Collected Animals

I really liked the acoustic version need to check that session out again.

I’ve had a connection in my head between this and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. To the point I considered making a long mix of the two albums fading into one another. The whole radio theme and they were roughly the same age when they made the respective albums. Only difference is YHF is widely considered Wilco’s best and CHz is...well not quite as adored :/

ac should have named the album "janky oh-hell fucked rot"

CHz's concept is "radio signals travelling through space", right? So it makes sense to me that it sounds like a radio recording— crackling, noisy, warm, little dynamic range. So I have no doubt that the production is a very conscious, deliberate decision.

But I don't think being intentional means it's necessarily good (or at least beyond reproach). Taking such dense, layered songs and crushing it into the mid-ranges makes it feel indistinct and muddy, and to me that makes it genuinely exhausting to listen to. There have been a number of times I put on CHz but have to give up after a few songs because it's just draining me.

this is a very good curiousity~inspiring writing!

It seems to be possible through mixing in audio software to turn Centipede Hz into a very low end heavy album where, by reducing the track volume first before applying bass boosting: due to the initial production's attributes, the bass becomes very huge, with most of the treble and mid range sounds still cutting through in a very compelling way because it sounds more like they are trying to sing and play loud enough to reach over the bass!!

I think that some of the negative reactions to Chz have influenced the way I see it now. Before I joined this board and before I realized the reaction was so negative, I was blown away by the album. I would listen to it every day for months (no joke)

oh man this post made me sad. Feel exactly the same way but kinda forgot how much I used to actually like it. CHz was my first AC album, I think... either that or MPP, but monkey riches was def the first AC song I heard. Listening now it's hard to get other people's criticisms out of my head, but you've reminded me that my old love is still valid. Gonna dive in again

I still love this album despite the negative reactions. Same with slasher. Those two records are just

Justice for Centipede Hz in 2019!

fuckyes

I've come around

centipede lit

GOAT

Justice? This thing was lit from day one! I remember blasting the initial broadcast/album debut, going bananas in my buddy's living room in the middle of a rainy summer night. Hearing cemented versions of organisms that had been living and breathing through distant, gnarled live recordings for months leading up to that night felt like meeting up with old friends.

The LP marked a strange, dark, transitional time in my life full of euphoric highs and murky lows. I'll always cherish the strange technicolor labyrinths of Centipede Hz for perfectly encapsulating that time.

Justice? This thing was lit from day one! I remember blasting the initial broadcast/album debut, going bananas in my buddy's living room in the middle of a rainy summer night. Hearing cemented versions of organisms that had been living and breathing through distant, gnarled live recordings for months leading up to that night felt like meeting up with old friends.

The LP marked a strange, dark, transitional time in my life full of euphoric highs and murky lows. I'll always cherish the strange technicolor labyrinths of Centipede Hz for perfectly encapsulating that time.

the LP was the first piece of mail I got after moving to San Francisco. Took the mp3s on a little walk, and then broke in my record player at home. plus, you know,

something about this song just love it

something about this song just love it

WITH BIG RAVEN

that poor, old, sad misplaced T-shirt

that poor, old, sad misplaced T-shirt

what this a reference to?

jerry wonder wrote:

that poor, old, sad misplaced T-shirt

what this a reference to?

amantia

!! a very beautiful and unique amanita photo by carstenspachmann!

It is really the first photo of one that i have seen thus far that to me feels truly reminiscent of the album! this one though, you could listen to the whole album with this photo around somehow and it would be very enhancing in both and all directions!!

Fellas is it possible that it took 8 solid years of listening to this album for Father Time to finally click with me? I put it on earlier today and was simply vibing the whole time. Some of my favorite lyrics on the album as well, but I guess that's always been the case.

Really a beautiful record in its own right. CHz has to be taken for it is, interiorized into itself and not understood from the outside (via AC's other records). The song writing and prodiuction really speak to me of a demythologized world, one that's not difficult to see once contemporary modernity is negated. Gone is the hot wet soul juice dripping off the leaves of MPP; hello liminal Lynchian anxiety.

Chz sounds very organic in comparison to pop music that was coming out in 2011, 2012, 2013

Fellas is it possible that it took 8 solid years of listening to this album for Father Time to finally click with me? I put it on earlier today and was simply vibing the whole time. Some of my favorite lyrics on the album as well, but I guess that's always been the case.

This was one of the ones where I found it extremely difficult to detach myself from the bootleg-itis ingrained 2011 pitchfork festival version "a long time ago" in my head. But yeah father time rips. Is Dave referencing the death of their friend in Gang Gang Dance via lightning strike in the prechorus?

I had no idea about that. I would say yes, almost certainly

"Glass Jar" is about that guy also. Imo the greatest GGD song, truly fucking epic

That's sad about that guy... Glass jar is incredible... And I've always loved father time too. I kinda wish THAT was the song they jammed on instead of pulleys and brought back recently. Feel like it kinda fits with some of the new songs

i always thought too soon was about nathan too...a lot of shit happened in 01-02 that made hcti so dark but i could be wrong

I never listen to this album. In a way I am happy because I know I still have this one to unfold really.

Didn't you see them on one of the CHz tours? How'd you like the show

Yes it the first time I saw them but it was the end of the tour and they played a lot of older songs too. The show was amazing. It was really right when I fell in love with them after discovering Feels, Fall be kind and Merryweather.
I like the album but I never listened to it on loop like the other ones I still have to go through my Centiped Hz phase. Also I never listened to Transverse Temporal Gyrus

Yes it the first time I saw them but it was the end of the tour and they played a lot of older songs too. The show was amazing. It was really right when I fell in love with them after discovering Feels, Fall be kind and Merryweather.
I like the album but I never listened to it on loop like the other ones I still have to go through my Centiped Hz phase. Also I never listened to Transverse Temporal Gyrus

Once you feel the need to rediscover/discover that era you should do it chronologically and start with the early boots, the radio shows/release and finally the post-release shows!

a lil late but happy 9th bday centipede hz

i still wish monkey riches was just a bit better or closer to the original live versions & that amanita was maybe a bit different too but otherwise remains an all-time fav (and the second-most fun time i ever had anticipating an album), there's nothing else with exactly this ridiculous, messy-fluorescent sound palette

a lil late but happy 9th bday centipede hz

i still wish monkey riches was just a bit better or closer to the original live versions & that amanita was maybe a bit different too but otherwise remains an all-time fav (and the second-most fun time i ever had anticipating an album), there's nothing else with exactly this ridiculous, messy-fluorescent sound palette

Yeah it really is a unique sounding album. Just all the sounds are so different and alien, which makes sense based on the intentions of the album and the promotion cycle.

I remember very very vividly watching the livestream with friends with the psychedelic video just basking in the insanity.

Way over compressed and produced. This album needed to be recorded live in a big room, not closed off and tight in a studio.

A very happy birthday to Centipede Hz, which I love about as much as my stepdad. Decent, functional, kind to my mum, but ultimately I have no respect because I'm just that kind of person.

Lmao

Live at 9:30 is the definitive way to listen to these songs imo. Mostly because I was at that show

A very happy birthday to Centipede Hz, which I love about as much as my stepdad. Decent, functional, kind to my mum, but ultimately I have no respect because I'm just that kind of person.

lol

I still love this album. Idk

Still think they should've included all the songs on the album, for how maximal they were aiming it's weird that it's shorter than MPP. It wouldn't even be a double album p sure, hell Joanna Newsom did a triple album just two years earlier. Already posted this but hey whatever. Still mad their ATP mixtape is in the wind

Skiffs is seeming like a kinda even weird, more jazzy-in-part return to chz world except panda has a more normal kit and Avey is on guitar not keyboard (I think? mostly?). and it's a bit more chill overall. and pebbly better, tho I love half of chz a TON

^ Avey’s actually almost fully on bass guitar this new cycle, but Deakin does lots of keys. That, combined with panda’s drums reminds me a little of CHz too, though with a very different (vibier, less alien) sound palette.

I do think I enjoy this album more than I give it credit for. Unfortunately, Moonjock is one of my absolute least favorite AC songs, so having it start the album makes it less enticing for me I suppose. Though I still listen because I love the transition into Today’s Supernatural (which is awesome, and one where they really pulled off the “rock” thing, plus I’d never heard an Avey vocal like it). I loved how NTB and Monkey Riches really felt like full band realizations of the prior solo albums (Tomboy and Down There). Rosie Oh and Wide Eyed both have so much ear candy going on throughout. I agree Father Time shouldn’t be overlooked either, it’s quite a jam! Applesauce is fun as hell, too. For some reason I’m kinda burnt out on Amanita at this point though, but I suspect that’ll change again at some point

Way over compressed and produced. This album needed to be recorded live in a big room, not closed off and tight in a studio.

Yep, this is 100% it. Still love the first 4 tracks, Applesauce in particular will always be one of their best songs to me. And then NTB and Amanita are quite good too. I still remember my first listen p vividly, wish I could go back and hear Moonjock for the first time, that first listen was special. But, I also remember hearing studio Monkey Riches for the first time and thinking "oh no, this is kind of a mess isn't it?"

Mercury man is like a energized circus of sadness or "wistful-ness" maybe. And kind've emblematic of all AC to me, Like this songs foundation could've been played in any era which i dont think you can say for a lot of ac's songs since their eras can get so conceptual. But this jam has the energy that they just own and dominate rooms with. The driving percussion and how the song moves through it reminds meo f the wildest parts of feels with the anxious and unstable feeling of some songs on strawberry jam. it's just so fuckin ac. They use this enerrgy to like, animate anxiety. This song about distance hits real hard too. It's just so fucking sad.

I think the song is probably the most straight forward sad songs lyrically AC has done. or one of the most. While i actually think "To live with someone in the heart of nowhere" is one of the best ac lyrics in the 2010s and the repeated stanza if he could just get the flow of the bridge correct could be massive. I think the studio version's breakdown is much more cohesive but live it's just so huge but it obviously feels not polished since its live. surviving from live to studio though is "if you could only feel whats wrong" which is fucking capital THE animal collective baby. they are just so disarmingly sad seemingly at random. the lyrics in the song invoke so much clearly pained but not totally depressed imagery and energy. the studio i feel captures the energy, my only qualm with the recording being how long the guitar is, the guitar being such a driving force live it sounded. but on studio the ringing synths sound so good and fitting for the song. gives bittersweet!!!

i just think this song is so amazing but also had the potential to be even better(?) due to some mixing decisions. i think the breakdown can sound kind've muddy, and like i said before the guitar kind've gets lost in there sometimes which is tough. but wow what we got is absolutely fantastic and super rewarding to relisten to, at least in my opinion.

Great post FO. Any live versions you'd recommend?