[roopn]

Can anyone recommend a slasher flicks boot? The pitchfork show is good but I wanna hear something where Jeremy's drums are deafening and you can feel avey belting over the top of everything

[Fovrodi]

Two Sails boots (Glasslands, Bowery Ballroom, and Webster Hall). Didn't know they did an October show in NY and identical setlist to when I saw them earlier that year.

[roopn]

thanks fov. fuck they did oliver twist?! that's an all-timer

[hunkswithguns]

Slasher Flicks is near the top of my missed live opportunities. I think the album is a masterpiece and in contention for one of my favorite AC-offshoot albums.

I really regret dropping the ball and not following this thread. Maybe I'll binge-read / post right before the Skiffs wash ashore.

[foxtrot]

Still have to revisit Greaper demos. Been spinning Sleep Cycle and thought I should kick off some write ups for the week:

Sleep Cycle:

Golden Chords is such a pretty start. Newcomers would be forgiven for thinking that Deakin is all sweet singer songwriter mode. Love the insect sounds throughout. I feel like they’re the part of this opener that connects it with AC. Also gives the song that campfire feel. Gorgeous kind of prelude track before the magnificent beast that is Just Am.

Just Am is the absolute highlight. Blows me away every time. It’s hypnotic, transfixing. The melody is glorious. The different sections flow effortlessly in and out of each other. The piano part is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. I love the shaman like quality Deakin has in so many of his songs. I really feel, listening to him, a certain wisdom being imparted. This song goes for 8 minutes but could easily be 18. This and Country Report are my two favourite Deakin songs.

Shadow Mine is Deaks’ little eastern chant moment. It’s nice but I honestly think he could have done more with it. As it is, a cool little interlude.

I love the blistering intensity of Footy. It’s just so exciting to hear Josh leap into something like this. The song has a sense of power. It’s commanding. Josh gets pretty wild with some of the vocals too. The drumming is awesome. And we get a real sense of his distinctive voice as a guitarist. I bloody love the soaring guitar that simultaneously screeches and glides over the second verse. The climax is religious. That main guitar line, the drums thrashing everywhere and the layers of slightly dissonant keys creating this intense psychedelic experience.

Seed Song: probably the most AC sounding track on here. By that I mean, very much influenced by his bros. It sounds a bit like a Person Pitch outtake at times. Another one that really only works as a transition.

Good House is another pearler. People rave about Sleep Cycle. I love it too but it is pretty slight. It’s basically only 4 songs. Luckily they’re all absolute gold. I love the way this one builds around the central loop. Another fascinating and engaging melody. A lovely finish.

I really love this album but it does leave me wanting more. I was a part of the whole Kickstarter Mali debacle too so I guess I’ve always felt like this album could have been more. It’s great and I’m so glad Deakin managed to make it for us. But yeah, the Deaks has even more in him!

[coral lord]

hunkswithguns wrote:

Slasher Flicks is near the top of my missed live opportunities. I think the album is a masterpiece and in contention for one of my favorite AC-offshoot albums.

same here, but only because i got to experience 3 songs before avey had to tap out due to his throat illness

i'll always be sad i never got to see them play a full set

[hunkswithguns]

coral lord wrote:

hunkswithguns wrote:

Slasher Flicks is near the top of my missed live opportunities. I think the album is a masterpiece and in contention for one of my favorite AC-offshoot albums.

same here, but only because i got to experience 3 songs before avey had to tap out due to his throat illness

i'll always be sad i never got to see them play a full set

was this at the boston show? i was actually in town for work so that was a near-miss for me.

[coral lord]

hunkswithguns wrote:

coral lord wrote:

hunkswithguns wrote:

Slasher Flicks is near the top of my missed live opportunities. I think the album is a masterpiece and in contention for one of my favorite AC-offshoot albums.

same here, but only because i got to experience 3 songs before avey had to tap out due to his throat illness

i'll always be sad i never got to see them play a full set

was this at the boston show? i was actually in town for work so that was a near-miss for me.

yup, and it was right after there had been some cornpilled/postponed shows for AC maybe where Dave's throat was messed up there too. I was worried about him

[destiny]

I think good house is maybe in the top 5 AC songs for that decade. What a magnificent song

[foxtrot]

I absolutely adore PBVGR. Relistening to the ATP demo stuff just reinforces that fact. To me, those versions sound sloppy and crude compared to the technicolor bliss of the album. Interesting curiosities but for me not a patch on the final product.

Person Pitch is a masterpiece and Tomboy is great too. At this point, Noah had stumbled upon something pretty spectacular and uniquely his own. Something that still had all kinds of untapped wells of sound yet to be explored. So he trekked deeper into the uncanny, exuberant, mind-expanding world he had begun to uncover with PP and Tomboy. A world of neo-psychedelic wonder built on samples, synths and electronics but communicating a vivid, instinctual, radiating humanity.

His voice sounds at its most angelic and mellifluous here. And with a laptop ready to shoot rainbows, he assembled something exciting and original that absolutely sparkles with creative energy. I think Greaper sounds purer and more vibrant than anything he had done before. More immersed in the pure joy of sound.

It’s just pure ear candy. Honeyed vocal harmonies floating blissfully over squelching, buzzing, twinkling layers of synthesisers and danceable beats that bounce and pop with his big hip hop, club and dancehall influences. The sampled pianos and harps swell and ripple under the waves of electronic candy floss. Noah’s bready, wholesome, compassionate vocals sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. This album sounds like fairy bread.

I love the big sound and energy of Mr Noah and its infectious tumbling, stuttering main melody.

Boys Latin gets the hocketing thing spot on. I bloody love the springy vocal line. It feels like a bouncy ball rocketing around the living room.

Crosswords has another delectable melody that glides sweetly across the smooth hip hop beat and delayed piano chords.

I think we all agree that Tropic Of Cancer is gorgeous and could go for hours. That undulating harp creates this drop dead gorgeous windy ambience in combination with the electronic elements. Swooning and swaying, graceful and mesmeric.

Principe Real is so fucking cool. The way he pits that thumping beat against the altered vocals. The main melody sounding like it is being supported by benevolent alien backing vocalists.

Acid Wash finishes the album with a whirling climax of swarming synths and electronics. It’s this awesome kind of bombastic folk sound smothered in rainbow goop.

Honestly, PBVGR is a sonic masterwork. For me, it was a total return to form for AC releases. I find it infinitely listenable.

[roopn]

ok so since stan a few pages back compared slasher flicks to CHz as a continuation of the 'desert rock' idea, I've been thinking about it all the time and tbh I couldn't agree more. Where centipede is desert rock in a sci-fi setting, slasher house is old west. same flavour, one in a fantasy future, one in a fantasy past.

What clicked for me in recent listens is the songwriting. Although it retains CHz's proggy, sectionalized elements, these songs are avey working in a 50s rock style. By that I mean a lot of the lyrics centre around a character or a narrative rather than openly lifting from aveys life. Sometimes it's a little cheesy or quaint but I think it's a brilliant pairing to the maxed out punk energy that most of the songs have. Also, brilliant inspired melodic moments are everywhere on this album.

Now, the mix.
Drums - sound like carpet. The hi-hat is barely audible in most of the songs. The snare has no punch. The toms combine with the kick and turn to indistinct mush. one of the toms is panned way out to the side even though the rest of the kit is all very close to centred. Overall the drums sound distant, which is baffling given jeremy's relentless energy.
Angel's synths sound great! But the bass, man. It's the loudest part of the mix and the tone just sponges all the space out of the low end. I think this might be why the drum mix is so fucked
Guitar - no complaints, blends with angel's synths wonderfully.
Vocals - For the most part great. Avey's effect choices are appropriate but the reverb pushes the vocals further away from everything else in what is a largely dry mix. And I could've done without most of the pitch effects, especially on angel's parts.

I will say, I listened today on my turntable and pumping this through speakers did mitigate some issues. But when the mix is borderline nonfunctional when listening with headphones, that's a problem.

[Stan]

foxtrot wrote:

I absolutely adore PBVGR. Relistening to the ATP demo stuff just reinforces that fact. To me, those versions sound sloppy and crude compared to the technicolor bliss of the album. Interesting curiosities but for me not a patch on the final product.

I really appreciate your engagement and enthusiasm in this thread but I'm amazed by the florid descriptions of this record. They took something raw, exciting, new for Noah and full of life and turned it into a diluted, flat, pedestrian chug. I'm not sure how you can listen to CTYS, Butcher, Mr Noah or Selfish Gene and not feel how dynamically and emotionally lacking they are compared to the ATP demos. They smothered the life out of the whole set, EP tracks included. It's fine as an inoffensive plod of toe tapping pleasantries but it's the soundtrack to buying filler shrubbery at the garden centre or alphabetising your cookbooks. Let's yassify Hieronymus Bosch.

[Fovrodi]

I have a friend who's a PB fan but could never get into AC, his fave PB album is Tomboy and he's never listened to Person Pitch. I just have to accept these kind of people exist, probably happier than me lol

[Fovrodi]

I don't really get the PBvsGR demoitis, except Principe Real, maybe too big to capture its sound

[Stan]

Fovrodi wrote:

I have a friend who's a PB fan but could never get into AC, his fave PB album is Tomboy and he's never listened to Person Pitch.

Is it sonic boom?

Spoiler: show

[Fovrodi]

Doggone it

[foxtrot]

Stan wrote:

foxtrot wrote:

I absolutely adore PBVGR. Relistening to the ATP demo stuff just reinforces that fact. To me, those versions sound sloppy and crude compared to the technicolor bliss of the album. Interesting curiosities but for me not a patch on the final product.

I really appreciate your engagement and enthusiasm in this thread but I'm amazed by the florid descriptions of this record. They took something raw, exciting, new for Noah and full of life and turned it into a diluted, flat, pedestrian chug. I'm not sure how you can listen to CTYS, Butcher, Mr Noah or Selfish Gene and not feel how dynamically and emotionally lacking they are compared to the ATP demos. They smothered the life out of the whole set, EP tracks included. It's fine as an inoffensive plod of toe tapping pleasantries but it's the soundtrack to buying filler shrubbery at the garden centre or alphabetising your cookbooks. Let's yassify Hieronymus Bosch.

Ha! Different strokes etc.
I actually really love the garden centre and my cookbooks

Look, I am definitely prone to the odd piece of hyperbole and I've definitely drunk the kool aid with most AC releases.

I really enjoy the ATP stuff but it just doesn't sparkle for me in quite the same way. It's great fun but I don't quite hear it like you do. To me, it sounds a lot like the usual live to studio clean up. However, the songs generally aren't as well developed yet.

Mr Noah is powerful but missing a lot of the stuff that I really like about it. Selfish Gene sounds pretty similar really. I do like the way it finishes but I also love the harmonies in the studio version. I'm not sure I've heard CTYS.

Stuff like Crosswords and a few others are cool demos but grew into something much more fully formed for me.

I'll defend PBVGR to the death but totally understand if you just get more out of the other stuff. All part of the fun with AC.

[opposite field]

Can anyone drop me the ATP boots? Have never heard them but all of this talk has me really curious. I've been meaning to give Greaper a relisten but never do because it feels so long to me. Always has.. I will say though I saw him play a show right before the album came out and it was great, just never connect much tio it on record.

[dio]

Selfish Gene is easily my favorite Panda Bear song ever if not also my favorite song ever. I say that mostly because I find myself playing its chords almost every time I sit down at the piano. The melody and lyrics really kill me and feel beyond special.

I hear a pretty huge difference b/w Nadir/Fill Those Spaces and album version Selfish Gene but that's also the song that really demonstrates for me how much of a different thing he was going for on the record. He didn't want the big, huge, semi chaotic vibe the live version had (for better or worse, worse according to most here clearly)

Live music must be a pretty deeply different thing to them than recorded. Each has very specific goals.

I always pictures the arpeggiator 18th note pulse of the Selfish Gene chords to feel as huge and filter-fucked as the live version, but instead we get this neat, tidy little polite piece of songwriting. Maybe the synth is even a little dinky and small sounding. But the melody and lyrics are sooooooooo powerful that it doesn't matter. Or maybe it even is better that way,.

I love the live version but that's a song for me that mostly exists as a song I play and sing myself at this point. That has happened to a couple Panda songs for me... I play them myself on piano way more than listen (Preakness, Master, I Know I Don't Know)

Greaper is a great era despite the very intentional editing of the live version but I'm distracted more by tracklist choices than any production choices...

The EPs for one thing are stronger for me. With Faces in the Crowd, No Man's Land, Jabberwocky, and even the Lisbon Zoo demo towering over MOST of the actual LP.

Selfish and CTYS are the only album songs that reeeeeeally do it for me... Maybe Crosswords... and that's a weird feeling.

Not that I dislike the other songs either, its just most of the album ones are the ones that DONT emotionally resonate heavily like those EP songs I named.

Also I don't like Tropic. I grew up loving that part of the nutcracker so that track will always sound like kinda totally awkward karaoke but um, I think that's just me and that's fine.

Weird era for me... def feels like it could have been a lil more than what it was. But it was certainly bold. Mr. Noah is not a great single-choice OR song for me, but I appreciate how different it was.

And all the graphic design for the era has opposite-grown on me hard. Too bright, loud and Target-y for my taste. Anyway, nit pickin

[captainlunatic]

I know I'm repeating myself here, but PBVSGR should really be listened to on L... All of the crazy noise shit works so well in that headspace, not to mention the vibes of Come to Your Senses and Tropic of Cancer. The lyrics of the latter in particular make perfect sense when you're tripping, and the way you're brought into the song on a cloud is just so good. That harp sample sounds like heavenly fingers creating the universe or something

[dio]

Can confirm, good acid listening, even if that sounds cringe-y

I associate 2015 with good music, and remember this record, Dan Deacon's Gliss Riffer and like Death Grips or even that one really goo Sufjan record and the beginning of my awareness of PC Music and SOPHIE. Great vibes. I remember me and college friends tripping to Crosswords and hella Gliss Riffer and having a blast (Meme Generator especially). I remember playing Mr. Noah EP reeeeeeally loud the day it came out. Seemed pristine. And so weird to hear cleaner, super forward vocals from him next to all the insane layers of shit.

[captainlunatic]

Oh yeah, Sophie was a revelation back then. Totally the sound of the future and whatnot. I wish I'd eaten the good stuff before last year, both for the therapeutic benefits and to enhance my enjoyment of all the amazing music that was coming out in the '10s

[Cooper]

captainlunatic wrote:

I know I'm repeating myself here, but PBVSGR should really be listened to on L... All of the crazy noise shit works so well in that headspace, not to mention the vibes of Come to Your Senses and Tropic of Cancer. The lyrics of the latter in particular make perfect sense when you're tripping, and the way you're brought into the song on a cloud is just so good. That harp sample sounds like heavenly fingers creating the universe or something

This is funny, I’ve been contemplating talking about this but for some reason didn’t feel like lighting up my drug use on the top board, but yes- I was blasting Cosplay on shroomies and it was beyond visceral and nourishing. Sonic boom’s so-called Goldilox zone of mixing is real and he achieved it on grim reaper, you just have to turn that shit way up

[Stan]

I once listened to a dripping tap when I I was off my tits and thought it was the new Autechre album

Know what I mean

[Cooper]

Stan wrote:

I once listened to a dripping tap when I I was off my tits and thought it was the new Autechre album

Know what I mean

No that actually was Confield that was playing, you hallucinated the sink

[Strange_Clams]

Lmao

[blindmowing]

placed in the context of AC's discography, Sleep Cycle's appearance is a revelation.

up to that point, AC's 2010s were noise-stuffed, busy and synthetic. CHz's dense sounds were mixed into oblivion and Painting With which had dropped a few months prior to SC doubled down on the digital sugar rush and blitzed us with shiny silver hyperactive pop songs. Panda's latest songs on PBvsGR also had the air of juicy layered electronic pop, while Avey's slasher flicks felt like sharp electrical circuits cutting through my veins.

all this to say, i really missed the organic nature of AC material. the dirt and the hand drums. acoustic instruments, room to breathe, simplicity.

Sleep Cycle felt like a return, or a memorial of some older more primal version of AC. it contained the spirit of their earlier releases - it felt small but potent. while it's not an album i think about often, i regard it as an important part of AC's history. then Eucalyptus came a year later and it felt like a continuation of the spirit of that

[Fovrodi]

Footy should've been on CHz and Wide Eyed should've stayed a solo joint

[Stan]

Cooper wrote:

Stan wrote:

I once listened to a dripping tap when I I was off my tits and thought it was the new Autechre album

Know what I mean

No that actually was Confield that was playing, you hallucinated the sink

OK I laughed

[scrambledgreggs]

roopn wrote:

Now, the mix.
Drums - sound like carpet. The hi-hat is barely audible in most of the songs. The snare has no punch. The toms combine with the kick and turn to indistinct mush. one of the toms is panned way out to the side even though the rest of the kit is all very close to centred. Overall the drums sound distant, which is baffling given jeremy's relentless energy.
Angel's synths sound great! But the bass, man. It's the loudest part of the mix and the tone just sponges all the space out of the low end. I think this might be why the drum mix is so fucked
Guitar - no complaints, blends with angel's synths wonderfully.
Vocals - For the most part great. Avey's effect choices are appropriate but the reverb pushes the vocals further away from everything else in what is a largely dry mix. And I could've done without most of the pitch effects, especially on angel's parts.

I will say, I listened today on my turntable and pumping this through speakers did mitigate some issues. But when the mix is borderline nonfunctional when listening with headphones, that's a problem.

this is my exact complaint about what otherwise could've been another masterpiece album. I remember hearing it when it freebirded and desperately hoping the muddy/muted mix was just a poor quality freebird but no, the official release was like that too. makes it hard to truly love this album even though the songwriting is great. I get what they might have been going for, as it does sound like a natural progression from CHz's mix (the songs have the same insect-like structures and textures though instead it takes those, removes all the spacey elements and burrows everything deep underground) but it just does not do the songs justice. they could've been huge and instead they sound small and far away. relistening to it now I have the same complaint, and it makes the new Time Skiffs mixes sound even better in comparison with how crisp and clear all the individual elements are

was also always confused why it's billed as "Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks" instead of just "Slasher Flicks" which would've been a much less awkward band name. my guess is that was a label/marketing decision because I can't imagine Avey himself insisting on his name being front and center like that

[dio]

Hm weird, I love Slasher and would never think about it being mixed/produced badly at all. I mean I would only feel that way about Greaper because of the existence of the pretty different live/rehearsal stuff.

I hyped live Slasher boots too before release but basically had no demoitis. I do remember Strange Colors seem a little sicker live but when I listen to the recorded version I don't have any specific reason WHY I'd feel that way.

[coral lord]

my only issue with the slasher flicks production is the lack of weight behind the drums. seeing/experiencing the live show with Jeremy drumming on those songs was 10x more impactful than the studio versions.

[Fovrodi]

Didn't Avey say he wanted to do 10-hour days mixing the 'lbum but Jeremy and Angel didn't want to do that

V curious how a Visit the Dojo would've turned out in full band mode, neat little tune

[wilandhugs]

Every time I try to listen to Slasher Flicks I absolutely love A Sender and Little Fang but I lose interest on the rest, and I totally agree that it's because of the mix. It really sucks too because I taste what's so good underneath but it never fully envelopes me the way every other AC release does (even CHz, which I think is enveloping by how unenveloping and 'outward' it is, especially for AC), but by that virtue I will add that it's a blast in my pretty crappy car speakers.

Sleep Cycle is so good. I remember listening to the freebird and nearly tearing up as the sunlight crept through the library where I was chilling. Good times. Harpy Red is fucking crazy, and more people should be talking about it.

[scrambledgreggs]

thank you for the Harpy Sketches reminder, so glad we finally have digital versions of that cassette. both versions are great

[dio]

the drums are weird on slasher cuz its basically a str8 up rock record instrumentally but that's not solo-dave's style so he had to mix them all flippy floppy style so they're constantly melting.

damn tf now I feel like I had to fr defend Slasher, I usually think of it as one of the best solo releases that no one talks about much since like '13 or whenever it dropped. tf, guys. it good. A Sender and Your Card are some of the greatest Avey melodies and lyrics of all time.

Catchy's chorus is so cute that it makes me heart melt. Modern Daze E fully kills me vibes wise. And then like. the other half is never less than solid. Blind Babe as weakest track = gr8 album

[Hellomark]

Love Slasher Flicks, even tho I do cosign just about every gripe with the mixing listed here. It's a testament to how strong the songs are that I still love the album. I LOVE that "insect structured" style of pop songwriting something about the super energetic and unpredictable nature of those songs has always been very inspiring to me. Feel like he perfected it on Slasher House where with CHz it was more hit or miss. Moonjock and Applesauce are some of the only songs that hit that same sweet spot for me. Obviously Jeremy's drums are inimtable and bring it to another level. One song that never gets enough credit is imo is Roses on the Window, the whole progression and feel of that song is like perfect pop songwriting to me.

[wilandhugs]

Hellomark wrote:

Love Slasher Flicks, even tho I do cosign just about every gripe with the mixing listed here. It's a testament to how strong the songs are that I still love the album. I LOVE that "insect structured" style of pop songwriting something about the super energetic and unpredictable nature of those songs has always been very inspiring to me. Feel like he perfected it on Slasher House where with CHz it was more hit or miss. Moonjock and Applesauce are some of the only songs that hit that same sweet spot for me. Obviously Jeremy's drums are inimtable and bring it to another level. One song that never gets enough credit is imo is Roses on the Window, the whole progression and feel of that song is like perfect pop songwriting to me.

I completely forgot about Roses on the Window, that song is absolutely criminally underrated. Hm. I wonder if I listen to it enough that this aspect of it might begin to open up more. Suppose there's no pain in finally copping the vinyl and giving a few stoned repeat listens a go...

[roopn]

Yes roses may be the best song on slasher house. It won't grow, sender, blind babe, are my other faves. Duplex trip is I think is the most successful of the "insect" structures that you guys are talking about, a description I like a lot.

To be clear, I still like the album a lot, it's just a shame that I have to listen through the mix a little, yaknow. Gotta put in a little more effort to enjoy

[dio]

starting live listen of Slasher Flicks concurrent w/ post as of half way thru

-first thoughts include that this whole thing is scrumptious on the ear. I hate that word but don't know how to describe it otherwise.

-blind babe is way more fun than I remember (but like... offensive?)

-Little Fang is still super fun, almost one too many choruses tho... feels like precursor to Floridada a bit... Also Catchy is amazing, has fantastic melodies

-outlaw outtro is gorgeous

-Modern Daze E kills me, still. down pitched voice in first verse is perfect.

-Your Card is still incredible.

all-in-all this is some of Avey's best work imo, honestly up there with Spirit, Feels, SJ highlights... little more slight maybe by virtue of essentially being a whole different band than AC quite literally I guess, but I think its one of the most consistent showcases of Avey's talents since SJ...

but also for the record I kinda feel that way about all avey solo work? somehow a lil more muted as far as ac releases go in terms of visibility and being-talked-about but like, all 4 solo records he up out that decade are sooooo solid