Last night HT faves Animal Collective visited Conan O’Brien’s TBS late-night talk show, where the freak-rock act treated the viewing audience to Today’s Supernatural off their Centipede Hz LP. The AC boys even brought their neon-tinged set pieces with them for the performance. Take a look…
[via CoS]
It being Friday, and just shy of half-way through the ninth month of the year, this morning I (@andykahn) decided on a whim to tweet out my Top 9 Albums of 2012 (so far). Along with the nine I chose, I also added a handful of, “Honorable Mentions,” that didn’t quite make the cut. With a quarter of the year left, 2012 has thus far proven to be another impressive year of album releases.
After years of being underground cult favorites, Animal Collective finally broke through to the mainstream with the release of 2009′s Merriweather Post Pavilion. The critically acclaimed album featured a heady mix of psychedelic soundscapes, layered, Beach Boys-esque, acid-drenched harmonies and general weirdness, and showed that the Baltimore-bred act could continue to push their musical vision, while putting out a record that was a bit more accessible than their previous work. After a three year wait, which saw solo releases from AC members Avey Tare and Panda Bear, the band will release their much anticipated follow up, Centipede Hz
Today the band gives fans an advanced taste of the record, their first with their originally lineup since 2007′s Strawberry Jam
Animal Collective will kick off their 13-date North American tour on September 18 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, which also includes a homecoming show at the Merriweather Post Pavilion on October 2, and a tour closing gig at the Williamsburg Waterfront on October 5.
As part of the Guggenheim Museum’s 50th anniversary, Animal Collective have collaborated with artist Danny Perez on a site-specific performance piece that will transform the museum’s rotunda into a “kinetic, psychedelic environment”. The piece, dubbed Transverse Temporal Gyrus, will feature original recorded music composed specifically for the work along with video projections, costumes and props, rendering the band members and performers into intense, visual abstractions where guests will be invited to freely explore the space in order to fully immerse themselves in the environment. Tickets are currently on sale now.
Finally, earlier this week the Preservation Hall Jazz Band released their latest album, Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, which features an all-star cast of musicians joining the legendary New Orleans act. Among those who musicians that traveled down to the French Quarter to record tracks with the band are Tom Waits, Jim James, Dr. John, Steve Earle, Andrew Bird and Ani DiFranco. The entire album is currently streaming – give it a listen here.
This year at Hidden Track, we concocted a little experiment for our year-end Best Albums of 2009 list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way – subjectively – we opted for something a little different: a collaborative, collective list that incorporates the opinions of everybody here at HT.
To begin, we devised an all-encompassing list of around 100 nominees and populated it in a Google spreadsheet – essentially anything that anybody who writes for Hidden Track liked at all, made the list. Then we invited our crew of writers to independently vote on the whole list (omitting anything unfamiliar) on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = five stars). We ended up with 33 voters with varying degrees of familiarity with the nominees; some folks voted on just about everything, while some just a few. From there, we eliminated anything that did not receive at least three votes, calculated the average scores, and sorted it. We took the top 25 scores and presto: the Hidden Track 25 Best Albums of 2009. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.
We’ve come to the end of our week long countdown, let’s check out our Top Five…
5) The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
Key Tracks: Evil, Gemini Syringes, Watching the Planets, Powerless
Sounds Like: Trent Reznor, Mars Volta
Skinny: Beware Yoshimi fans, there’s a lot less beautiful stuff this time around. Alternatively, what the Flaming Lips forgo in placating, they more than make up for with dark themes, mayhem and a heavy storyline. While at times Embryonic gets weighed down by knobs and buttons (see Aquarius Sabotage), with some fatty basslines, a heavy dousing of effects and a deeply cynical overarching theme, the Lips provide more to think about and less with which to sing along. If there’s a credit to Wayne Coyne and crew, it’s an ability to push way beyond the conventional, while somehow getting through to the conventional.
READ ON to see the final four albums of our Top 25…
The twitter feed for Leg Up Management – who manage Animal Collective – has been updated with the following message…
Animal Collective confirmed to get first officially licensed Grateful Dead sample! “Phil Lesh loved the track please pass this to the guys”
Gorilla Vs. Bear thinks they know what track and what sample it is.
This weekend marks the moment we’ve been waiting for since we said goodbye to summer last year, as we officially say hello to Summer ’09 (or the Summer Of Jam as we’re calling it around these parts). With a nice long weekend ahead, we know you’re probably just counting down the minutes till you can go and enjoy it. With that in mind, this week’s mix tape is dedicated to the summer, literally with six tasty tunes with the word summer in the title, so sit back and relax and let’s get you in the right frame of mind…
We kick things off with singer-songwriter Josh Rouse ode to the warmer months Summertime from his Subtitulo
Thanks to NPR you can stream a crispy recording of last night’s Animal Collective show which took place at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.
Soundscan subscribers received the Billboard Top 200 chart today and I have to say 2009 is off to a great start. The folks over at P4K were quick to congratulate Animal Collective (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
This data hits billboard.com in a couple of days. The four albums mentioned above were all released on January 20. One week earlier, another HT favorite hit the Billboard charts as well: The Derek Trucks Band’s Already Free
We’d like to extend a hearty welcome to Noah Perabo. Noah, our newest contributor, loves a wide range of music and he’ll be writing reviews and features for us once in a while. Welcome aboard, Noah!
With message boards buzzing for months prior to its release, listening parties at record stores nationwide, a full page story in the NY Times and a sold-out release week tour, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion
After spinning the more accessible sound of the new album for weeks, New York City was ready to hear the songs performed live. And last night at the Bowery Ballroom, Animal Collective did not disappoint.
The band took the stage and began what was to become a 90 minute whirlwind of sounds that washed over the crowd. They opened with the vocal harmonies of Also Frightened and the crowd favorite My Girls (two songs from the new album) then broke into Blue Sky, a yet-to-be-released song that’s recently surfaced online. While the crowd responded enthusiastically to the new songs throughout the set, the shining moments came during two old ones. Leaf House layered tripped out vocals over jungle percussion while Fireworks featured tribal chants, an extended jam and the driving drums of Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear).
The set closed with Brothersport, another powerful new song that left the crowd stomping the dance floor in anticipation for more. The two song encore was a snapshot of the entire set opening with a psychedelic take on Winter’s Love and closing with the uplifting chants of Panda Bear’s Comfy in Nautica.
Animal Collective will play New York City again on May 13 at Terminal 5. Tickets are on-sale Friday (1/23) at noon.
Setlist: Also Frightened, My Girls, Blue Sky, Slippi, Leaf House, Summertime Clothes, Guys Eyes, Fireworks, Lion in a Coma, Brothersport
Encore: Winter’s Love, Comfy in Nautica
On one of the official release dates of their new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion,
In March, the zealous overachievers are booked for 22 shows over 25 days in 11 countries. There’s no rest for the weary as May through June has the band playing 22 U.S. shows and two in Canada.
Most of us at Hidden Track Headquarters think this album qualifies as an early contender for best album of 2009 and Merriweather Post Pavilion
READ ON after the jump for the band’s full itinerary. Mark your local show in your calendar as you will not be disappointed by AC live…
Bruce Springsteen stole the show yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial where some of the biggest names in entertainment came together to kick off the inaugural celebration. The Boss performed a goosebump inducing version of The Rising complete with a full choir. Other highlights included U2′s Pride (In The Name of Love) and Bettye Lavette joining Jon Bon Jovi for a beautiful tear-jerking cover of Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come.
Let’s take a look at what’s happening elsewhere on the ‘nets…
Finally, Festival Network LLC – the company behind the Newport Folk Festival – hasn’t been immune from our failing economy and company president Chris Shields has told the Boston Globe that the company will be streamlining operations for the 2009 season. Festival Network LLC lost millions in 2008, and has had to close offices and lay off workers, according to a report by Latest Ticket News, an online industry publication. Let’s just hope this doesn’t effect the long term viability of the Newport Folk Festival.
The great Animal Collective leak saga continues with the news that the email from band member Brian “Geologist” Weitz was a hoax. Someone hacked Geologist’s email address and sent off that email. Last night, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound weighed in on the situation on his blog. We’re sure all of these stories on every music blog will do wonders for sales of Merriweather Post Pavillion which drops on January 6.
Here’s one last look at interesting stories from around the webs…
One of our all time favorite blogs, Consequence of Sound, just put out their Year-End report highlighting the best of 2008. We know how hard it is to come up with creative original content day in and day out and we don’t know how Alex and the crew over there do it. Great work, guys.
