Why don't Animal Collective just quit with all the 'avant garde' stuff and become the world's greatest pop band?

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Because it seems that on Tung Songs they are playing to their strengths - their knack for melodies / pop songs - more than ever. More songs like the one about the rabbit, please...

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

b-b-b-but what about n*sync?

― JaXoN (JasonD), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

They are never getting back together again, kid. And there's no Santa Claus, either.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Nooooooo! I haven't heard the new album, so I can't really comment on that direction, but I want them to stay like the glorious fucked-up geniuses they already are.

― Jeff Sumner (Jeff Sumner), Thursday, 18 March 2004 01:22 (twenty-two years ago)

So this new one is supposed to be a "pop" record?? Coulda fooled me. Doesn't sound as snoozeworthy to me as their last one, but it's not as much fun as their early stuff either (you know, the stuff gathered on that 2-disc manatee-etc. set.) Kinda reminds me of what's happened to Black Dice on their recent singles; i.e., at least they're not as boring as the band's most acclaimed album (which, in Black Dice's case, too, was less interesting than that *Cold Hands* EP). Weird...

― chuck, Thursday, 18 March 2004 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I wouldn't call this pop. But I would call it a folk-ish record. The problem with asking them to drop the "avant garde stuff" is that part of their sound is what makes them not sound like a whole bunch of other free folk bands like Charalambides or Six Organs. I mean, in the context of most folk music, a big wash of Beach Boys harmonies is pretty out there, and I would love to see them go even further towards the tendency to go in 4 directions at once.

Here Comes the Indian is mostly unlike anything else I've heard them do - I loved it, but perhaps it will turn out to be an anomaly.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 18 March 2004 02:19 (twenty-two years ago)

dude, its the sonix that makes animal collective, strip that down and they are just another band.

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Thursday, 18 March 2004 02:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait Cold Hands is better than Beaches and Canyons?

YOU SO CRAZY!!!!!

― LITTLE LAMB [Jon Williams] (ex machina), Thursday, 18 March 2004 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw them play last month and it literally almost put me to sleep.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Thursday, 18 March 2004 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)

didn't know the avant garde was one choice among many.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 18 March 2004 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

oh! does 'here comes the indian' not sound like the other stuff? how does it differ

― prima fassy (mwah), Thursday, 18 March 2004 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd like to see Avey Tare do more "pop" music myself - all of my favorite songs by the collective ("Whaddit I Done," "Who Could Buy A Rabbit," "Penny Dreadfuls," "Chocolate Girl," "Essplode") are the ones that allow his gift for melody to come through. I agree with Dominique that "pop" isn't quite the right word for it though - it's more like pop filtered through folk and/or psychedelia.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 18 March 2004 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

sometimes i can't find my good haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabits

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 18 March 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

...are the ones that allow his gift for melody to come through.

is this really necessary?...not trying to be a hater...but thats a bit hard to swallow.

Is it possible for one to just quit with all the 'avant garde' stuff...I dont think they ARE avant garde.

― ddb, Thursday, 18 March 2004 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

sometimes they are avant hard to listen to.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 18 March 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I listen to that "Who Could Buy A Rabbit?" song, and I was kind of underwhelmed. I honestly didn't find it that catchy. If I'm feeling like listening to sunny Beach Boys harmonies with weird sonics I'd put on Circulatory System or even mid-period Of Montreal before that song.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 18 March 2004 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Why don't Animal Collective just quit?

― Odi, Thursday, 18 March 2004 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I want to hear this.

― dean! (deangulberry), Thursday, 18 March 2004 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

the song is on fluxblog.

I think the song is brilliant. I've always liked their poppier moments best, but think it's fine that they often sound different. I've seen them play like a spazzed out free-jazz band covering Faust Tapes, like Pat Methany performing Steve Reich on drugs, like a chance meeting of Amon Duul and Haphash and the Colored Coat etc. I haven't always enjoyed their shows, they've ranged from totally boring to totally transplendant(sorry, I just watched Annie Hall) and feel the same way about the records. But I still think they are amongst the most exciting things happening music-wise these days.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Dan otm

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

this is a ridiculous totalising thing to say but there's no getting around the fact that, these days especially, generation Y and whatver the new one is called are just more or less adopting the same conservative, vapid 'rock' stances as their gen X (by now actually) elders. songs about being a drunk loser, or just "relationships," will always maintain currency, from sebadoh to mainstreamo, because that's what people are going through and music functions as more of an emblem to them, not as art. so by saying "why don't they drop the avant garde" i feel you are asking them to write songs more directly about YOUR emotions and there are plenty of horrible bands already out there for you, that they don't have much in the way of aural invention or any remarkable prosody is the price you have to pay. there is something i daresay political about all of this. there is a reason for it, embedded in 'social fabric.' god bless animal collective, i hope they continue fucking people up for a long time, because (read some of these comments!) they NEED some fucking up

― duke flick, Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

yes songs about stuff people go through cannot function "as art." "art" can only be the work of people who set out to strenuously "create" "art," and any band that sings about stuff that people go through are "horrible." thank you for playing.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

i read an interview with will oldham where he talked about the "hyper" level of reflecting experience through songs or whatever. of course animal collective are reflecting the stuff they've been through but it's not on a sheerly colloquial plane, or it IS when that would be inventive in the context of the piece. what i'm talking about is the mode of stuff there is so obviously a glut of, whereby there is no notion of, or an open revulsion at the notion that things can be sublimated as opposed to just "laid on the line." some can lay things on the line AND sublimate but they inadvertently create a long line of yes horrible imitators and eventually no one call tell the difference. walk into virtually any rock club TONITE

― duke art, Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:06 (twenty-two years ago)

i think that in order to "identify" with animal collective (which is certainly possible, if not the point of their music--they're not calculatedly "avant-garde" or "challenging"; i would never think of them as pretentious--they don't make any political or artistic claims, they just play) one needs to have access to the context they've created for themselves. certainly they operate outside most of contemporary underground music circles/trends, and they don't play anything old at shows, but i don't think of them as "alienating"...i think their music is very warm and inviting when viewed in a holistic way.
the point i'm trying (poorly) to make is that when you think of the pace they work at and the constant refinements they make to their approach, it's possible to bond very deeply with a kind of practice that they put forward, rather than a certain "style" or subject matter. for instance, the mediation between nature and technology is constantly reworked brilliantly, esp. between "campfire songs" and "here comes the indian", and this approach has repercussions not just for music but for any creative endeavor, and even proposes a certain way of simply perceiving the world in an uncynical, naive, yet selective or critical way; i think one can only really get at this depth in their music by thinking of their work as a dynamic process or continuing project, reflected between live shows and on record, rather than being epitomized in a certain song, performance or record. i for one would be disappointed if the group made an "epitomizing" album--if that was the case, then wouldn't you feel a little sad that they'd soon run out of ideas?

― naturemorte, Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

i think they make "subconscious music". sometimes they remind me very much of lou barlow's very early tape loop stuff (85-86) as sentridoh/dinosaur jr. ("poledo").

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

I like Animal Collective but absolutely abhor "Who Could Buy a Rabbit"! It reminds me of all the things I ever hated about Elephant 6.

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 07:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"win a rabbit"

― Does John Coltrane Dream of a Merry-go-round? (ex machina), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"a rabbit"

― sowhatifimonmysticrecords (deangulberry), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"avante garde"

― Does John Coltrane Dream of a Merry-go-round? (ex machina), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

" "
" "
" "
"naive"
" "
" "
" "
" "
" "

― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 09:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Avant Garde, Pop, or otherwise, "Winters Love" is an incredible song. Can't we just agree to call it "Avant Pop" or something?

― Nancy Boy (Nancy Boy), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 10:23 (twenty-one years ago)

P.S. Naturemorte is (long-windedly) OTM!

― Nancy Boy (Nancy Boy), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 10:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, "Win a Rabbit". That one is even worse.

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I've finally heard Sung Tongs, and while I find it pretty enjoyable, anybody who argues these guys are up for "world's greatest pop band" gets a gold plated CAUCASIAN PLEASE medallion for christmas.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahah -- I think I would have to agree with Mr. Miccio (they were...winsome...and that's not bad but still).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Jews are white?

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

guess what guys

― glossolalia, Sunday, 8 July 2007 04:01 (eighteen years ago)

an LOL here and an LOL there.

― funny farm, Sunday, 8 July 2007 04:02 (eighteen years ago)

depressing

― I know, right?, Sunday, 8 July 2007 10:38 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

we edge ever so closer...

― scottw, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 01:38 (seventeen years ago)

Am I really all the things that are outside of me?

― ecuador_with_a_c, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 02:02 (seventeen years ago)

Did I really claim to have enjoyed Sung Tongs? I must have been being nice.

― da croupier, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 02:06 (seventeen years ago)

we edge ever so closer...

did we listen to the same new album?

― "made smashable" (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 31 December 2008 02:09 (seventeen years ago)

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