Animal Collective

Latest Articles

Panda Bear | Tomboy

Paw Tracks (2011)
Tomboy , Noah Lennox a/k/a Panda Bear's third studio album, kicks off with "You Can Count on Me," a slab of intoxicating psychedelia that's quintessentially Panda Bear, from the gorgeous choir-boy vocal harmonies (enunciated to crisp perfection) to the plentiful reverb to the uplifting, major-key message of family commitment.
By RYAN REED | April 13, 2011

Braids | Native Speaker

Kanine Records (2011)
Kanine Records (2011)
By RYAN STEWART | January 04, 2011

Review: Avey Tare | Down There

Paw Tracks (2010)
It's a credit to Avey Tare that his debut solo album feels like a very natural extension of Animal Collective's overarching brand of psychedelia.
By CARRIE BATTAN | October 26, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Hot freaks

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti leave home
Los Angeles is the land of the freaks — from subversive ones like Lindsay Lohan to out-and-out horror shows like Kim Fowley.
By JONATHAN DONALDSON | July 20, 2010

Contemporary heart

Yeasayer and Sleigh Bells open the present
Music is really just a form of time, so it makes sense that our many musics represent the many different ways we wrangle with this irritatingly linear mortal coil.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 27, 2010

Lightspeed Champion | Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You!

Domino (2010)
Devonté Hynes first appeared as a member of the joky UK dance-punk trio Test Icicles.
By MIKAEL WOOD | March 03, 2010

Review: El Perro Del Mar at the Brattle

El Perro Del Mar and Taken by Trees, live at the Brattle Theatre, February 19, 2010
Sharing a bill, a backing band, and the cramped stage of the Brattle Theatre last Friday, two Swedish singer-songwriters turned it up to the world-music equivalent of 11 for an audience that, for the most part, refused to dance.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | February 24, 2010

Ride that wave

Are Surfer Blood the only band from Florida?
Like a killer wave or a lousy metaphor, success can really sneak up on you.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 23, 2010

The Big Hurt: The decade ahead

Music predictions for the pubescent millennium
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
By DAVID THORPE | January 12, 2010

Is 2010 the Year of the Girl?

Music of the Future
Many have argued that the descriptor "indie music" means nothing more or less than "bands Pitchfork reviews" these days, and the claim was never more true than last year
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 06, 2010

Best unsung albums of 2009

The cocky and the cock-blocked
These days, it's not so easy to feel useful as a music critic.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 22, 2009

Animal Collective | Fall Be Kind

Domino (2009)
This nifty little five-track postscript to January's celebrated Merriweather Post Pavilion demonstrates further how adept the members of Animal Collective have become at deploying their bottomless bag of electro-psych tricks in the service of songs.
By MIKAEL WOOD | December 16, 2009

Newport’s rock royalty

The diePods — straight outta the City by the Sea
If 75orLess Records CEO (and Six Star General bassist) Mark MacDougall decided to host an East Bay Desert Sessions, the diePods would be the 3 am headliner.
By CHRIS CONTI | October 21, 2009

Re-taking a leak

Atlas Sound shines through on Logos
When last we left Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, it was November of 2008, and he was ready to put that year to bed. A couple of months earlier, an eager fan downloading one of Cox's many "virtual seven-inches" had sleuthed out a whole Mediafire folder full of goodies that Cox had posted but not protected.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | October 15, 2009

Taken By Trees | East of Eden

Rough Trade (2009)
Truth be told, I get a little crumply whenever I hear of Western indie types going off on East-bound inspirational jaunts.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 02, 2009

Glorious bastards

Deerhunter's path from divisive buzz band to indie royalty
Few bands could serve as a better case study on the influence of Internet hype on mainstream media and popular acceptance than Deerhunter. Before the band "broke" in early 2007, to a glowing Pitchfork review of their album Cryptograms , the Atlanta four-piece were virtual unknowns nationally.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 02, 2009

Best Music Poll 2009: Anything goes

The underground: saved, salvaged, or savaged?
The underground: saved, salvaged, or savaged?
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 30, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Photos: Friday at Bonnaroo 2009

Public Enemy, Santigold, Beastie Boys, and more on Friday, June 12, 2009 at Bonnaroo
Photos from Friday, June 12, 2009 at Bonnaroo 2009
By LEXY WINTER | June 17, 2009

Local color

Grizzly Bear try to break out of the blogosphere
It's become a commonplace to say that "indie" is too vague to mean anything useful, but that's not actually true.
By RICHARD BECK | May 28, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Photos: Animal Collective at House of Blues (2009)

Animal Collective + Grouper | May 14, 2009 | House of Blues, Boston
Animal Collective + Grouper | May 14, 2009 | House of Blues, Boston
By MATT TEUTEN | May 18, 2009

Are Animal Collective a jam band?

Animal Collective are the next logical iteration of the jam band. Yes. Yes they are.
Like many white males in their early 30s with slowing metabolisms and dorkish concerns, I never really got what the big fucking deal was about Animal Collective. I was turned onto them years ago by a friend at an old workplace; he had better taste in music than me.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 20, 2009

The moving pictures

Pattern Is Movement reanimate the past
If one way that bands tie themselves to the past is through sonic reference — Fleet Foxes calling forth Crosby, Stills and Nash, or Animal Collective channeling the Grateful Dead — then there's been a number of bands who tie themselves to the past through cultural reference.
By DEVIN KING | May 12, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Black Dice | Repo

Paw Tracks (2009)
Spearheaded by Brooklyn trio Black Dice and their peers, American noise rock is less like the pure noise of Merzbow and more like a renewal of dark, grinding industrial rhythms.
By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | April 06, 2009