Collected Animals

Whoops, just realised Rosie Oh was missing from post above. That's exactly what I meant!

moonjock rocks. favorite song on the album easily, gets me so pumped, just builds and builds. extreme energy

100% agree

LEAVE MY LIGHT ON

I was MIA from AC forums in 2010-2011 and missed all the bootlegs, but going back and giving some of these shows a listen now. DAMN. The mix of these songs got fucked up in the studio, didn't they? Probably the only time they really botched their songs in studio. Other times they took the songs in a respectable angle even if inferior to their live versions, but this time it just feels like it's missed opportunity after missed opportunity. These songs were supposed to sound like they were a ramshackle rock band playing in space. Needed rawer edges, rougher sounds, jagged and gritty.

Listening to this one right now:



Immediately "Wide Eyed" sounds aggressive and alien in a way it doesn't on record. Super edgy and warped. Song after song, wow, so much energy that did not translate. Gonna blame this one on Ben Allen. He also took AC down the wrong rabbit hole for MPP.

Monkey rich is another great song to add to the canon of songs where avey is just screaming some shit at you over some noises joined by cuckoo cuckoo and sponge luke. and peacebone

I was MIA from AC forums in 2010-2011 and missed all the bootlegs, but going back and giving some of these shows a listen now. DAMN. The mix of these songs got fucked up in the studio, didn't they? Probably the only time they really botched their songs in studio. Other times they took the songs in a respectable angle even if inferior to their live versions, but this time it just feels like it's missed opportunity after missed opportunity. These songs were supposed to sound like they were a ramshackle rock band playing in space. Needed rawer edges, rougher sounds, jagged and gritty.

Listening to this one right now:



Immediately "Wide Eyed" sounds aggressive and alien in a way it doesn't on record. Super edgy and warped. Song after song, wow, so much energy that did not translate. Gonna blame this one on Ben Allen. He also took AC down the wrong rabbit hole for MPP.

Yeh, it didn’t quite come together the way it could have. The radio aspect on the album is kinda cool but I was definitely among those who thought the album lost a lot of what the live songs had going for them. Also think replacing raw and gritty live bangers like Honeycomb, Gotham and Crimson with the considerably more poppy arena rock bravado of Moonjock, Applesauce and Amanita had a big impact.

I was MIA from AC forums in 2010-2011 and missed all the bootlegs, but going back and giving some of these shows a listen now. DAMN. The mix of these songs got fucked up in the studio, didn't they? Probably the only time they really botched their songs in studio. Other times they took the songs in a respectable angle even if inferior to their live versions, but this time it just feels like it's missed opportunity after missed opportunity. These songs were supposed to sound like they were a ramshackle rock band playing in space. Needed rawer edges, rougher sounds, jagged and gritty.

Listening to this one right now:



Immediately "Wide Eyed" sounds aggressive and alien in a way it doesn't on record. Super edgy and warped. Song after song, wow, so much energy that did not translate. Gonna blame this one on Ben Allen. He also took AC down the wrong rabbit hole for MPP.

I mean, the cameraperson is standing right in front of avey, that's why the warped guitar is so loud on wide eyed. I don't think the energy didn't translate on CHz, but they went a bit too far with filling every nook and cranny of most of the songs with wacky sounds that the whole record just feels like it's constantly grasping for air. Same with the grim reaper. Both records are among my favourites, but they just went a tad too far imho. I'm not claiming that I could have done a better job with the production, but it would be an absolute dream come true if I had the stems of these songs for some remixing.

Ben Allen's fault

damn i forgot about that MPP album, i was rocking i love college that whole summer

i’ll always have a special place in my heart for CHz because it was the first (and so far only) time i heard an album on the songs’ debut tour, with all that entails: the thrill of hearing the new music and the disappointment i had with a few of their production choices. i saw them in April 2011 in my college town of Santa Cruz — they weren’t even slated to play that venue initially, but the highway to the Henry Miller library in Big Sur got washed out, so they scrambled to rebook the show. it was my freshman year, i was deep into both drugs and my second wave of AC obsession, and it felt like fate wanted me to go

I’ve been trying to recapture that high ever since, i think. it was such a thrill to hear those songs in their inchoate stage, raw, not knowing what was going to come next in the setlist. watching deakin take the stage to sing wide eyed as the opener, with no prior knowledge he had a song in the setlist, truly blew my mind. a bunch of my friends were disappointed they played only two songs from MPP but my fellow AC head friend and i were beyond buzzing afterward. (I had slaps taken a tab for the show and while i thought it was a dud at the time, when we got back home i realized it had been there the whole time, subtle but undeniable — i was too lost in the music to realize)

does anyone have any boot recommendations from that early run, in terms of high quality or good performances? it’s been ages since I’ve listened to those boots and I forget which ones i had

petaluma was always my go to pre-release boot - def agree about the how the raw alien vibe was much stronger when it was first debuted

blindmowing wrote:

I was MIA from AC forums in 2010-2011 and missed all the bootlegs, but going back and giving some of these shows a listen now. DAMN. The mix of these songs got fucked up in the studio, didn't they? Probably the only time they really botched their songs in studio. Other times they took the songs in a respectable angle even if inferior to their live versions, but this time it just feels like it's missed opportunity after missed opportunity. These songs were supposed to sound like they were a ramshackle rock band playing in space. Needed rawer edges, rougher sounds, jagged and gritty.

Listening to this one right now:



Immediately "Wide Eyed" sounds aggressive and alien in a way it doesn't on record. Super edgy and warped. Song after song, wow, so much energy that did not translate. Gonna blame this one on Ben Allen. He also took AC down the wrong rabbit hole for MPP.

Yeh, it didn’t quite come together the way it could have. The radio aspect on the album is kinda cool but I was definitely among those who thought the album lost a lot of what the live songs had going for them. Also think replacing raw and gritty live bangers like Honeycomb, Gotham and Crimson with the considerably more poppy arena rock bravado of Moonjock, Applesauce and Amanita had a big impact.

i def agree, i think the best sounding songs from these sessions are stuff like gotham, crimson and honeycomb which are wayyy less congested, maybe honeycomb less so but that one sounds a lot different than the hz songs

i’ll always have a special place in my heart for CHz because it was the first (and so far only) time i heard an album on the songs’ debut tour, with all that entails: the thrill of hearing the new music and the disappointment i had with a few of their production choices. i saw them in April 2011 in my college town of Santa Cruz — they weren’t even slated to play that venue initially, but the highway to the Henry Miller library in Big Sur got washed out, so they scrambled to rebook the show. it was my freshman year, i was deep into both drugs and my second wave of AC obsession, and it felt like fate wanted me to go

I’ve been trying to recapture that high ever since, i think. it was such a thrill to hear those songs in their inchoate stage, raw, not knowing what was going to come next in the setlist. watching deakin take the stage to sing wide eyed as the opener, with no prior knowledge he had a song in the setlist, truly blew my mind. a bunch of my friends were disappointed they played only two songs from MPP but my fellow AC head friend and i were beyond buzzing afterward. (I had slaps taken a tab for the show and while i thought it was a dud at the time, when we got back home i realized it had been there the whole time, subtle but undeniable — i was too lost in the music to realize)

does anyone have any boot recommendations from that early run, in terms of high quality or good performances? it’s been ages since I’ve listened to those boots and I forget which ones i had

I am still so jealous of people who got to see this tour I felt like the excitement was through the roof.

I really like the pitchfork fest performance from 2011.

Yeah NightlifeMingus that sounds amazing, super jealous. I remember hearing the centipede songs for the first time from those Petaluma videos and being totally blown away, I think Crimson made me tear up the first time. It felt like an updated version of Alvin Row. I like what Ben Allen did for the MPP songs, but he was simply not the man for the job during this era.

The honeycomb > we tigers > summertime clothes from that tour was like the best thing ever

Honeycomb was my favourite song of the lot. Much like Safer had been. Devastated both times they were left off their respective albums.

got around to checking out the petaluma boot. i was a little worried it would reawaken some latent demoitis but honestly the only tune I’m still bitter about is Rosie Oh — the studio version, particularly that first minute, really just grates on me. i have my preferences of course (the glitchier synth line on live father time being one example) but I’ve lived with the album for so long i accept it for what it is

it’s hard to put my finger exactly on what feels off about the production choices (keeping in mind that on the whole, I don’t really mind it too much). the material is strange, abstract, textural, but all of that is confined within these tight, airless borders. it’s like a classical musician playing jazz, or a traditional portrait artist trying their hand at abstract expressionism: the technical know-how is there, but it’s a little too uptight to capture the essence of the material

some stray concert memories that came back to me while listening to the boot:

- I was fixated on deakin’s drum pads during wide eyed and panda’s hi-hat mounted shekere. some really cool instrumentation that drove home the “alien rock and roll” vibe

- hearing Father Time at that show instantly evoked images of dinosaurs roaming around steamy jungles, so until it had a title I always thought of it as “the dinosaur/jurassic park song” lol

- I completely and totally lost my shit to “we tigers” and “did you see the words”

- someone had a big sign that said “play college” (or maybe they just yelled it?) and before the show when the band was setting up, Deakin locked eyes with that person and shook his head

- after the show, we were all hanging around the bus stop and some jeering drunk guy walking past yelled “how was animal planet?”

that first minute of Rosie Oh didn't need to sound as broken as it does in studio. having the vocals be offset for the first couple seconds is disorienting (and probably what they intended) but it was like... PERFECT in its early incarnation. they could have played it straight