Photo by Do Lee
Listening to Animal Collective, you get the sense that they've have had some trouble letting go of their childhoods. After spending time with them, this theory is confirmed beyond doubt. They divide their hours equally between outdoorsy shit (dancing around campfires and climbing trees) and putting in marathon sessions with their instruments, making idiosyncratic blobs of modern pop. Animal Collective's music sounds completely organic but like nothing else on earth, with acoustic guitars drifting between bubbly drum circles and (shock of shocks in avant music) actual discernible melodies.
If life is one big fancy dress party and founding band members Avey Tare and Panda Bear are the guests of honor, then additional Animals Geologist and Deakin are their tardy plus 1's. Their last album, Here Comes the Indian, sounded as though four tree spirits gargled liquid acid and headed into the recording studio. To make their new album, Sung Tongs, Avey and Panda kicked out their friends, called it a lock-in and created another round of killer tracks—these with even more focus and power—to get naked to.
VICE: Let's say we're throwing an Animal Collective Party. Where are we having it and who's coming?
Avey Tare: In the Baltimore Aquarium. There's this rainforest exhibit with a sloth in it. I want it in there, but with ping-pong tables everywhere. Everybody is invited—especially people who have a tendency to burst into song at any moment. I'm more comfortable with those people. What's the most insane thing you've seen at a party?
We were recently in Rotterdam to play a festival and after our show, a promoter offered to take us to a party in a warehouse, which also happened to be a shelter for the homeless. We entered an enormous room that was full of pristine hospital beds containing sleeping homeless people. In the corner were piles of pillows and cushions. It was like a café with hookah pipes jutting out between the seats. We ordered some tea, the whole time thinking that we were going to be smoking opium or something, but all we got was regular tea with homeless people snoring nearby. Sung Tongs is out now through Fatcat/Inertia.
Avey Tare: In the Baltimore Aquarium. There's this rainforest exhibit with a sloth in it. I want it in there, but with ping-pong tables everywhere. Everybody is invited—especially people who have a tendency to burst into song at any moment. I'm more comfortable with those people. What's the most insane thing you've seen at a party?
We were recently in Rotterdam to play a festival and after our show, a promoter offered to take us to a party in a warehouse, which also happened to be a shelter for the homeless. We entered an enormous room that was full of pristine hospital beds containing sleeping homeless people. In the corner were piles of pillows and cushions. It was like a café with hookah pipes jutting out between the seats. We ordered some tea, the whole time thinking that we were going to be smoking opium or something, but all we got was regular tea with homeless people snoring nearby. Sung Tongs is out now through Fatcat/Inertia.