[Jam]

Oh absolutely, that's what's so great about it

[Stan]

I can actually get on board with the 'it's ugly as sin, and that's what I love about it'. I respect that people can get behind that aesthetic and the jingle melodies. I even respect that anyone thinks Monkey Riches is great because that's probably the ugliest stinking clanking drainpipe filled with hair and rotten leaves and birdshit kind of song they ever wrote. I personally can't abide it but it's got character in spades.

Makes me think of a guy I used to know who threw his toilet out of a sixth storey window when he was off his tits on some Uyghur weed. He ended up squatting over the resultant hole and shitting directly into the pipe until it clogged up because he couldn't flush and then he just put a cushion over the hole, shat into plastic bags and carried them downstairs and put them into the public bin. Incredible flamenco guitarist, trained with fuckin Paco Peña, once stayed at my house in England on an ill-advised visit and made me breakfast in bed, ended up getting egg on the fucking ceiling. Top c*** tbf but a fucking disgrace to society, never knew what you were gonna get and more often than not it was a very regretful adventure. I wish in a way we were still in touch but he threatened me with a pan of boiling water because I said I preferred Miles Davis to Charlie Parker. Add that to the egg thing and shitting down a pipe and you know, every tin of tuna has an expiry date.

I suppose that's kind of what I love about a lot of Black Dice, ugly fucking metal mating music. Metal men shoving their heads up each other's arses and peeling back their metal man foreskin and whacking their metal glans on some other metal fuckwit's manky metal bollocks. That's not what happened with my mate, not on any level, but there's elements of the unmitigated filth and grime to his existence that I can see some people find loveable and the same with CHz. That's the essence of Black Dice to me. Clang clang clang let's boil some fuckin eggies and egg fuck out of every surface of your rental property you normcore c***.

[hedgecore]

Great post

[nothingmaster]

this all makes sense to me. CHz didn't click with me until I heard it while going through hydrocodone withdrawals a few days after a gnarly wisdom tooth extraction

[Fovrodi]

Thx stan, that does remind me there was one Black Dice interview where they said Sammy Hagar's mas tequila was on the radio on their way and they were completely baffled it was something people would just play on the radio. Music really is totally subjective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdMfCNyeGg0

[hypo's]

Stan wrote:

I can actually get on board with the 'it's ugly as sin, and that's what I love about it'. I respect that people can get behind that aesthetic and the jingle melodies. I even respect that anyone thinks Monkey Riches is great because that's probably the ugliest stinking clanking drainpipe filled with hair and rotten leaves and birdshit kind of song they ever wrote. I personally can't abide it but it's got character in spades.

Makes me think of a guy I used to know who threw his toilet out of a sixth storey window when he was off his tits on some Uyghur weed. He ended up squatting over the resultant hole and shitting directly into the pipe until it clogged up because he couldn't flush and then he just put a cushion over the hole, shat into plastic bags and carried them downstairs and put them into the public bin. Incredible flamenco guitarist, trained with fuckin Paco Peña, once stayed at my house in England on an ill-advised visit and made me breakfast in bed, ended up getting egg on the fucking ceiling. Top c*** tbf but a fucking disgrace to society, never knew what you were gonna get and more often than not it was a very regretful adventure. I wish in a way we were still in touch but he threatened me with a pan of boiling water because I said I preferred Miles Davis to Charlie Parker. Add that to the egg thing and shitting down a pipe and you know, every tin of tuna has an expiry date.

I suppose that's kind of what I love about a lot of Black Dice, ugly fucking metal mating music. Metal men shoving their heads up each other's arses and peeling back their metal man foreskin and whacking their metal glans on some other metal fuckwit's manky metal bollocks. That's not what happened with my mate, not on any level, but there's elements of the unmitigated filth and grime to his existence that I can see some people find loveable and the same with CHz. That's the essence of Black Dice to me. Clang clang clang let's boil some fuckin eggies and egg fuck out of every surface of your rental property you normcore c***.

ilu stan

im a stan for stan

[captainlunatic]

hedgecore wrote:

Great post

[blindmowing]

Stan wrote:

I can actually get on board with the 'it's ugly as sin, and that's what I love about it'. I respect that people can get behind that aesthetic and the jingle melodies. I even respect that anyone thinks Monkey Riches is great because that's probably the ugliest stinking clanking drainpipe filled with hair and rotten leaves and birdshit kind of song they ever wrote. I personally can't abide it but it's got character in spades.

Makes me think of a guy I used to know who threw his toilet out of a sixth storey window when he was off his tits on some Uyghur weed. He ended up squatting over the resultant hole and shitting directly into the pipe until it clogged up because he couldn't flush and then he just put a cushion over the hole, shat into plastic bags and carried them downstairs and put them into the public bin. Incredible flamenco guitarist, trained with fuckin Paco Peña, once stayed at my house in England on an ill-advised visit and made me breakfast in bed, ended up getting egg on the fucking ceiling. Top c*** tbf but a fucking disgrace to society, never knew what you were gonna get and more often than not it was a very regretful adventure. I wish in a way we were still in touch but he threatened me with a pan of boiling water because I said I preferred Miles Davis to Charlie Parker. Add that to the egg thing and shitting down a pipe and you know, every tin of tuna has an expiry date.

I suppose that's kind of what I love about a lot of Black Dice, ugly fucking metal mating music. Metal men shoving their heads up each other's arses and peeling back their metal man foreskin and whacking their metal glans on some other metal fuckwit's manky metal bollocks. That's not what happened with my mate, not on any level, but there's elements of the unmitigated filth and grime to his existence that I can see some people find loveable and the same with CHz. That's the essence of Black Dice to me. Clang clang clang let's boil some fuckin eggies and egg fuck out of every surface of your rental property you normcore c***.

Wait, are you the modern day Henry Miller? When's the book coming out?

[Stan]

More Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but cheers. Love all you guys and gals. X

Edit I mean I look a little bit like Michael Rooker, not that I murder with impunity.

[tdegenaro]

I'm happy to admit i have blinders for ChZ because it was the first release of theirs I followed as a fan, I was at P4K 2011, had just moved to cali summer 2012, made it a big ritual event to like have a joint (which, during the first few months i lived there still thought that was hard to come by lol) and to take the joint and the album on a little stroll in my campus neighborhood (inner richmond for any sf ac heads) and it was a magical experience.

got to see them a bunch of times in cali that fall and spring 2013 and that was when, for whatever reason, I thought those guys were mythical unattainable gods who some measly dipshit from central ohio would never get to breathe the same oxygen as them. played the album first every day during my shift at the cafe i worked at and the weirdness just so uniquely appealed to me.

i don't take it personally when people aren't into this record, but i do take it personally that stan's posts have been so funny and i have bronchitis so each time i laugh it fucking hurts.

anyway, i guess i just want to say that today's supernatural and wide eyed are like straight up very pretty songs.

[dansemanatee]

I always felt like monkey riches should have been towards the end of the album, it has that kinda vibe to it. the songs that follow it are great too but I feel that it kinda kills the pacing for me. also glad to see all this love for crimson and honeycomb

[blindmowing]

Animal Collective is one of those legendary bands where it's okay to think any of their records is their best record.

I'm a massive 00s AC stan, but I have no problem with anyone thinking CHz or PW, etc is their best record. I think they're that good.

[Fovrodi]

Write-up Brad Truaxx did on Ballet Slippers he said he thinks every successive AC album is their best record

[wilandhugs]

Fovrodi wrote:

Write-up Brad Truaxx did on Ballet Slippers he said he thinks every successive AC album is their best record

In some virtue, I think I tend to agree with this statement

Currently seems like I listen to PW, CHz, Skiffs more than Feels, Jam, and MPP at this point.

[dansemanatee]

magicians of baltimore is probably in my top five for anco and it hasn't even come out yet so yea I kinda agree but also all of their albums are so special that there really can't be such thing as THE best anco album

[hypo's]

blindmowing wrote:

Animal Collective is one of those legendary bands where it's okay to think any of their records is their best record.

I'm a massive 00s AC stan, but I have no problem with anyone thinking CHz or PW, etc is their best record. I think they're that good.

yeah I like the latter half of their catalogue a lot less than the early stuff but I've always chalked it up to nostalgia and my becoming less human/more jaded thru the years

it used to peeve me that stuff like CHz and PW didn't elevate my soul like early AC but at some point I realized that the content is solid, I'm just burned out and less capable of experiencing joy and wonder, at the end of the day I am jealous of ppl who love those albums

[headroom)))]

I haven't listened to this album in a lonnnngggg time, but put it on today and was really feeling it.

I really like how the transitions between songs sound like you're tuning a radio and searching for frequencies. The ending of Moon Jock is literally somebody changing the station on the song, haha.

One of the big downsides of CHz is the sometimes murky production, particularly the bass. A simple song that should shine like Rosie Oh gets drowned by a way too heavy bass synth and the vocals sound really weak/buried.

All in all, I love 6 songs on the album a lot (Rosie, Applesauce, NTB, MR, MM, Amanita) that comes up to 30 mins. The songs in between them have some interesting moments, but don't grab me enough to listen to them over and over. But that's good enough for me. I don't expect a band that takes so many risks and style changes to hit it out the park for me every album. I felt that MPP had great songs that got tamed down and occasionally made kinda boring in the studio. MPP with Safer style production would be my shit 1000% but I can understand that they had a vision for a full on pop/dance Basement Jaxx sound palette. I like abrasive, diverse and confusing sounds and appreciate that quality on CHz.

Also, Monkey Riches is a gem of a song. One of the best rhythm performance AC has ever done as a band. James Brown alien band. Seeing them play it live was a shot of adrenaline. Those drums fills are hella sick. Make a Monkey Rich/Wretch!

Mercury Man sounds like it could've been a Down There song. The way the percussion and synths play off each other from 1:18 to 1:43 has such a cool propulsive quality to it. I feel the intensity build throughout the whole song, so much energy.

[dansemanatee]

[quote="headroom)))"]
Also, Monkey Riches is a gem of a song. One of the best rhythm performance AC has ever done as a band. James Brown alien band. Seeing them play it live was a shot of adrenaline. Those drums fills are hella sick. Make a Monkey Rich/Wretch!

Seriously, I feel like a lot of people criticize their post mpp stuff for "a lack of momentum" or whatever that was present on their early stuff but clearly literally how can you listen to a song like that and say that

[Fovrodi]

This reminds me I tried showing my friend AC in college, he could not stand Avey's screams on SJ, the most I could move the needle was to get him to admit MPP was a good album..He would listen to PB but mainly out of common politeness. A year or so later after our paths split he msgd me that CHz was his number one album of the year, our mutual friends who loved AC before said they didn't finish one listen :/. The audience isn't all fair weather AC fans, in this case the opposite.

[hedgecore]

tdegenaro wrote:

I'm happy to admit i have blinders for ChZ because it was the first release of theirs I followed as a fan, I was at P4K 2011, had just moved to cali summer 2012, made it a big ritual event to like have a joint (which, during the first few months i lived there still thought that was hard to come by lol) and to take the joint and the album on a little stroll in my campus neighborhood (inner richmond for any sf ac heads) and it was a magical experience.

got to see them a bunch of times in cali that fall and spring 2013 and that was when, for whatever reason, I thought those guys were mythical unattainable gods who some measly dipshit from central ohio would never get to breathe the same oxygen as them. played the album first every day during my shift at the cafe i worked at and the weirdness just so uniquely appealed to me.

i don't take it personally when people aren't into this record, but i do take it personally that stan's posts have been so funny and i have bronchitis so each time i laugh it fucking hurts.

anyway, i guess i just want to say that today's supernatural and wide eyed are like straight up very pretty songs.

were you at the Wiltern show in 2013? I was at that show and it was incredible. I was listened to so much CHz back then too. I haven't thrown it on in a while but ITS TIME

edit: i love honeycomb!! i haven't heard the other side (Crismson?) in a long time

[Fovrodi]

Gotham

[roopn]

headroom))) wrote:

All in all, I love 6 songs on the album a lot (Rosie, Applesauce, NTB, MR, MM, Amanita)

my favourites are all in the middle, applesauce through monkey riches.

[hedgecore]

Fovrodi wrote:

Gotham

oooh that's right. I don't remember much from it other than it's slow and dare I say spooky? I don't think I've ever listened to Monkey Been to Burn Town so I'll add that to the list. I know it's all remixes but I'm sure there's some cool stuff in there


edit: this shit rules and I love it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa-4FgWUp44

also I love the way they do the ending on this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VesIkXdWrsw

I think they play it that way on live at 9:30 album too. that weedly dee dee!!

[wilandhugs]

roopn wrote:

headroom))) wrote:

All in all, I love 6 songs on the album a lot (Rosie, Applesauce, NTB, MR, MM, Amanita)

my favourites are all in the middle, applesauce through monkey riches.

Gotta be the same for me. I'd wager that NTB, MR, MM is one of their best 3 song runs, also amazing to me is how distinct each of those 3 songs is.

maybe that begs too much of an interesting question in "best 3 song run".... geez that's tough

[coral lord]

Monkey Riches might be the most divisive song they've ever done

[wilandhugs]

coral lord wrote:

Monkey Riches might be the most divisive song they've ever done

I'd put Summing the Wretch into that list, and those would be my 2 choices. I also believe theyre the respective center pieces of each album. Cherokee has nothing on them in terms of controversiality

[Hellomark]

Kinda confused by your point in bringing Cherokee into the conversation, but divisive is definitely right for the other two. I do kinda think that Monkey Riches and Summing the Wretch are both some of my least favorite things they've done (though I think Monkey Riches is by far the stronger of the two), whereas I would say Cherokee is one of the best things they've done in years. Glad other people here dig Monkey Riches tho, it has its good qualities for sure.

[wilandhugs]

Hellomark wrote:

Kinda confused by your point in bringing Cherokee into the conversation, but divisive is definitely right for the other two. I do kinda think that Monkey Riches and Summing the Wretch are both some of my least favorite things they've done (though I think Monkey Riches is by far the stronger of the two), whereas I would say Cherokee is one of the best things they've done in years. Glad other people here dig Monkey Riches tho, it has its good qualities for sure.

Cuz it's the centerpiece of Time Skiffs. I find it interesting that the band has had two albums with 'challenging' songs as the centerpiece, meanwhile Cherokee seems to have an opposite effect, at least to me (it has a lot of spiritual sinew with earlier AC songs that Wretch and MR don't have as much).
Which brings me to the last thing you said, funny enough, which makes sense that you would like Cherokee and not like the other two as much. I enjoy Cherokee a lot but I find myself coming back to the songs that challenge me more that they've made. Maybe in time Cherokee will slip into a similar headspace, but the experience on Wretch and MR is just so unique to me. Goes back to me thinking their best album is usually their most recent, although I think Skiffs can feel like an exception because to me the era isn't over until Skiffs 2 releases, and because Skiffs really has that 'culmination' feeling to me versus them challenging themselves sonically. I guess the recording was more of the challenge than the new sound palettes this go around. No one was complaining that Skiffs sounded like burritos or farts or whatever.... which I love! I think Did you See the Words sounds like a toilet flushing so...

But to get back to the centerpiece idea, I think it's quite logical considering, again, Skiffs feels more like all their previous works summed up, whereas CHz and PW felt like an entirely new idea that contained some of their past influences.

[hedgecore]

Summing the Wretch is incredible. Y'all are sillayy

[wilandhugs]

hedgecore wrote:

Summing the Wretch is incredible. Y'all are sillayy

It's certainly one of their most divisive songs. I love it personally but I used to absolutely despise it

[Stan]

wilandhugs wrote:

maybe that begs too much of an interesting question in "best 3 song run".... geez that's tough

Once upon a time, Rev Green, FWX & #1 were the undisputed 1-2-3 KO blows.

I'd probably go Banshee Beat, Daffy Duck, Loch Raven if we're carving epitaphs here.

[hedgecore]

wilandhugs wrote:

hedgecore wrote:

Summing the Wretch is incredible. Y'all are sillayy

It's certainly one of their most divisive songs. I love it personally but I used to absolutely despise it

For sure. I didn't know that it was divisive! I probably gravitate towards it because I tend to like more energetic stuff in general (when they said they were releasing their Ramones/Techno album [PW] I slowly started to cream my shorts)

[coral lord]

10 years later, I still can't figure out if I love Monkey Riches or if I hate it. I'll keep listening and check in again in 10 years.

[Hellomark]

FRG-FWX-#1 is definitely a tough one to beat. Personally I feel like you could take any 3 consecutive songs from Feels and it would be a notably amazing run, but that just tells you how I feel about that album. And as far as centerpieces go, if PW has one I always thought On Delay would be the best candidate for that title.

As for Monkey Riches, I've definitely posted about my feelings for that song before, probably in this same thread, but I like talking about it cause I think it's definitely an interesting song, and one that maybe could have been great. I'll start with what I like about it: the lyrics (I think the "how I wrote this song" bit is great!), the structure of Avey's vocal melodies that keep building in intensity, and the breakdown bit is pretty cool. But keeping it all tied to that same synth sequence feels boring to me. And I have to say i'm not a fan of that baritone guitar stuff Deak adds to it, something about it just feels out of place. I'd say the general critique of CHz being too bloated with sound rings most true with this song. What I'd like to hear is a rearranged version of the song that feels more like Applesauce, where instead of keeping the whole thing tied to that one synth sequence, each section feels like a totally distinct curveball.

[destiny]

Mouth wooed her Good lovin and whaddit i done is my favorite i think. In terms of sheer scope Infant dressing table - Panic - Two sails is honestly fucking massive for what it is. Expansive AC

[headroom)))]

Best 3 song run...Softest Voice - Winters Love - Kids on Holiday
That run is essential AC to me.
Love hearing all these takes on Monkey Riches and divisive songs. I like Summing the Wretch a lot, one of the top songs on that album. My only complaint is that they do that chorus > ambient passage > chorus structure that really kills the momentum for me. I just want to hear the Don't Get Caught Watching part a couple of times in a row, is that too much to ask!! Same with Lying in the Grass and the super cool flute chorus part. But I guess the curve balls are part of the fun with AC :- ))

[Hellomark]

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

Mouth wooed her Good lovin and whaddit i done is my favorite i think. In terms of sheer scope Infant dressing table - Panic - Two sails is honestly fucking massive for what it is. Expansive AC

Love both of these.

[wilandhugs]

On my reflection it's gonna be a toss up between Daily Routine/Bluish/Guys Eyes or Bluish/Guys Eyes/Taste hehe

Maybe even Outlaw/Roses/Modern Days E or Slow Motion/Surfer's Hymn/Jetty if we include solo work

In full honestly because the MPP one is stuck in 4 it's either Wretch/GG/Recycling (recycling is becoming my favorite closer which I know might be a nuclear take) or the CHz one (NTB/MR/MM). Stuff before MPP feels like it has more a 1-2 feeling to me. The best back to back from then is probably (besides the obvious ones) Native Belle/Hey Light imo
Feel like I've made some unique choices so I'll stop there lol

[phodicae 2]

The entire person pitch is KO/KO/KO/KO like not a moment that isn't classic. I think the best might be good girl/carrots even though its technically one song

[dansemanatee]

I think my favorite three track run is probably #1/ww/cuckoo cuckoo but if we're doing 1-2 then la rapet/bat you'll fly is definitely my favorite