Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

i've always seen 'vagueified nostalgia' as a sort of defining characteristic of most indie sub-genres

― psychgawsple

Without getting into that, the vaguification here is very thick -- foregrounded, even. By application of reverb, of course, because that's how it's done, but also conceptually (by which I mean pictures that are blurry). Last night, I was listening to an old cassette tape of some friends jamming as teens (synth, drum machines, processed guitar) in 1980-something, and was surprised by how Ducktails-contemporary it sounded.

Guys there's a difference between people aping the bands they liked as a kid and building your entire aesthetic around how awesome it was to watch Legends Of The Hidden Temple

― Whiney

Yeah, but that's my point. The only difference is the object of nostalgia, not nostalgia or one's relationship to it. And that's considerably less interesting -- from a generalist outsider's perspective.

Yeah, I have a better idea now that I've reread these posts. You can claim "Strawberry Fields Forever" as one of the ground zeros: the spacey vocals, use of space, and general musical weirdness make it one of those songs written by an ostensible adult that consciously seeks some kind of comfort in the past ("Penny Lane" too, for that matter). But Animal Collective don't have Lennon as a singer -- or Ringo as a drummer.

ground zeros for indie bands like AC, that is.

hey contenderizer welcome back i think?

i think i see what deej and whiney and co are getting at but i gotta say it doesnt really bug me at all

I mean, compare Redd Kross' pop obsessions w/ hypnogogic band X's...

Thanks CAD, I think...

I was listening to an old cassette tape of some friends jamming as teens (synth, drum machines, processed guitar) in 1980-something, and was surprised by how Ducktails-contemporary it sounded.

woods✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧

woodsist

hypnogogic band

oh no you dint

i think ducktails are pretty boring -- but thats in some ways separate from the thing that kinda bothers me about this 'movement' being more along the lines of Wire mag writers making a huge deal about something that isnt that big of a deal ... its like the music nerd equivalent of an ny times trend piece on potbellies in brooklyn

like, im sure theres a band out there in this umbrella that could be doing some shit i actually dig, so this isnt a criticism of like max's enjoyment of ducktails, music to get stoned to, or whatever.

okay wait there is a band called Ducktails?!? I thought we were talking about the TV show

lolz I am old

a woo ooh

This thread revive's spleen is healing me a little, thx WGW. This aesthetic is absolutely trampling the independent comics scene the last 4 or 5 years... similar to what you describe at the Whitney. The crayons, the pages drawn over line-ruled notebook paper, the Garfields etc etc. I kind of feel like this (the Peter Pan wave) is at the crux of some kind of generation gap between my cohort of cartoonists and ones 10-20 years younger. And w/each year the wave's getting bigger.

But then on the other hand, the Ben Jones story in the new Kramer's Ergot-flavored Simpsons Halloween comic was pretty brilliant so i dunno.

I guess I feel like not all the interesting ways of spinning out fantasy/interesting headfuckery/emotional weight necessarily have to stem from childhood?

Also this is the first I've heard abt a band called DuckTails and unless they're playing some kind of tech-death I am appalled.

Thanks CAD, I think...

― That's not just me saying that, that's the Pentagon. (contenderizer), Monday, September 28, 2009 6:38 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

sorry that came out wrong--i meant i think youve been away for a while? always enjoyed yr posts.

most rockers don't consciously sound as if they ape the mannerisms of youth

most indie rockers do tho

The only difference is the object of nostalgia, not nostalgia or one's relationship to it

that whole 'legends of the hidden temple' scenario seems pretty fantastic to me, tbh

writing childlike rythms and performing with a sense of playfulness in order to tap the ancient subconcious wellsprings of nostalgia isn't a bad idea; "unicorns are people too" is probably the best thing ever recorded in this style and is one of my alltime favourite albums. but it's something that works best as a vehicle for a song, or an album. definitely not something to base your entire discography on.

yeah, Jon. Comics look like dogshit now.

Stick-figure: "RAD!"
Frog: "COOL!"
Both: "RADICOOL!"

*childlike melodies

but it's something that works best as a vehicle for a song, or an album. definitely not something to base your entire discography on.

otm

imagine if all White Stripes songs sounded like "We're Gonna Be Friends"

Well, but enough of them DO, Whiney, which is why I can listen to them only in bits.

It seems we're no longer really talking about Animal Collective but I don't think their music is really nostalgic or about youth at all.

I said somewhere that AC and Boards of Canada's approaches to the idea of time were diametrically opposed, but it was too crappy and pretentious to merit me finding it and posting it again.

isnt animal collectives music like really lyrically specifically about growing up? like, not at all about being young??

sung tongs is all about this shit, and it's there in varying degrees on every album since. like um for example "turn into something," "chores," "bluish." but i agree that their childishness is overplayed, and mostly a result of their image and things they say in interviews. it's not like they're a one-trick pony, but this is one of their tricks.

Gotcha, CAD. I was just being taunty, for no real reason. Hugs.

Plus, I don't know you, Jon Lewis, but I love True Swamp, so thanks for that. And I got no problem w/ day-glo Paper Rad Garfields, long as the level of design stays high. Shit gets old after a while, but every trend has to run it's course, right? Remember tearing my hair out about all the earnest indie autobio crap not so very long ago...

isnt animal collectives music like really lyrically specifically about MEOOOOW KITTEEEEZ MEEEEEOOOW KITTTEEEZ

isnt animal collectives music like really lyrically specifically about HOLIDAY HOLIDAY HOLIDAY HOLIDAY HOLIDAY FUN

lol

isnt animal collectives music like really lyrically specifically about I AM THE PANTHA I AM THE PANTHA

seriously, who listens to Animal Collective specifically for the lyrical content? are people poring through Winters Love trying to find words they can parse and then saying "SEE? NOSTALGIA!"

don't get it

btw i wasnt talking about animal collective at all -- more my growing exasperation w/ the kinds of bs i keep reading critics talk about while actually-interesting stories go right on by them

Thanks Contenderizer! I'm working on new True Swamp material but it goes slowly bcuz I have a 40hr day job these days. Chippin' away tho.

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seriously, who listens to Animal Collective specifically for the lyrical content? are people poring through Winters Love trying to find words they can parse and then saying "SEE? NOSTALGIA!"

don't get it

― HPSCHD, Monday, September 28, 2009 6:12 PM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark

i assume ppl are more talking about HYPNOGAGA POP

i have a dumb question-

why did we revive the mpp thread for this?

also xxxxxpost Whiney, a lot of this wave of cartoonists can draw like DEMONS, like scary good, but seem to want to wallow in the middle school psych thing.

Goin' home now.

this is no longer the mpp thread so much as the thread where whiney gets mad about something every couple months

me mad

haha i think my problem is opening an Animal Collective thread thinking "Hmm, maybe someone's said something interesting about Animal Collective!"

this is no longer the mpp thread so much as the thread where whiney gets mad about something every couple months

― fleetwood (max), Monday, September 28, 2009 6:15 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well, at least until he posts in a different thread

http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/78105/projects/213057/781051240168448.jpg

i mean back in the day i had to deal with a band called Bunnygrunt

― Mr. Que, Monday, September 28, 2009 2:42 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw bunnygrunt is still around. i don't know if they used to be really twee but they aren't particularly twee or "nostalgic" as far as i can tell; they're basically just decent loud pop

btw i am sick of nostalgic kids music too, or even nostalgic teenager music like the hold steady ... i'd like to hear more bands of 30-year-olds singing songs about being 30

it's kinda funny how 80s cartoon dayglo toddler chic has been like the de facto mode of the Baltimore indie scene for ages (not really IDing Animal Collective as part of that scene because i didn't even have any concept of being from Maryland until years after they left) to the point that i hadn't even given it the kind of serious thought it's getting here in a long time.

xpost psh-man i wanna hear me some teenagers singing songs about being 30

I remember reading descriptions of AC back in the early 2000's describing them as being "nostalgic" and thinking no, that's not right at all - AC aren't tapping the same vein as, say, Boards of Canada. So it's very disappointing to hear them basically reiterating these lazy descriptions. AC if anything are primitivist, not nostalgic. Their sound is that of technologically advanced cavemen, not media-besotted children.

cavemen nostalgia

if there can be such a thing... i'm just not convinced by AC's attempts to connote childlike feelings, but i am convinced by their attempts to convey chimp-like feelings. Does that make sense?