This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I will be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
Editor's note: This is the first of several guest previews from PopMatters contributor Eddie Ciminelli, who will also help me cover the Bonnaroo festival on Out the Other next month. You can read more of Eddie's writing on PopMatters; he can be reached at ejciminelli@gmail.com.
I walk into Webster Hall, a room I have been in dozens of times before, yet this evening everything seems incredibly fresh. The band my friend has pleaded with me to see is already on stage. The sounds coming from the speakers are more noise than music and I hear someone screaming like a shaman. The room is cloaked in blackness except for a small single light protruding from the left side of the stage that rapidly bobs up and down. My drug induced curiosity finds me walking in an almost hypnotized state to the tribal rhythm pulsating from the speakers when before I know it, I am twenty feet from the stage. It is only then I realize that the source of the light is coming from a headlamp worn by one of the band members- his knotty caveman like hair rolling through the air as he headbangs to the beats he produces with the sound effect board by his paws. Slowly but surely I find myself slowly picking up the melody that is buried under layer after layer of noise - and it is speaking to me. I cannot make out the words but somehow I understand completely what is being said. I smile. And that is how I fall in love with Animal Collective.
Now let me provide a necessary disclaimer- nothing in my music collection is as weird or abstract as my Animal Collective material. But they are my favorite band to see perform live and I never tire of the experience, even though they are not my top draft pick for the festival circuit as their sound quality tends to suffer in the open air and they should ALWAYS be seen in the evening (2:30 PM?!? Shame on you, schedule maker man). But nonetheless, every skeptic or unfamiliar soul should venture over to their performance and give it a taste- even if just for two minutes. Because you do not need much time to decide if it is your thing or not.
In an interview earlier this year, band member Panda Bear explained that he views his group’s music as their own version of blue eyed soul and I couldn’t agree more. Sure, the lyrics have only become intelligible in the most recent of their recordings, but there was always a certain earnestness- a certain yearning- that was always present in their sound. Love it or hate it, you cannot put on a Animal Collective record and be indifferent.
Most reviews and critics point to the lazy Beach Boys comparison when talking about the band but I liken Animal Collective to the sonic equivalent of Picasso. They have experimented and dabbled in all sorts of musical styles in their career, borrowing from those they admire most while constantly challenging themselves to evolve and stay fresh.
Don’t believe me? Cue up “Loch Raven” and see how the tenderness of this slow burner can lull you off to daydreams with a smile on your face. Throw on “Peacebone” and imagine watching re runs of Tom & Jerry on mushrooms with the volume muted. Next cue up “For Reverend Green” and wait for Avey Tare’s scream to come crashing in and pretend you have never felt that same sort of angst when commuting to a job you hate before feeling pacified by the harmonizing chorus that reassures you everything is going to be okay. But the Animal Collective of 2009- the three guys in their early thirties, husbands and fathers- is best exemplified in the track “My Girls” off their exceptional last album, Merriweather Post Pavilion. Hear Panda wistfully ask to retain his sense of self while he provides for his wife and child. Listen to Avey echo his sentiment as a bandmate and as a friend. Then get ready for the most addictive hook and chorus of the year and an entire crowd dancing with smiles on their faces.
First, Carmelo. Then The Wire. And now Animal Collective. Forget New York - I heart you, Baltimore.
"My Girls" (from Merriweather Post Pavilion)
"Banshee Beat" (from Feels)
Animal Collective will play the Which Stage on Friday, June 12 from 2:45-4 p.m. Check out the full Bonnaroo schedule on the official Bonnaroo website.
