The Decibel Tolls

Today’s lesson:  if you have a music blog, don’t say anything less than glorifying about whatever Animal Collective just dropped, lest you want to feel the fury of indie rock dorks.  It’s understandable.  As far as I know, The Decibel Tolls is the only blog, or media in general anywhere, that didn’t find Merriweather Post Pavilion boner-inducing while traditionally praising the group in the past.  It’s also the second most viewed post on this blog of all time.  Far out.  Some selected comments from the review and my responses behind the jump…

“also frightened” the best song? really?? don’t get me wrong, I like it but it’s one of the lesser entries on this album… that is to say one of the least memorable tracks… Hopefully you’ll do yourself a favor and withhold judgment before you listen to it a few more times.

You have a different opinion than mine? Really??  Don’t get me wrong, I understand that not everyone can agree on everything (Israel and Hamas lol), but the fact that “Brothersport” doesn’t blow your dome open like it does mine is a real cockpunch and it’s just like… ya know, woah dude.  uR a MoRon, KeNnY bLoGgiNs.  Legalize weed 420.

No, but seriously, I’ve listened to it a few more times with an open mind, and I feel pretty much the same as I did when I liveblogged my first listen.  There are both flashes of brilliance and flashes of banality.  Again, this is just one dude’s opinion, and it’s the dissenting one.  MPP is good, but not great.  To me, it seemingly leaves out a lot of the sonic exploration that made Feels and Danse Manitee so intriguing.

Brothersport sounds absolutely nothing like “under the sea” which is a stab at Caribbean, not African, music.

Yes it does.

I received a few other comments, and even some letters directed to me.  Perhaps I’ll address those another day.  In the interim, I wrote a different review (with similar slant) for LEO Weekly, and that shizz will hit newsstands thoughout Metro Louisville this Wednesday. Looking forward to additional correspondence about that one, too.

To give you, dear readers, a better idea of where I’m coming from, I’ve included a track that represents what I love about Animal Collective and why Merriweather Post Pavilion just didn’t do it for me.  No, my opinion isn’t “wrong” for not liking it, I just enjoy AC’s more headfucky and funky material, like this choice live rendition “Country Fuck” (later known as “Turn Into Something” that closed out Feels). The 7-minute zone out coda here is, for my taste, better than everything on MPP.  If that’s not your bag, then neither is this blog, so I guess go touch weiners with the Stereogum dudes over a Blitzen Trapper jam or somethin’.

Anyway, this was recorded on April 30, 2005, a very fond memory of mine.  The concert was sponsored by UK’s college radio station WRFL 88.1 the year I was general manager.  All of the show’s helping hands, with the exception of two, went M.I.A. (as in missing, not as in that chick from British India who keeps her lips perpetually persed and rocks out hip-hop for NPR listeners), so I was pretty proud that we pulled the show off without a hitch, especially after it sold out.  Getting a personalized concert by hanging out in front of the stage for the sound czech was beyond amazing and pretty much made everything worth it. And enjoying Ariel Pink as an opener was almost too much awesome to take in.  But you know what’s funny… at the time, a lot of people seemed to find both Ariel Pink and Animal Collective “unlistenable,” as in, we lost a chunk of the crowd halfway through the show. It’s strange to think now, but I wasn’t surprised at the time, since there wasn’t much of Sung Tongs material played.  How the paradigm shifts, I suppose.

The University of Kentucky is a dry campus, and as WRFL is student-funded, we were obliged to, ya know, not provide beer on the band’s rider.  So after the show, my friend John Edwards (no relation to the cheatin’ dog politician or the psychic medium) and I brought both Animal Collective and Ariel Pink to our favorite bar, Buster’s. The guys were super pleasant, as they were the second time I ran into them during their show while under the employ of The Dame in May of ‘07, where they premiered the majority of Strawberry Jam.  Noah helped me hang up and straighten a couple of large posters as I tried to get the concert hall looking spiffy for a most excellent show.  I like Animal Collective as people as well as artists.  Just not Merriweather Post Pavilion so much.

Okay… a little long winded, yes, but I wanted to provide the history and nostalgia behind said MP3.  I’m including an Ariel Pink track, too – not just because they opened the aforementioned show, but because it’s called “Crying” and I wanted to dedicate it to the haters.

MP3:::
Animal Collective – Country Fuck/Turn Into Something (Live @ ArtsPlace, 4.30.05)
Ariel Pink – Crying