There's a pretty cool poster for sale on eBay right now. It's from the summer 2007 Euro tour. These were some of the earliest MPP shows and lots of classic bootlegs were made on this tour: The Coronet, La Maroquinerie, MIDI Festival...
This is a pretty cool piece of AC history. Kinda pricey but I figured I'd share it here in case somebody was interested.
Nice! I've got one of these framed on the wall of my studio - I think it's the only one of the band posters I had covering my bedroom wall as an angsty teenager haha.
Finally caught the Pavement reunion last week and had a great time. Really fun to go into a show where you have no idea what the setlist could be. The Pavement guys clearly worked a lot to be able to play like 80+ songs or whatever but it would be so sick to AC tour like that at this point and it would give em a break from new stuff but they'd probably throw new songs into the mix anyway. Pavement did 2 songs from Slanted on Monday and then Tuesday when I saw them they played 9, no songs from Terror Twilight but 3-4 the night before, etc. Imagine AC doing something like that, one night you get all of Feels and the next it's heavy on Painting With with a few Danse tracks or something crazy. Again, massive amount of work and even moreso for AC with sounds/samples/gear etc. but I can dream.
Also both bands are eternally linked but especially in my mind where I knew of Pavement but reading about how Avey and Geo liked them I was like ok I really need to get into these guys now.
Relistening to Mr Fingers today has gotten me thinking how much a lot of ODDSAC ties in with SJ stuff sonically. I realise that ODDSAC was originally conceived somewhere around the SJ era but also realised I have no idea about the recording or writing other than it took three years and they sort of wrote it in tandem with Danny's visuals being produced. Can anyone shed any light on this?
FF: I know a bit about the process of making ODDSAC. I know that it was a pretty tight-knit collaboration with the band ANIMAL COLLECTIVE. Am I correct that they made “temp” score for it; you then made visuals to those sounds, then erased the “temp” score and had them make new sounds for the visuals?
DP: Totally.
FF: Has something like that ever been done before? Were you guys the first people to do something like this?
DP: I don’t know. I’d never like to presume that I’m the first to do anything in this saturated age we live in. Whenever I’ve tried to propose that technique on other projects the studios were like “fuck no.” On ANTIBIRTH I wanted to have members of GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR playing strings. I was going to have members of ANIMAL COLLECTIVE doing vocals. I wanted to make this whole super group and do that process again. The studios told me that I had three days to mix, two days to get the score together, etc. I get it, the reason is: they hear that process and think it’s going to cost a lot of money. And I’m like, “Motherfucker, I’m not talking about money… I’m talking about doing something interesting… Everyone’s down, they’ll find ways to do it.” As far as how ODDSAC was, it took a really long time. It was also really fun and really exciting. I’m a fan of the band also, first and foremost. I’m lucky that I’m friends with them and value our friendship still. We’re still making stuff together. But I would get these weekly, sometimes monthly emails with new temp tracks and new pieces of music and that was enough to keep me going for 4 years. As a fan I was just excited, it really turned me on. I really dug the music and I considered it a privilege to have this little window into getting these demo versions of stuff. The back and forth went on for about 3 years. There is a whole alternate version of the opening sequence that’s much more different sonically to what’s there now. We had a couple sessions in studios where I was editing stuff on-the-fly there. That whole “urban cream” sequence in the middle… for the record, I always wanted to be much shorter but they were like “NO, NO IT HAS TO BE THIS LONG.” That was an example of something we tweaked all the way until the end. I also like to think of ODDSAC as this thing that encompasses a good 4 or 5 years of my life. We shot it, but then there was 4 years of editing and working on the music. There was stuff in the movie that literally wasn’t made until that last week when we were in a studio and I just plopped it into a timeline. So it really is smorgasbord of stuff. Also just learning the programs that I was using. If I were to do it now, I could make ODDSAC in two months with my knowledge of the programs. But it was me hanging out with my dog figuring out what looked cool and what didn’t.
FF: So you’re sitting on a bunch of different versions of ODDSAC. Do you have any plans to show the world some of the other renditions or cuts of the film?
DP: To be honest I’ve never thought of that. I’m a little embarrassed; everything’s been collecting dust in hard drives in the file cabinet for 10 years now. I certainly would love to do something live with the band where I’m mixing and breaking down the video into parts that I can mix live. We talked about trying to do something along those lines before everything you know, has gone the way it has. Both the band and I are proud of it existing as it’s own thing. The music hasn’t been released separately and no one has, not that we’re in grave danger of this, but no one has taken the video and used it for visuals on some other thing. I really like the fact that it’s a stand-alone object even though DVDs are a thing of the past now. I think for now we’re content with it being one for the weirdo’s.
FF: So I guess there’s no intention to put out a 4K restoration or BluRay release?
DP: I would like to. It’s not off the table, I’ll say that. You didn’t give me the idea.
Great find! Thanks so much for that link. Would be interesting to know when certain songs came about - What Happened has MPP written all over it, Tantrum Barb feels very SJ. Screens and Working feel a bit harder to place in my mind.
I'm convinced that the "sonically different" alternate cut of the opening sequence has to mean the music that was played at the Glasslands set, crazy to think of what treasures they could have in the vault...
did any of you guys hear this dean blunt and panda track? is it new?
all of the gears are broken
all of the gears have come off
and i can't wait for what's next
With the success of IIN -- what a decade for the band so far! Two full band bangers, a top tier Panda (collab) album, a solid Avey Tare album... and it looks like we're in for a ripe period of solo albums coming down the pipe next:
Deakin's solo stuff is sounding great, Sinister Grift (hopefully mixed by Deakin) is surely going to hit, and the new Avey tunes are stunning and curious, feels like a bit of a new direction for him.
The inspired synergy of the 2000s gave way to a very diverse 2010s with multiple kinds of projects from all the members, and now the 2020s seems to be a combination of both worlds.
We're lucky to be fans of such a prolific collective.
Been listening to “Essplode” on repeat tonight both the album version and the live version with Fireworks and it’s just such an incredible song. It’s tangled and fucked up but also so cute and lovable
Been listening to “Essplode” on repeat tonight both the album version and the live version with Fireworks and it’s just such an incredible song. It’s tangled and fucked up but also so cute and lovable
It’s definitely the pop highlight/emotional summation of their early career. Perfect blend of songwriting and sound palette
They talk a lot about the reception to PW, as well as his relationship to Feels and Centipede Hz. Especially interesting were his comments about banshee beat vs purple bottle. He says banshee beat is a track that is very specific emotionally, so he still has a difficult time playing it, vs the purple bottle which is universal and very joyous
Excited to listen to that interview. The PW reception must have been such a bummer. When your diehard fans shit on the one time you go outside the box they're used to, it must be a bad feeling. I didn't understand the strong reaction against it at the time and I still don't really. You would think that a band that has such a loyal fanbase over their dozen+ releases throughout their careers, would have some faith and trust in the group re: their way of creating music. I don't know if entitlement is the right word, but the outward vitriol people (read: fans of the band) have had towards the album for the past several years seems ridiculous and almost selfish. Of course not everyone is going to like everything. But the way PW gets talked about compared to any of their releases, PW usually gets hyperbolic reactions like "it sucks ass" whereas other releases people seem to be more gentle with their criticism.
I don't know if any of the words I chose here accurately represent what I'm trying to get across so I'll apologize in advance (i'm not good at the writing thing)
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very maddening to think of the chz era now being in the direct middle of ac's existence (time-wise) at the moment.
also, love both records, but was thinking about how ChZ just feels so much longer than MPP even though its only about a minute longer. I think there's a bit of a slog that comes with Mercury Man and Pulleys... and yeah, you could argue this with New Town/Monkeys being back to back as well. I think swapping Mercury/Pulleys with Honeycomb makes the record feel way more energetic on the back end (and as a whole).
Moonjock
Today's Supernatural
Rosie Oh
Applesauce
Wide Eyed
Father Time
New Town Burnout
Monkey Riches
Honeycomb
Amanita
with IIN i think i got the AC album i've wanted since CHz... it is now time to tackle the next frontier
i know Pete said there are no plans to work with the full band but let's get Sonic Boom x AC please, some absolutely godly drone potential on that record
Interesting interview about ODDSAC above. It seemed like the consensus I heard online was that there's no way the source materials were above DVD quality, so a higher res release was unlikely to ever happen. I'd kill to see it. There's an 4k AI upscale on youtube but it has that AI look, really bad.
love the conflicting responses to an audio release of oddsac
Panda: would be cool i think were all down...just a long list of to dos i guess
Deakin: ODDSAC is still something that we ultimately feel is meant to be seen and heard and not separated
Did we know Pete Kember helped Josh put out Sleep Cycle (in the form of motivation iirc)? Another interesting tidbit from that Biden interview. I had no clue. What a g
Edit: he's helped with some mixing too
Last edited by rohcti on Sat Oct 14, 2023 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Interesting interview about ODDSAC above. It seemed like the consensus I heard online was that there's no way the source materials were above DVD quality, so a higher res release was unlikely to ever happen. I'd kill to see it. There's an 4k AI upscale on youtube but it has that AI look, really bad.
Yeah, but on a Blu Ray at least they could make the bitrate a lot higher, which would definitely help with scenes like Urban Creme and Kindle. And maybe bonus BTS footage? Early ODDSAC demos? A proper 5.1 mix?
Was listening to Javelin this morning and thinking a little about experimentation and artist progression. Sufjan has definitely been one to try new things and take each album in a new direction - something I find admirable and appealing. Ultimately though, I think he (and a lot of artists) have a certain sweet spot that works best for them. A wheelhouse in which their particular strengths best shine. Javelin sits right in that wheelhouse. It feels so perfectly 'Sufjan'. What has never ceased to amaze me is the way AC don't seem to have a sweet spot in the same way as many other artists. They perfectly inhabit and become whatever current era they're in. It is truly a wonderous thing. When they made Feels it felt so perfectly them. Same with MPP. Same with every album, including the Skiffs era Now. Where something like 'Age of Adz' or 'The Ascension' felt like 'Sufjan experimenting' albums (just using Sufjan as one example of many artists whose work comes across this way to me), every AC album feels like a very natural, pure, wholly inhabited take on AC's incredibly vast universe.
Was listening to Javelin this morning and thinking a little about experimentation and artist progression. Sufjan has definitely been one to try new things and take each album in a new direction - something I find admirable and appealing. Ultimately though, I think he (and a lot of artists) have a certain sweet spot that works best for them. A wheelhouse in which their particular strengths best shine. Javelin sits right in that wheelhouse. It feels so perfectly 'Sufjan'. What has never ceased to amaze me is the way AC don't seem to have a sweet spot in the same way as many other artists. They perfectly inhabit and become whatever current era they're in. It is truly a wonderous thing. When they made Feels it felt so perfectly them. Same with MPP. Same with every album, including the Skiffs era Now. Where something like 'Age of Adz' or 'The Ascension' felt like 'Sufjan experimenting' albums (just using Sufjan as one example of many artists whose work comes across this way to me), every AC album feels like a very natural, pure, wholly inhabited take on AC's incredibly vast universe.
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