Led Zeppelin/prog influences excites me about what could've been

Spoiler: show

https://gearspace.com/board/interviews/ ... evado.html

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 5:32 am

They def translated cuckoo cuckoo perfectly to studio, honestly they nailed a lot of the Jam, even though i think the feels type mix mightve been better. Maybe chores would've been better. But fireworks, for rev green, safer, all of the big songs ended up so good after recording. It's funny avey doesnt like it as much.

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 5:30 pm

I’ve been listening to animal collective obsessively for almost a decade now. I doubt I will love any band as thoroughly and as deeply as i do with these guys. Their music has changed my life in more ways than I can count, and I want you to keep that in mind when I pose this next question: what is the actual reason behind why panda Bear enunciates his words like that when he performs live?

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 6:32 pm

Dusty wrote:

I’ve been listening to animal collective obsessively for almost a decade now. I doubt I will love any band as thoroughly and as deeply as i do with these guys. Their music has changed my life in more ways than I can count, and I want you to keep that in mind when I pose this next question: what is the actual reason behind why panda Bear enunciates his words like that when he performs live?

Haha, what you talking about? I need examples.

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 6:33 pm

Dudders wrote:

If that's the interview I'm thinking of I believe he cited her as being the person he'd most like to collab with rather than there actually being a track in the works, but I completely second being hyped for them potentially working together, especially if it's a track where they both sing. New Amerykah Pt 2 definitely has some Person Pitchyness to it, plus it's just music that makes you feel good to be alive yknow

Make it happen Elevado!

Yes! Make it happen Elevado!!!

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 6:34 pm

wrote:

what is the actual reason behind why panda Bear enunciates his words like that when he performs live?

the hard emphasis on the last syllable/consonants of a word?

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 7:12 pm

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

They def translated cuckoo cuckoo perfectly to studio

Interesting, I always thought the consensus was that they failed to capture the energy of the live performances of this song

Post **Posted:** Fri Jul 07, 2023 10:41 pm

Dusty wrote:

I’ve been listening to animal collective obsessively for almost a decade now. I doubt I will love any band as thoroughly and as deeply as i do with these guys. Their music has changed my life in more ways than I can count, and I want you to keep that in mind when I pose this next question: what is the actual reason behind why panda Bear enunciates his words like that when he performs live?

ive always thought he just likes the way it sounds - maybe there's an artist he's influenced by who sings like that and he thought it was cool

Post **Posted:** Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:35 am

I love it. One of the many things that make AC totally unique.

Post **Posted:** Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:42 am

rohcti wrote:

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:
They def translated cuckoo cuckoo perfectly to studio

Interesting, I always thought the consensus was that they failed to capture the energy of the live performances of this song

Only chumps think that. Any chumps?