Collected Animals

Water Curses is a special one for me. I got into AC in 2007, so Water Curses was the first AC release I was "anticipating." Boy, how those four songs killed me when they were released. I mostly just remember listening to them over and over again in my room, quite confounded by the textures and atmospheres they were creating. At the time, I recall "Street Flash" being the one -- "Seal Eyeing" being a close second -- that really got me. Ahhhhh, just thinking about it and I feel transported back to that moment of discovery. Beautiful.

Happy 420, if you don't listen to this song today you're a cop

[youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=VERm8QYqG90[/youtube]

I still prefer that Homegrown OG Kush

^completely agree with texas. mary wanna make my day needs to end with Dolby digital deluxe sound test

yup the cosplay demo with the chanting is still my fucking favorite, honestly one of my favorite panda songs

Gotham drums go so hard. My God why didn't CHz sound like this seriously. Mind-blowing. You know when you're hungover and you just can't think straight all day? That's what CHz sounds like. Mercury Man, like, IS this album but it just doesn't come together on the record. Honeycomb/Gotham are those fine ass cocktails and Crimson is the cure

i guess theres no interest in the canton hall show since theres no thread lmao. theres no geo tapes yet
edit: i jist saw apparently its supposed to be here but i didnt see it at the table
edit: also these shirts smell weird? they smell like tuna and eggs

<3

does anyone know if any of the members of AC have any sort of background in music theory/composing etc etc? like reading music and understanding time signatures and all that. or is it all purely instinct and emotion? I'm just curious if there is like a theoretical method to their madness.

There was a painting With interview where Geo said that when working on Vertical, John Cale asked what key the song was in and Geo had to go to a piano and figure it out... So I think they don't have much theory training. That doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing though.
I think they all have killer instincts for rhythm, however they may conceptualise it. And PB writes some killer harmonies. He was in a choir in school so either he possibly got an ear for that then? I'm sure over 20 years of making music they've absorbed lots of theory knowledge, just not the same way jazz cats would for example

Yeah I think they have some music theory knowledge but it doesn't seem extensive. I'd have to dig up interviews to find more info but I think at least one of them can read sheet music, maybe Panda since he was in choir in school, but they don't sit down and write out sheet music or chords when they're writing songs or anything. It seems more intuitive, like they just try different chords out and pick what sounds best to them.
Though also like roopn said, since they've been playing music professionally for so many years now, I'm sure they've picked up some theory knowledge along the way.

It's really interesting to me how despite their lack of formal training, they still manage to write some really unusual and surprising harmonies. I've posted about PB's song Friendship Bracelet before because it has some crazy chord changes, it basically changes keys constantly throughout the song. It would be impressive even just by itself but it's hard for me to comprehend how he (probably) just figured it out by ear or whatever

Avey is no slouch when it comes to weird chords either. Selection of a Place comes to mind

Also I'm not sure about time signatures, they obviously use a lot of strange time signatures but I have no idea how much they deliberately map out their rhythms vs just feel them out intuitively. This is just speculation, and again I'd have to dig up interviews where they talk about this to get more info, but I get the feeling that they just do things more intuitively.

Like for example Lion in a Coma, the source of that odd time sig is the mouth harp sample, so I'm guessing that Avey just looped it and jammed over the top to figure out the rhythms he's singing. Or something like Mountain Game, the melody just has a really fluid feeling where the phrases continue over the bar line in an unusual way, that it's hard for me to imagine Avey sitting down and figuring out which beats the words land on. I guess on the one hand the beat in MG is so wonky that maybe he did in fact map out some of the rhythms, at least just to get a feel for it, but on the other hand Avey is such a weirdo that singing over that beat might just feel natural for him lol. Who knows.

Anyway I could be wrong about all this too. I'm probably gonna try and find some interviews where they talk about this stuff because I'm curious now and can't remember exactly what their approach is

Yeah i kind of figured that was the case. Just their crazy imaginations and natural sense of rhythm accidentally taking them to some very complicated and interesting places.

I've just noticed a lot of people on Animal Collective subreddit dissecting their time signatures and all of that, and I thought "you know they probably don't even know themselves".

lol I'm totally one of those nerds who dissects time signatures and shit but yeah I think you're right

this polaroid of geo from gorilla vs bear is sweet



some of panda too: http://www.gorillavsbear.net/polaroids- ... tion-2018/

Has anyone heard the No Effects podcast with Geo & Panda? There was a really interesting part where one of their friends who knew a lot of music theory said all of their songs are missing a certain part, like a note of movement. I forgot what part exactly, but it was fascinating to hear someone learned analyze AC's music.

Also, if anyone has a rip of the Geo tape, send it over!

Has anyone heard the No Effects podcast with Geo & Panda? There was a really interesting part where one of their friends who knew a lot of music theory said all of their songs are missing a certain part, like a note of movement. I forgot what part exactly, but it was fascinating to hear someone learned analyze AC's music.

I remember that, I think he meant they use a lot of power chords, basically the first and fifth notes but not the third, which is what gives a chord colour. The most obvious song that comes to my mind where this is the case is PJ, otherwise most of their songs I'd say this isn't necessarily true

"all their songs" lack thirds? I don't buy it. The vast majority of AC songs use common pop chord progressions and use the chords in a pretty standard way from a theory standpoint, I mean, that's what they're *trying* to do, they are pop at the core of things. Why not point at the most obvious thing, almost none of their songs have basslines.

yeah it's weird, I remember hearing that on the podcast and thinking it sounded wrong. Plenty of their songs use regular old 3-note major and minor chords. Maybe they were paraphrasing it and it wasn't exactly what they meant to say. Good point about the basslines, that is a noticeable omission in many of their songs, tho I'd say from Merriweather onwards they've used them pretty consistently

That's true, my bad for the exaggeration, I've mostly been listening to pre-MPP recently.

It's all good I get what you mean. I think it's really interesting how sparingly they used bass on their early stuff. At least when they did use it it was way less melodic and sorta feels more like just another sound collage element, like the bass at the beginning of Ahh Good Country or the drones in Daffy Duck. But like so much of Feels has no basslines and I don't ever notice it. I guess the guitar or piano still provides the bottom end, and it's not without precedent in music but it's still weird

Honestly, the lack of basslines is one of my favourite things about their music. It means there's so much breathing space. All the little details and textures stand out more.

It's partly why I've found everything from MPP onwards to be a rung or two down from their greatest work. I don't understand why they got so excited about having thumping bass on almost everything since working with Best New Allen. CHz was probably the worst for this, an unnecessary bloat on almost every song but Greaper wasn't much better. I remember Sonic saying how talented Noah was to knock out these basslines there and then on the synth. Not to me. They sound nothing more than functional, and mostly unnecessary.

I think they were most successful at using bass with MPP but even that starts to feel like they needed bass on every song simply because they had the option. My Girls is categorically worse with studio bass than the sparse live version. It becomes muddy very quickly. Strange song, looking back. I don't think Daily Routine needs as much bass as there is in the verses, either, and it loses a little of the mysterious atmosphere for it. It gains nothing. Taste does not need a dub bassline. They had already nailed that song, one of their greatest ever, and then it became whatever that is.

Down There was the best use of bass, actually. That was perfect. And Danse and Spirit. Never very good elsewhere.

Mega hard agree with that post

danse was the best use of low frequencies in their collective career (and spirit obviously has the best bass lines)

i think unironically the best use of bass on ac related project is live tropic of cancer where he rings out the large bass notes at the end of the song. when youre there it washes over you and becomes an element all of its own vs the usual simple backbone of a song which is wat i love about ac doing music.

Down There bass is fucking great and it suits the atmosphere really well. But I never had boots of that to listen to so I dunno how easy it is to compare with something like MPP

Yeah v good post Stan. I don't necessarily agree with everything said but really good critique and contrast of their pre- and post-MPP music. And hearing a Day with the Homies now, that's one reason why it's so effective – the tracks are so skeletal that the massive bass doesn't really get in the way of anything else

in case anyone cares, john maus did a reddit ama and talked a bit on the time he played with panda bear:

"This would have been back in the Young Prayer days! And I simply accompanied him on keys (and so was given eternal bragging rights). We've never collaborated before, but I also like to brag that on the first track from Person Pitch, "I'm Not / Comify in Nautica", Noah uses a sample from the Machaut rondeau "rose, liz, printemps, verdure", a track which I first turned him on to!"

lol

https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-animal ... eerhunter/

Say wha

https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-animal-collective-jam-with-deerhunter/

Say wha

check out the thread over in the live forum

its always annoyed me that the samplers in the my girls video dont appear to be on

I guess someone on Reddit DM'd the band's insta asking whether or not to expect the Coral Orgy/Tangerine Reef material on record, and received a "yes!" in response.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCollecti ... to_record/

I just saw that. That's amazing news!

well boys...this is the confirmation we needed. to see those words ...it's over

so much in the pipeline right now... can't wait until something gets announced. already salivating

Fuck yeah

Haven't listened to any Music Box recordings and I'm def not going to now

Eh, might be worth your time as I imagine when they are released they'll be far removed from how they sounded those nights what with the site-specific instruments and orchestral involvement

Hm good point, I'd mostly just rather wait for good audio quality, tho I know it may be a while. Either way this is v v v exciting news