fork/knife

I’ve had this song stuck in my head for a while now, and I don’t really know why. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, yet somehow it continues to pleasantly plague me many times throughout the day. Maybe it’ll help those who are experiencing the heat like I am with it’s wintry lyrics. Or maybe not.

Animal Collective- Winters Love
iTunes / amazon

As an added bonus, I was getting all Tarantino’d out to prepare for his latest film Inglourious Basterds by watching a few of his past endeavors, and I decided to help you do the same. To get you in the mood I figured I’d post the theme from True Romance and “Little Green Bags,” the song that plays during the opening credits of Reservoir Dogs. Hopefully you’ll enjoy both and go to see his new film, which I can’t give enough praise for.

Hans Zimmer- You’re So Cool (True Romance)

George Baker Selection- Little Green Bags
iTunes

-Chandler

Time to get back on the remix horse! Let’s get to it: Animal Collective, remixed by Phaseone. “Daily Routine” is my favorite song off Merriweather Post Pavillion. This remix makes it perfectly danceable. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Animal Collective – Daily Routine (Phaseone Remix)
Buy the Album: Amazon / iTunes

-Chris

As much crap as we give Pitchfork, I plan on going to their festival this summer, because it’s very inexpensive and has a DYN-OH-MITE lineup. I have to say I’m extremely excited to see Built to Spill, and therefore have been sneaking them into my heavy listening rotation when I get a chance. I’ve also been listening to similar sounding bands, including more bands off Up records, the best being 764-Hero. Here’s a little ditty from the boys.

764-Hero – Sunburnt
iTunes / amazon
764-Hero MySpace

The big video of late has been the new Animal Collective video for “Summertime Clothes,” which we already featured. So we’re going to continue the AniCol trend, but add some additional videos for your viewing pleasure. I wanted to post “Peacebone” because a) it’s a great song and b) it’s one of the weirdest things I’ve seen. Until I saw the next video. The second is a short student film starring Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) as a person obsessed with fish. If you’re looking for an odd time suck, look no further. And finally, we can’t mention AniCol and videos together without posting an f/k favorite (ok, just Donovan and I) : the live version of “The Purple Bottle” with Doctess.

Animal Collective MySpace

-Chandler

Directed by Danny Perez

Hopefully you caught Animal Collective on Letterman, but if you didn’t, here it is. The song is “Summertime Clothes,” from Merriweather Post Pavillion.

For those of you that haven’t heard this yet, here is a recording from Animal Collective’s newest song that they’re playing live. Whether it’s “Blue Sky” or “What Would I Want Sky” or whatever else it’s called, it is something great. Go see one of their shows and hear it live!

Animal Collective- “Blue Sky/ What Would I Want Sky”

-Chandler

I have no classes on Fridays, and yesterday was a snow day. This has caused four consecutive days of me doing nothing, including not posting my weekly posts Song o’ the Week and MMM. For this I apologize, but I hope to make it up to you in this Superpost combining the two. Happy Len Cabral day everyone!

Song o’ the Week #12

For the past two weeks or so I’ve been eating up Yo La Tengo. Having albums like Painful, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One on repeat on my iPod, it’s really hard to pick just one song from one of the greatest and long lasting indie acts to walk the planet as song of the week. But I managed to pick one. “Little Honda” is actually a Beach Boys song that appears on All Summer Long, but it’s given a very nice treatment by YLT here. To really appreciate their stuff though, go buy an album and listen to it all the way through. It’s worth it.

Yo La Tengo- Little Honda
Amazon/ iTunes

Music Movies Monday #7

Liars is a three piece band that plays great music. Here’s the video for “Plaster Casts of Everything” from their most recent self-titled album. I would’ve posted a song, but I’m scared because they’re on a major label.

An animated story to help celebrate Len Cabral day:

One of my dad’s favorite music videos:

One of my favorite videos:

Superpost done! Tell some stories!

-Chandler

I almost forgot I started this segment, but luckily I didn’t because the videos this week are great ones. My favorite video of ‘08 from one of my favorite artists around today is the video for “Stress” by Justice. It’s basically a bunch of hoodlums traveling in a gang beating people up and causing havoc, but “Stress” seems to fit it so well. Other than that I have no reason to like it, I just find it so bad ass. And damn, I would give anything for one of those jackets (I checked, they don’t make them).

Buy artist: iTunes

Next up I decided to post this video of probably my favorite song from Animal Collective’s sixth studio album Feels. I absolutely adore this song, especially this version because it’s so stripped down compared to the studio version. It’s rough the first time through, but give it some time and you should be able to realize the genius of it. It’s just Avey Tare and his wife Kria Brekkan (a.k.a. Doctess, who who used to play in the recently mentioned band múm). Anyway, I should warn you that this isn’t for everyone, but I’ve been watching it so much recently I thought I should share. MP3’s and videos of the performance can be found here.

Buy Artist: iTunes

Finally, my dad introduced me to The Jam’s Compact Snap! a while ago, and I gotta say I was diggin’ it. I stumbled upon this and decided I need to post it because it’s freakin’ awesome. I love the bass in a lot of their songs, and this one doesn’t disappoint either. Enjoy The Jam covering Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up.”

Buy Artist: Amazon

-Chandler

So while most of us are going through an Animal Collective/Panda Bear phase right now, I found time to be going through a múm phase as well. múm is an Icelandic group (yep, there are others besides Sigur Rós) whose sound can’t be described well with words, but I’m going to give it my best. They sound like if Explosions in the Sky were electronic and toned down a little. Multiple small electronic sounds fit together beautifully and rise and fall to create a lush, and at times rigid atmosphere. They’ve also transitioned a great deal from where they started, adding additional instruments and even lyrics. I first heard them when their latest LP Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy came out in ‘07, which I didn’t really listen to except the fantastic “They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded.” I recently stumbled upon them again through shuffle on my iTunes and discovered their 2000 debut Yesterday was Dramatic – Today is OK. It is really an achievement and I strongly suggest buying it, for it’s one of those albums that needs to be listened to all the way through. This week’s song is from Remixed, which, as you might have guessed, is an album that features a bunch of múm songs remixed. The song doesn’t really reflect what they sound like, but I enjoy it too much not to post it. In addition, since we’re such nice guys, I’m going to throw in one of my favorite early Animal Collective songs for those who don’t really know where they started from. Because, like I said, it’s also an Animal Collective phase. Enjoy.

múm- The Ballad of Broken Birdie Records (Ruxpin Remix II)
Buy Artist: iTunes

Animal Collective- Essplode
Buy Song: iTunes

-Chandler

So we’re going to be honest here, these picture were taken from Brooklyn Vegan. We had our own pictures, and they were quite good because of our proximity to the stage, but we were using a disposable and apparently light got into it and destroyed them. So, that’s basically what it looked like.

That being said, I thought this performance was amazing. They opened with “In the Flowers,” a song none of us expected, and meandered into their fabulous new song that has been given the name “Blue Sky.” “Guys Eyes” is when the concert really took off, as the bass was turned up enough to shake your rib cage. From there, they played an incredible extended version of “Fireworks,” with Panda Bear delivering fantastic percussion through all 13 minutes.

“Brother Sport” closed the show, with the audience jumping to the beat so much we thought the ground would collapse beneath us. The encore was decent, featuring a slowed-down version of “Banshee Beat”from Feels and a crowd favorite “Slippi” off Here Comes the Indian. All in all, I was blown away by this show, and strongly encourage anyone who is liking MPP to go see it, especially because the setlist was basically the album tracklist. Enjoy the live version of “Daily Routine” from the show.

Setlist:
In The Flowers
Leaf House
“Blue Sky”
Guys Eyes
Summertime Clothes
Daily Routine
Lion in a Coma
Lablakely Dress/Fireworks
My Girls
Brother Sport
Banshee Beat
Slippi

Animal Collective- Daily Routine (live @ Grand Ballroom 1/20/09)
Buy album: iTunes

-Chandler

Coming into this show, I’d heard a lot about Animal Collective’s live act, both positive and negative things. They have a reputation for being unpredictable, mixing songs together and morphing songs so that they are hardly recognizable. With this is mind, I had no idea what to expect. What I got was a face-full of awesome. I believe that Merriweather Post Pavillion is an album full of songs that explode live. “Guys Eyes” and “Daily Routine” sounded fantastically full with the addition of thumping bass. The show was so loud that my brain rattled around in my head and the hair stood up on my arms. As a huge fan of the material they played, I couldn’t have asked for a better night. I look forward to seeing these guys again as soon as possible.

-Chris

I have to say, I was really taken aback by the cleanliness of the show. Animal Collective is an act not always known for their accessibility or their predictability, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they sounded very crisp. Right from the start of the show, they showed about as much emotion as you could hope for and seemed to be very tuned in to the performance. One slight disappointment was the lack of audience interaction. Although I didn’t expect any, I wish they would, because I feel it’s an element of live performance that could definitely enhance the overall experience. But this is only a small complaint, they are a really great live show, and apparently they’ve come a long way from humble beginnings in that regard. And “Daily Routine” was insane. Seriously, listen to the song located in this post. It’s mind blowing.

-Donovan