Weekly Whiskey Episode 8

Hey presto, it's episode 8!

Avey Tare- Down There

You've got to feel a bit sorry for Avey Tare. Over the past few years of Animal Collective's rise to (relative) popularity and critical acclaim, much of the focus has been on bandmate Panda Bear. Though he only really started to write songs and sing lead on Strawberry Jam, Panda Bear's name-making solo album,Person Pitch, and sublime contributions to Merriweather Post Pavillion have ensured that most critics, fans, and interview-happy journalists are focused on him. Worse, Avey Tare (real name Dave Portner) recently separated (or divorced, I'm not entirely clear on that) from his wife, Kria Brekkan, best known as a former member of Mum and, with her twin sister, cover star of Belle & Sebastian's Fold Your Hands Child... album. Thus while anticipation is reaching critical mass for Panda Bear's overdue Tomboy album, there was little fanfare when Portner announced Down There a couple months ago.

This perplexes me, since Portner was always the main songwriter for Animal Collective. Even though he's unfairly pegged as the noisy/dissonant/experimental member of the group, if you spend a few minutes with his previous sort-of-solo album, Pullhair Rubeye, or, you know, most of the tracks on Merriweather, you'll soon be reminded of his gentle and/or melodic side. Furthermore, Portner was the guy who wrote the majority of the best known, best loved Animal Collective songs, so why was almost no one, outside of dedicated fans, buzzing about another solo album from him?

Down There, as it turns out, isn't as dissonant and experimental as you may expect. It is less hook-y and song based than the last four Animal Collective albums, to be sure, and he has also retreated to using effects on his vocals and singing in a way that it makes it hard to figure out what he's saying. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is an album that disappears into itself far more than it invites the listener in. There is a listless, airy quality to this music; in general Down There is the sort of record that seems to spend as much time in near-silence or statically hanging in vocal-less electronic ambience as it does treating you to concrete songs, albeit ones with slow feed melodies and hooks. While I do think this heavily electronic and atmospheric aesthetic works for these songs, that doesn't mean the album, by extension, works. Now that I think about it, in some ways it's like the polar opposite of Panda Bear's Person Pitch, all dour and insular and barely there, instead of bright and expansive and maximalist like that masterpiece.

If Down There sounds like anything from the Animal Collective discography, it picks up where the slower, bummed out tracks from Merriweather and the Fall Be Kind EP left off. A better comparison may be that it's the break-up album, other-side-of-the-coin to the love song filled Feels. 'Cemeteries' in particular seems like the evil twin of slow motion psychedelic Feels dreams like 'Daffy Duck' or 'Loch Raven.' To put it yet another way, Down There reminds me a bit of Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, in the sense that you have the ostensible lead musician in a popular, beloved band delivering an underwhelming solo album that sounds as downcast and bedroom born as it probably was. Now, to be fair, I do like The Eraser, and I also like Down There. But in both cases I spent an inordinate amount of time listening, waiting to fall in love as I always had, and never finding much to get excited about. Down There is merely an interesting but partially forgettable album, lacking any of the punch or character of his best Animal Collective music.

Portner has gone on record as saying that he has no intention to tour this material, since singing these songs every night would be like returning to the dark place they came from. So this tells us that Down There is his most personal statement yet, and it also tells us that the record was a catharsis for him. I'll go ahead and add that Down There is an example of a solo album that will only appeal to longtime fans and not those drawn in by the honeyed bliss ofMerriweather. Portner does mostly stick to his less screamy vocal approach on this album, but even then, the melodies and hooks are much less apparent and memorable than on anything he's written in the last five years. Since this record sounds so much like Animal Collective, it's impossible not to compare. To that end, let's just say, even the more immediate, direct, and enjoyable songs, like 'Lucky 1'—with its knotty electronic pulse and Portner's devastating “were you crying?” repeated question—are underwhelming. Even going by other albums or its own standards, Down There is rarely above average.

Sometimes misery and unhappiness can lead to great art. Other times, though, they can lead to a normally peerless artist throwing a pity party and retreating into good-but-unremarkable art. Down There isn't so much a disappointment as it is inessential. Fans will enjoy, maybe even love, this album, but those who were drawn to Animal Collective by their recent more accessible music will find this a thin, unsatisfying listen.

3 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5

Album Of The Week: Animal Collective- Fall Be Kind EP

It's surreal to think that it's already been nearly a near since Animal Collective released Merriweather Post Pavilion. I could just be thinking like a solipsist here, but 2009 has flown by, hasn't it? Nowhere has this felt more evident than in the music world, or anyway, the corner that I inhabit and follow. 2009 hasn't had quite as many truly excellent albums as 2008, and at the same time, everyone's already jumped the gun on their "best of the decade" lists and articles. Most of the world seems eager to finish December and be done with this decade, so leave it to the band who helped start off 2009, with what is arguably their best album, to finish it with what is arguably their best EP.

As I mentioned in my review of Deerhunter's Fluorescent Grey EP, Animal Collective are one of the few bands who think of an EP as a true venue for expression. They've always put forth the effort to offer fans something interesting and new, instead of just having a glorified single or remix depository. Their first, Prospect Hummer, was a wonderful coda to Sung Tongs with the legendary (in some circles) Vashti Bunyan in tow. People was interesting but inessential, unfortunately offering both a studio and live version of the title track. Last year's Water Curses, meanwhile, was the true proof that very few bands make EPs like Animal Collective. That release was arguably as good if not better than most of Strawberry Jam's tracks, something born out by the fact that I remember the band saying that the EP wasn't so much leftovers and B-sides as it was stuff that just didn't fit or flow well with the album.

The same could be said for Fall Be Kind. Its five tracks neither sound like retreads from Merriweather nor lesser material that was left on the cutting room floor. At a bit over 27 minutes, it's a substantial work with its own sense of flow and atmosphere. The band made some comments about how it was going to be "darker" than Merriweather, and while there is a bit more uncertainty, less obvious song structures, and more experimental textures to the EP, it's still just as poppy and frequently head nodding as the album. The first two tracks find resolution in brilliant samples: 'Graze' has euphoric pan flutes from Zamfir, while 'Why Would I Want? Sky' famously features the first legal Grateful Dead sample, from 'Unbroken Chain.' As for the rest, 'Bleed' is where most of the "darker" talk likely comes from, with its free-floating vocals and almost-sinister synthesizer sounds. The last two tracks are the kind of introspective and philosophical wonderings that the band is becoming synonymous with. 'On A Highway' is a road weary lament from Avey Tare, while the lengthy 'I Think I Can' is about needing to move on, ending with a 'The Little Engine That Could'-style repetition of the line "I think I can" in a vocal harmony that reminds you, once again, how Animal Collective can take an influence like the Beach Boys and make it their own.

In 2008, the self titled album and Sun Giant EP by Fleet Foxes formed an unstoppable duo that were collectively my favorite release of that year. I have no qualms about saying the same for Fall Be Kind. Judged by the EP format, Fall Be Kind is as brilliant, consistent, and well paced as Merriweather is judged by the album format. Forming a kind of unique symmetry, by design or otherwise, Merriweather was the best reason to move on to 2009 from 2008, while Fall Be Kind is the best reason to close the book on the year and begin reminiscing. For what it's worth, if I gave out an award for best EP of 2009, Fall Be Kind would easily win.

Album of the Week: Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion

How often do you really listen to an album and your opinion ends up completely changing on it?? Normally my take away of an album is generally in line with my first impression, if a bit stronger. If I don't like it on the first spin I usually end up hating it. If I like it, I usually end up loving it. But I can't think of the last time my feeling about an album made a complete turn-around. It's all the more strange because I'm a huge Animal Collective fan and since I trust their taste and ability, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would love Merriweather Post Pavilion. The idea of them releasing a sub par or even outright bad album is as likely as Radiohead releasing one at this point. Yet on New Year's Eve, as I was driving to Cleveland to spend the night and a few days at a friend's house, I listened to Merriweather for the first time and hated it.

Perhaps hated is too strong, but I was certainly confused by what I heard. My initial impression was utter disappointment. It seemed like the band were going against their strengths, trying to make an electronic album, stuffed with overwhelming bass and confusing walls of synthesizer, drum machines, and spaced out vocals. In retrospect a lot of this might have been due to my car's stereo system, which tends to emphasize the bottom end of music way more than necessary and leave the mid and upper range muddled. Whatever the case, it wasn't until I had listened to Merriweather Post Pavilion on my laptop with iTunes's visualizer and a few more times in my car that I got it: this album is indeed Animal Collective's electronic album, but it's also a ballsy, psychedelic, and incredibly beautiful headphone album.

I've seen a few reviews that cite this as Animal Collective's pop album, but that's not entirely true. The biggest change from albums past is that the screams and noisy elements are entirely gone. The music is every bit as experimental and weird as before, but the band are emphasizing their gift for intricate vocals, unexpected sounds, strangely addictive melodies, and that indescribable ability their music has to be both repetitive and continually changing, always engaging the listener with new ideas as well as tweaks of familiar sounds. It might sound like lazy critic shorthand to say that there's bits and pieces of almost all of their albums on this one, but it's true. If pressed to give a succinct short description, I'd say this album is like an electronic version of Sung Tongs smashed together with Panda Bear's Person Pitch but less sample heavy.

Allow me to develop that. Sung Tongs was Animal Collective's breakthrough album, a duo album done by Avey Tare and Panda Bear in the freak folk style, all droney/strum-happy acoustic guitars, Beach Boys druggy vocal harmonies, primitive/minimalist drums, and child-like wonder. Literally, since 'Sweet Road' was used in a crayon commercial. But I digress. Person Pitch, then: it was like Panda Bear's coming out party. He was always a crucial element of Animal Collective, but most of their albums belong to Avey Tare. Think of your favorite tracks from previous albums, and there's a good chance it's Avey Tare singing most of it. On Merriweather Post Pavilion Panda Bear spends just as much time on lead vocals as Avey. At the same time, the way these two intertwine and harmonize has gotten better than ever. This, too, hearkens back to Sung Tongs, which was probably the last album where they sang together so much. In fact, one of this album's most unexpected treats is 'Guys Eyes', a song I thought was the weakest until I "got" that it was all about the way their voices work together. What at first seems like a confusing jumble of overlapping vocals eventually resolves into a beautiful harmony of the chorus "what I want to."

I normally try to talk some about the music of an album instead of purely about the ideas or my own reaction to it, describing sound as best I can with words, but in this case I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I hesitate to let my enthusiasm get the best of me--after all, I'm a professional critic, and I'm above such "emotions" harrumph harrumph--but Merriweather Post Pavilion is all about the experience of hearing these songs for yourself. Every song is a unique, singular entity but they all work together as a cohesive whole. Every time the album ends, I get a little sad. It's as if the movie is over and I have to go back to real life. Or, maybe, since the album is named after a concert venue, it's like going home after a concert...

...bah, OK, I can't resist talking about two of the songs. 'Brothersport' ends the album, and it's the strongest final song they've ever made. Yes, even better than 'Turn Into Something.' It is pure euphoria in audio form, the band's vocal chants and squiggly keyboard/sound loops trading dance moves with bumping bass blurts, skittering shakers, and drum breaks. And 'Bluish' is a syrup thick psychedelic space ballad, Avey Tare drawing galaxies in the sky while we all float around hoping we never have to come down from this high. With its unashamed love song romantics, it hints back to the 'love' album, Feels, which was pretty much all about Avey Tare's feelings for Kria Brekkan (and for what it's worth, the album they made together, Pullhair Rubeye, is awesome if an acquired taste). I really want to tell you about orgasmic peaks of 'Lion In A Coma', the relaxing 'No More Runnin', the Panda Bear showcase 'My Girls' which thematically picks up where 'Chores' from Strawberry Jam left off and...no no, bad Greg!! You said you wouldn't, after all...

One of the true measures of a great album is whether you enjoy it more over time instead of getting tired of it. Merriweather Post Pavilion gets better and better with every listen, the sounds and melodies becoming embedded in your DNA. It's far too soon to tell whether this album will become a classic, but I'm already willing to declare it the best album Animal Collective have made so far, and though we're barely into the year, it's going to end up on my 2009 'best of' list without question. The only question, really, is where Animal Collective will go from here. It's something I wondered after I heard Feels and Strawberry Jam, but for the first time I can honestly say that I don't really care where they go, because I'll follow them anywhere they want to go. Merriweather Post Pavilion isn't a career maker like Sung Tongs was, but it's the next step up: it's a legend maker; a modern day masterpiece. Let me say it as directly as possible: buy this album.

Animal Collective- Water Curses EP

The release of the next Animal Collective album is a bit over a month away as I write this, and while I look forward to it with great anticipation, the entire process of waiting for another release has me thinking about this band and why I love them so much. If you're merely the fan of a band, it suffices to say that you just like them and that's that. But if you're a critic like me, attempting to qualify your enjoyment can sometimes leave you speechless. Or word-less. Whatever. Often I become so taken with a movie, album, or videogame that I can't put into words why I like it until some time has passed. Or maybe I'm just so far down the rabbit hole that I haven't even given any thought as to the "why" of it all.

Well, let's step back and use Water Curses as a jumping off point for why I like this band. It's a neat four song EP, all unreleased songs that come from the sessions for last year's Strawberry Jam. In the same way that the People EP was like a last taste of the Feels album, I suppose. But I digress. I think a song by song breakdown is in order, and I'll use each to give a reason why I love this band:

1) Water Curses: Animal Collective releases, starting with Sung Tongs, have begun with incredibly strong opening tracks, and it's nice to see this practice carried over to an EP. This song has a bubbly feel, full of momentum and revelry. There's plenty of electronic wooshes, melodies, and snappy drum machines for the ear to enjoy; the effervescent vocals of Avey Tare and Panda Bear swoop, climb, dive, and twirl around the music, reminding me again that one of the things this band does best is push what vocals can do. Love them or hate them, the way this band uses vocals is instantly recognizable and uniquely them. Hey presto, reason one.

2) Street Flash: My initial impression of this song was that it was way too minimalist and slow for its own good. Reverbed organ chords hold the time while Avey Tare sermonizes to us through the inexplicable fog punctured occasionally by sound loops. As the song comes into focus the vocals are treated with a wah-pedal. Then we come to the startling moment where he asks "what's that twitching/is it still alive??" and the "alive" lyric is screamed. So, reason number two: the unexpected. Nothing is ever entirely predictable in an Animal Collective song. There is repetition in their music, yes, but also change--sudden change or gradual change. And any band that can master a feeling of repetition while also utilizing sudden or gradual change is endlessly listenable.

3) Cobwebs: Many have latched unto the "we're not going underground"/"I'm not going underground" line from this song, perhaps in response to dubious claims that Strawberry Jam was leaning further toward mainstream pop music than they ever had before. But the important lyric to me is "the more I move the less I'm free" bit and the gorgeous chant of the song's title that proceeds it. That is the stinger of the song, not the obvious supposed-commentary on their music. I love the lack of obvious-ness about their music. There's never an easy lyric or rhyme, never a rote chorus or bridge. And the meanings of the songs...you might think you know what it's "about" but on closer inspection it turns up something different.

4) Seal Eyeing: This one flows out of the end of 'Cobwebs' on a cloud of gurgling water sounds and the beautiful piano that begins right off the bat gives me a picture in my head of the band floating on lily pads on a pond and playing the song. A slight, meditative, and ambient mood piece, 'Seal Eyeing' reminds one that the band's music runs the gamut from up-tempo/happy/rocking fare like 'Water Curses' and 'Peacebone' to the slower/trippier/sadder pieces like this and 'Cuckoo Cuckoo.' This is the last reason I love the band. Like any great artist, they can switch tone and style yet still maintain consistent quality and an unique aesthetic. Even if he isn't known for it, Stephen King gets funny or romantic sometimes, after all.

Animal Collective have been making music since the beginning of this decade and it's surprising what a significant portion of that time has felt defined by them. With each successive release their cache increases more and more. While their EPs have never been quite up to the same standard as their albums, Water Curses changes all that. It feels like a companion piece to Strawberry Jam in the way People didn't to Feels yet still retains a feel and pacing of its own. Not only that, it's the best and most consistent EP of their career. You can tell they must have agonized over these four songs because they're all very good but don't fit in with Strawberry Jam as well as that set of songs did together.

Lucky for us we have the EP format. Luckier still that bands like Animal Collective take advantage of its artistic potential.

The Four Greatest Creative Duos I Can Think Of Off The Top Of My Head

As my counterpart is taking a sabbatical from posting and trying not to have a nervous breakdown, it's had me thinking about the dynamic of two people working together. I've always thought of myself as a solitary fellow, who doesn't and can't rely on someone else for input and ideas. It might be just because I haven't met another who works in the quite the same fashion that I do--not to mention one who has the same pacing and creative processes. Anyway, off the top of my head, here are the four best creative duos working today.

Who??: David Berman and Stephen Malkmus.

What??: Though not so much a duo as a kind of mutually inclusive musical brotherhood, Berman and Malkmus have worked together on and off for roughly 20 years. Most of the time it's been in the context of Berman's Silver Jews, a sort of revolving door group with only Berman as the permanent member. That said, Malkmus's contributions to the band's albums over the years have been frequently brilliant. As friends who often appear at each other's shows, and collaborators in the Silver Jews proper, the two are 40 something pillars of indie rock--the more literate and singer/songwriter-y Berman having a true foil in the more absurdist and rocking Malkmus.

Crucial Work: American Water by the Silver Jews


Who??: Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins

What??: Now closing in on its 10 year, Penny Arcade is the gaming webcomic. Through their alter egos, Gabe and Tycho, Krahulik and Holkins deliver comics three times a week that range from obscene to hilarious to surreal to violent. Lest this devolve into a PR introduction to the duo, let me just say that Penny Arcade is the only webcomic I've been able to stand for more than a year at a time, and their consistency as well as ability to always update on time is unmatched.

Crucial Work: Uhm, Penny Arcade.

Who??: Avey Tare and Panda Bear.

What??: Though it diminishes the contributions of the other two members of the band, Animal Collective is, for all intents and purposes, led by Avey Tare and Panda Bear. And in their journey, they have turned Animal Collective from being a merely interesting noise/psychedelic band to one of the most rewarding and gifted groups of today. Even outside the context of the band, the two produce great solo work that demands equal attention and appreciation.

Crucial Work: Sung Tongs by Animal Collective

Who??: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim

What??: You may have gathered from my posts that I am a bitter, depressed loner who can only feel joy while I'm giving poison candy to babies or flipping off priests. However, Tim and Eric take a chisel to my stoney frown and flip it upside down with their genius. Both Tom Goes To The Mayor and Tim and Eric's Awesome Show: Great Job! are two of the most polarizing shows on Adult Swim: people seem to be completely in love with them or utterly detest them. Being in the former camp, I can safely say that Tim and Eric are two of the funniest people alive today, and their brand of surreal/absurdist/dry humor, with dashes of dark humor, self deprecation, and gross out jokes thrown in for good measure, is like my favorite thing ever.

Crucial Work: Tom Goes To The Mayor