As followers of our Twitter are more than aware, Kenny Bloggins has been straight fiendin’ the past few weeks. It’s probably been annoying as all hell, and I suppose I’m somewhat sorry. But not really – the final season of LOST begins tonight, and we are throwin’ down. In the traditional way this blog celebrates all the stupid shit going on in my life, it seemed necessary to throw a Super Swingin’ Mix in your vicinity to lift John Locke’s name on high. And hey, it also can serve as sort of a peace offering to you all for the general numberskullery that will occur on the Twitter account over the next few months. So… all the songs below relate to themes, storylines, etc. from LOST. Can you find all the connections at home, kids? Oh, and of course 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 are well represented in this mix. What kind of a blogger do you think I am?

I’m not entirely sure many or any of you care about some of the theories that myself, L-Train, and our friends have hypothesized. I’ll just leave it at this – John Locke will resurrect and Jacob’s ass is evil. Believe.

Much love to the Vintage DHARMA Flickr pool for providing the image above.

MP3 :::
Nethers – It’s an Island
Brian Eno – Burning Airlines Give You So Much More
Trap Door – International Psychedelic Mystery Mix Untitled 15
The Advisory Circle – Farmland Freeland
Broadcast – Never Trust a Rusty Bolt
Fairport Convention – Eastern Rain
Silver Apples – Program
Blonde Redhead – 23
Battles – Bad Trails [Live]
The Wilderness – Your Hands
The United States of America – Stranded in Time
Flying Saucer Attack – To the Shore
The Conet Project – Counting Control
Can – Mushroom
Brian Wilson – Cabin Essence
The Great Northwest – Chief John
No Age – Things I Did When I Was Dead
13th Floor Elevators – May the Circle Remain Unbroken
The Zombies – Imagine the Swan
Leadbelly – Don’t You Love Your Daddy No More?
The Incredible String Band – Nightfall
Animal Collective – Don’t Believe the Pilot
Bachelorette – The End of Things

Haven’t done a real time review in a while, and hey, Fall Be Kind just leaked. Let’s see what’s up. Here’s a live blogging of my thoughts, revisited only for editorial clarity or to fix grammatical errors…

Graze (5:22) - Dang, kinda sounds like a Disney film. Like, this fits in well in Aladdin specifically. A ballad sung by Jafar. Dreamy piano drops in at the 2-minute mark. Kinda John Tesh-y. The synth swells and whispy vocals a minute later is similar to Mercury Rev, but like, kinda bad Mercury Rev (via All is Dream). The song’s climax picks up where “Brothersport” left off… safari music. Reminds me of this big exhibit they had at King’s Island when I was a kid, where they’d blast fun Afrobeat while you ride the tram through the various habitats of savannah creatures. The hippos were my favorite. They liked to chill.

What Would I Want? Sky (6:46) - Heavy, trippy, multi-layered percussion and driving rhythm with an almost trip-hop/psych-hop flavor. I like having Avey Tare back in the foreground on throat duty, though the aforementioned visceral Disney tones prevents him from unleashing his vocal chords via “People” or “Grass.” Chorus melody is a little corny, though, and kinda sounds like Metric. The vibe, though, is unlike anything they’ve done before. Wish the shiny production was taken down a notch. It doesn’t suit them. Good track for the most part, though.

Bleeding (3:28) – Space rock backdrop and Noah/Dave vocal interplay that doesn’t really head anywhere after…. what, about three minutes. But if “Bleeding” was a minute and a half long jam… this would’ve been a cut. Almost reminiscent of “Banshee Beat,” but sans some of the mysticism.

On a Highway (4:36) - The creepy voice and drones sound promising. Turns into a relaxed song about smokin’ hash, road trippin’, and not wazzin’ your trousers. Kinda forgot about it playing because I was reading this article on insane, abandoned Cold War projects. Ended up being boring all in all. The song, not the article.

I Think I Can (7:10) - A sort of trance beat anchors this song, with huge percussion dropping in and Panda-led vocal harmonies. Just like Merriweather Post Pavilion. Actually, almost exactly like MPP.

Final thoughts: Looking forward to all the flaming that will occur in the comment sections, but whatever. Maybe it’s because I was listening to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Wire’s Pink Flag this morning, two albums so perfect that it’s hard for anyone to follow it up. But maybe Animal Collective just doesn’t have it anymore. No more insane vocal yelps from Avey or destroyed song structures. Just cartoon pop with some cool sounds every now and again. I know they’re all husbands and dads now, but maybe the drugs were doing good things to their collective headspace circa 2004 (and AC was smart enough to hide their stash on tour, LOL KING KHAN!). I mean, I dunno… it is what it is. Animal Collective are a group with ample talent and an adventurous spirit, and I’m sure they will have a sort of “return to form,” even without repeating the successful forumlae found on Sung Tongs. In the interim though, I’ll probably just go back to listening to the new Tune Yards record and continue about my day. I’d like to see more “What Would I Want? Sky,” por favor. Less Sebastian from The Little Mermaid. Plz?

Fall Be Kind is out on Domino on December 15. JUST IN TYMEZ 4 CHRIMMMASSS!

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky [excerpt only - don't wanna get Web Sheriffed]

The long awaited box set of early performances/demos of Animal Collective, spanning roughly 2000 to 2003, recently became available in limited quantities… and said quantities are all gone. Not sure if Catsup Plate is planning on a wider distribution, but Hansen was fortunate enough to grip a copy. Fans of Sung Tongs and before will be absolutely delighted with the sound quality and inclusion of unfamiliar tracks, especially if you were disappointed with Merriweather Post Pavilion (as many of this blog’s readers were, I believe).

That reminds me, if you loved pop-friendly Merriweather Post Pavilion, there’s a good chance you might hate Animal Crack Box. Animal Collective started as a noise and Holy Modal Rounders-style folk band that used to shred hard with C Spencer Yeh and his crew. And now they’re kickin’ it with Letterman! They grew up so fast…  But yeah, I love the older stuff, so Animal Crack Box is Christmas come early for me.

Below is a small selection of some of my favorites from the box set with the corresponding liner notes:
“Hey Friend” – recorded live to MiniDisc winter early 2001 at 67 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn by Avey/Panda
“Covered in Frogs” – recorded live to MiniDisc sometime and somewhere in 2003 (recording details are lost) by Avey/Panda
“Jimmy Raven” – recorded live to MiniDisc 18 September 2000 at the Cooler, NYC by Avey/Panda

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – Hey Friend
Animal Collective – Covered in Frogs
Animal Collective – Jimmy Raven

For whatever reason, I still find Merriweather Post Pavilion really hit-or-miss. Miss the weird shit, I guess. As such, I tend to revert back to Danse Manitee for my Animal Collective fix, as well as their many side projects that had varying degrees of interest. One of the more overlooked releases was the record cut between Panda Bear and his best bro Scott Mou. The project was dubbed Jane. Scott and Noah worked at New York’s Other Music and recorded music together at the former’s apartment. They released a couple of albums, but Berserker was the only one with any distribution (since it jumped on the Paw Tracks catalog, obviously).

Berserker was released in the spring of 2005, between Noah’s Young Prayer and Person Pitch. You certainly hear some embryonic forms of what was to come – warped ambient textures over fractured, booty bass heavy beats.  Jane resembles an almost primordial Person Pitch… on lots of psychedelics.  Mou was a professional club DJ at the time, and they both considered Jane to be a “dance” project, as indicated on Noah’s description of Bersker via Paw Tracks:

We both really liked dance music and dance music from the very beginning and I mean stomps and shouts and claps and stuff like that. Of course we like all kinds of other stuff too, but it’s the dance that gets us going on Jane. We played once at the Animal Collective practice space, but found it much more pleasant to play at Scotty’s home in Greenpoint where he had his mixer and simple microphones and we would drink brews and talk about all kinds of things and then play. I would usually sing about stuff I was thinking about that day and Scotty would move with it, playing jams and it would all kind of pour out. We liked all the mechanical robo dance jams from Detroit and Chicago and Germany but we wanted to do something with less 0’s and 1’s and more souls.

Despite what he says, I would invite you to try to boogie down to this record. Take video and send it to kb [at] thedecibeltolls [dot] com so I can lol, por favor. But then again, I suppose “Slipping Away” does start to get pretty funky past the six-minute mark.

Anyway, Berserker isn’t for everyone, but if you slept on this release and/or miss the odd electronic explorations of Animal Collective’s pre-Sung Tongs material, the songs below are not to be missed. Moreover, it’s interesting to hear this album in relation to Panda Bear’s musical trajectory, especially since it was recorded during the transition between the acoustic-friendly Young Prayer/Sung Tongs era and the sample-saturated, dub-informed Person Pitch/Strawberry Jam period. In retrospect, it seems that Mou had a greater influence on Noah than anyone gives him credit for.

Jane’s Berserker is available through Paw Tracks. You should buy it so you can enjoy the Grateful Dead skulls on the back over.

Awesome.

For fans of: Aphex Twin, Odd Nosdam, Tim Hecker

MP3 :::
Jane – Slipping Away
Jane – Berserker

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

Before we begin, do you know who this is in the photo above?  No?  Why, it’s Marjorie Merriweather Post, the founder of General Foods, Inc.  Though she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and socialite existence, the cereal magnate also subscribed to the Rockefeller school of philanthropic thought and donated tons of money to various causes, eventually getting an outdoor concert pavilion in Maryland named after her and, ergo, an album I’m getting ready to pop on the ghetto blaster.

So anyway, you know the drill.  When I grip a new and anticipated jam hive, I like to review it in “real time”… that is to say, I fuckin’ listen to that shizz and liveblog my thoughts on it, only revising for grammatical errors and editorial clarity. Today, Animal Collective’s forthcoming Merriweather Post Pavilion gets said treatment.  It comes out on Domino on January 20th in digital format, January 6th on analog (vinyl).  Unfortunately, you get no preview for yourself, as I got Web Sheriffed on Christmas.  Christmas!

I’ll try to keep this objective.  However, I’ve been a huge Animal Collective fan since I first heard “Slippi” from Here Comes the Indian roughly… I dunno, five years ago or so.  Hence, I have rather strong feelings toward this music, lots of nostalgia, and high expectations. This does, however, usually make for a better write-up.  My prediction – Strawberry Jam seemed to act as a bridge between Animal Collective’s weirdo rippin’ and the newer pop movements showcased in their recent live performances and, of course, Panda Bear’s solo outing.  I expect Merriweather to be AC’s most accessible release yet, for better or worse. 

Alright, let’s do this like Buddhists.  Mashin’ play:

“In the Flowers” - Begins in a flurry of somewhat disjointed sound, much like “Peacebone,” and well, “Did You See the Words,” too.  Perhaps this is the standard exposition for an Animal Collective release as of late. The faint, reverberated clean guitars that defined a lot of Feels come back before the track explodes into epic bombasticity.  Avey Tare sings in his absolute most melodic, soaring above a bed of piano, chopped string ensemble samples (or at least what sounds like such), and a lush, shoegazing wall of sounds.  Almost has a classic rock feel, come to think of it…

“My Girls” – Twinkly and glitchy samples introduce “My Girls,” which doesn’t derive too much from the live renditions of “House” heard over the past year or so, with exception of a greater vocal presence in the mix.  “My Girls” is a quite traditional verse-chorus structure, which is unusual for AC.  The lyrics are some of the least cryptic, tackling the important topic of takin’ care of you and yours.  After the second chorus, handclaps come in at perfect 4/4 time, solidifying the Collective’s first dance club banger. Similar to much of Strawberry Jam, “My Girls” is sample heavy and devoid of guitars.

“Also Frightened” – This is the first song that I’ve really enjoyed thus far.  “Also Frightened” is Animal Collective’s expansive circus chanty, with twinkly arcade pings in tow.  Enjoy equal throat duty from Avey and Panda over a waltzy rhythm and a Barrett like melody.  Best of the batch, so far.  Love the polyphonic vocal breaks.  Reminiscent of The Soft Bulletin.

Verdict:

“Summertime Clothes” – Fuzzy, grimy, bit-crushed, rigidly rhythmic samples kick start “Summertime Clothes,” originally known as “Bearhug.”  Big treble-riding beats drop in with mechanical Kraftwerkesque flourishes and Lee Scratch Perry reverb, cultivating a definite dubstep vibe.

“Daily Routine” -  Quite different from the live version.  Lots of booty bass, dense dance beats, and some strange glitchy organ swells reminiscent of “Baba O’Reiley” all build to a small crescendo before breaking into the first ambient moment of the record, featuring Panda singing “just a sec more, in my beeeeeeed” repetitively.  Another song about how rad kids are.  Not into this, save for Panda’s exceptional vocal intro.  The rest is way too Paul Oakenfold for my taste, though.

“Bluish” – Serious 4AD vibe… Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins specifically.  First AC song that most people would consider “pretty.”  This song is, actually, the most gorgeous, melodic output from Animal Collective ever… but at the expense of not really sounding like them.  Such branching out is very respectable though, and I always applaud experimentation and tweaking.  However, older fans may scratch their head on this record thus far.  I actually really enjoy this song, despite the somewhat corny vibe.

“Guys Eyes” – Aquatic textures and a cricket sound open the track, conjuring the bucolic soundscape that defines Sung Tongs.  With the rhythmic piano, syncopated beats, and two separate vocal melodies sung simultaneously, this is the closest to older Animal Collective on this album.

“Taste” - The total Panda Bear experience.  Person Pitch strikes back.  Sample organic percussion mixed with faint vocals and a sugary hook – this is obviously Noah’s track.  Actually, it seems that Noah has really taken over a lot of the creative direction with this record.  We know he’s really into dubstep and electronic exploration, loves Daft Punk, and enjoys a really good vocal harmony or two.  Personally, I like the play of the ying and yang between Avey and Panda, following the long tradition of ol’ Lennon and the Mac.  We’ve yet to hear Avey lose his shit as he’s wont to do, even on Strawberry Jam.  Regardless, AC ups the psychedelic vibe on this one, so I really enjoy this track.  Second favorite thus far, behind “Also Frightened.”

“Lion in a Coma” – I wasn’t a fan of this song when I first heard it live.  The recorded version is almost exactly the same, with the exception of a prominent didgeridoo sample and a full embrace of low end.  Good soundtrack for goin’ on safaris.  Unfortunately, I never go on safaris.

“No More Runnin’” – Zounds!  A ballad?  Intimate piano and vocals adorn this song almost exclusively, with the exception of a little bit of sonic manipulation from the Geologist.  This tracks sounds like it comes straight from Sigur Ros’ ().  The repeating of the song’s title, mixed with the slow tempo piano, is total Kiss FM style.  This majorly bums me out.

Verdict:

“Brother Sport” – Oh no, this is horrible. The tribal chant sounds like Sebastian the Lobster’s “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid.  This would be the perfect song for the dolphin show at the Louisville Zoo.  What the fuck, dudes?  Befouled!  Leave the stupid African vibe to Vampire Weekend, please.  I don’t know why Animal Collective turned into World Party in the album’s last quarter.  The final track is especially heavy on the 8-bit sound effects, invoking sadness for no longer having my old Nintendo.  To top it off, the song features this sort of beat that reminds me of the oft-utilized old school hip-hop “whoo!.. yeah!” sample.  Everybody dance now.  “I know it sucks that daddy’s dumb” is an amusing lyric, though.  Somebody was seriously baked.

I feel kinda bad for raggin’ on the last few songs, espeically after having worked two of their shows in the past and experiencing their (very refreshing) humility, politeness, and gingerly nature first hand.  But I had to be honest – the first half ruled, the second half… ehhh.  However, I’ll still buy this record when it comes out, see them play live, and support them to the maxxx… so it’s all zero-sum in the end.  Wavy gravy.

Final thoughts…

Despite their former and refreshing strangeness over the past decade, Animal Collective has reached the point of deafening critical praise wherein people of all tastes will listen.  This is totally deserved for a group as prolific and eclectic as Animal Collective.  However, Merriweather Post Pavilion, the group’s ninth offering, will probably provide their first truly polarizing record, though not in the way their earlier albums were polarizing.

Gone are the drone examinations, freak folk structures, and Avey Tare’s shamanistic yelps, now replaced with dub-informed booty bass, dance rhythms, and polyphonic vocal harmonies.  Merriweather Post Pavilion features a lot of firsts for the group, and as such, I offer nothing but respect for their daring – piano ballads, dream pop, shoegazing, dub, trance, and more are all explored.  In addition, their earlier approaches to songwriting are peppered throughout Merriweather: the sunny melodies of Strawberry Jam, the grating glitch of Here Comes the Indian and Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, the bombast of Feels, the found-sounds and bellyhoo of Campfire Songs, and… well, nothing really from Sung Tongs.  So it’s an almost retrospective.  Regardless, it’s the tight compositions, catchy song-based structures, and completely dominate vocal tracks that are ubiquitously showcased throughout.  Newer Animal Collective fans will be pleased and impressed with the seamless amalgamation of sonically adventurous ideas and pop music, combining the bit-crushing texture of earlier works with the beat-heavy, soaring polyphonic melodies of Panda Bear’s sophomore solo record Person Pitch.  Fans of Sung Tongs and before, however, will scratch their heads wondering where their strange friends went.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is an enjoyable listen and certainly the next logical next step in context of Animal Collective’s trajectory, adding increasing pop sensibility with each release.  Animal Collective has still held their place in the top tier of contemporary artists.  Unfortunately, this new artistic statement is not the envelope-pusher that the experimentation of Here Comes the Indian and Feels offered.

Of course, the innate issue with the “Real Time Review” that should be addressed is that these thoughts are my initial impression and my opinion may change over time.  But right now, I feel pretty ambivalent overall.  There are flashes of brilliance (the first quarter of the album), and segments of banality (the last quarter of the album).  Perhaps I simply miss the old freaky-deeky Animal Collective I’ve known and loved.  Perhaps it’ll grow on me over time.  “Also Frightened” is the tits, though.

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating:

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – Web Sheriff Won’t Let Me Post Nothin’, So Enjoy a Sick Jam By Mr. T About How Awesome He Thinks His Mom Is

I was able to grip a little bit of Merriweather Post Pavilion, the new slam jam from Animal Collective, earlier this evening.  Enjoy the tracks until I will (probably) receive a visit from the Web Sheriff in the next couple of days, in which case and coinciding with my better judgment, I shall remove said content…

UPDATE 12.25: OH SNAP! WEB-SHERIFFED!

It would take a pretty awesome album cover to get its own post. And the album cover for the forthcoming Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion gets that honor.

The Magic Eye company spent years releasing optical illusion picture books that didn’t fuckin’ work! And it only took AC one try to get the wavy surrealism tip right. Man, this rules. I can’t stop staring at it. I’m trying to get my reviews of Religious Knives and Hush Arbors written today, but all I can do is stare at this thing. You guys enjoying this? I’m enjoying this.

Man… that’s kwaa-zeee! I wonder if it glows under blacklight as well?

Drops 1.20.09 courtesy of Domino. Traxxxx:

1. In the Flowers
2. My Girls
3. Also Frightened
4. Summertime Clothes
5. Daily Routine
6. Bluish
7. Guys Eyes
8. Taste
9. Lion in a Coma
10. No More Runnin
11. Brother Sport

In other news completely unrelated to Animal Collective, my Yelp review for one of my favorite local eateries is the Review of the Day today at Yelp Chicago. Bloggins power!

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – Daily Routine (Live at Pitchfork)

All the news that’s fit to print…

The Animal Collective website is rather mystifying today. You have the typeface and album art of Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished / Danse Manitee (with the mysterious words “Merriweather Post Pavilion” and “January”) plastered across the index.html, coupled with an awesome but inexplicable fish video thing.

Merriweather Post Pavilion, as per Google, is a rather large outdoor amphitheater outside Baltimore. Since January outdoor concerts in Maryland are none too successful, and AC probably can’t fill 17,000 seats, this might be the title of the new jam hive. And that would make sense, too – as the pavilion is named after Majorie Merriweather Post, the heiress of the Post Cereal fortune, continuing the theme of breakfast established with Strawberry Jam. See?

Are we in store for a toast, cereal, orange juice concept album suite? Totally hope so. Anyway, if Animal Collective history is any indication, expect some of the included fan favorite MP3s to make their way onto the new album, if this is indeed what AC’s website is trying to express. Of course, it’s also entirely possible that Merriweather Post Pavilion could be the name of (or tangentially have something to do with) Animal Collective’s film project. Both are possibilities, but in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the fish.

See Asobi Seksu Rock Show Okay Fun! My business associate Tiny Mix Tapes is reporting that the neo-shoegaze giants will spend the latter half of this month sugar-coating the U.S. without much of a break. Good to see ‘em back! Though Citrus has been out on disc for a little while, it’s finally getting the vinyl treatment on November 25th (the same day Chinese Democracy drops… ZOMG!!1) courtesy of Friendly Fire. Keep creepy Rivers Cuomo away from the following venues on the following dates:

10.17.08 – Annandale-on-Hudson, NY – Bard College
10.18.08 – Boston, MA – T.T. the Bear’s
10.19.08 – Montreal, QC – TBA
10.20.08 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe
10.21.08 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
10.22.08 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
10.24.08 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive
10.25.08 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
10.27.08 – Seattle, WA – Nectar
10.28.08 – Vancouver, BC – Media Club
10.29.08 – Portland, OR – Holocene
10.30.08 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
10.31.08 – Los Angeles, CA – TBA

Finally, you know by now that the Decibel Tolls pledges Kranky Uber Alles every morning. Brainwaves Fest will be taking over the Regent Theater in Boston around turkey time (November 21-23), and is honoring the 15th anniversary of the against-the-current formidable force with an impressive roster of sick folk and old hippies, including but not limited to Silver Apples, Borduf Songs, Benoit Pioulard, Major Stars, Matmos, His Name is Alive, Lichens, and more.

That’s all I got. I’ll write more creative entries tomorrow. I’m tired and I’ve more business to attend to.

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – Bearhug
Animal Collective – Lion in a Coma
Asobi Seksu – New Years
Silver Apples – Misty Mountain
Benoit Pioulard – Ragged Tint
Boduf Songs – I Can’t See a Thing in Here

This is the, what, third time I’ve referenced Sesame Street on this blog. I love Sesame Street. If I wasn’t a lame 9-to-5er, I would still watch it. So today’s news roundup is brought to you by the letter B – Boredoms, Benoit Pioulard, Boduf Songs, Bedhead, the /b/ board, baseball, booters, and the Bear Market Bailout. Botta bing!

Anyway, there are so many songs (11 MP3s to be exact), and so much content here, that I have no idea what to categorize this entry as. So consider this your News and Super Swingin’ Mix for the day. I’m not posting again today, this post is epic and I’m tired.

Let’s do this like Buddhists…But first, since we’re still somewhat on the topic of Sesame Street, peep this article: “Big Brother and Big Bird.” Grover is droppin’ a new book about how to prepare for emergencies and terrorist attacks. The end is nigh, no matter what your age!

Now back onto music, let’s talk about Boredoms. The truth is – no other band generates as much excitement for the Gregorian Calendar as Boredoms.

As you may recall, Boredoms (or Vooredoms… like Prince and/or Ol’ Dirty Bastard, I’m never sure what they want to be called) revamped their original 77 drummers on 7/7/07 event with this year’s 88 Boadrums in New York and Los Angeles. Rumors about some sort of DVD for either performance have lingered for quite some time, since one was screened earlier this year. Luckily, all that waitin’ with bated breath has paid off, as the documentary DVD for the original 77 Boadrums event in Brooklyn is here. And guess what! It’s conveniently called 77 Boadrum! And it conveniently costs a shit-ton of money!

No worries though. Our do vs. don’t friends at Vice have the entire movie streaming here. Or you can watch it here and say “whuddup” to my friend Tom.

However, if you’re a Boredoms completist, or if you have a George Lucas-esque Dolby 12.1 (or whatever) entertainment center and want to experience the event as only better living through technology can provide, you can make a purchase here for just shy of $70 USD. Is the 88 Boadrums documentary soon to follow? Will they have another go for 9/9/09? Will they expand it further and hit every major city throughout the globe next year? Will Boredoms clinch more than ten drummers for 10/10/10? Stayed tuned! Same bore time, same bore channel.

In the meantime, if you’re one of our friends livin’ large in the +000 GMT zone, you can catch a couple of dates next month. Only three drummers for this tour, but hey, Three’s Company, amirite?

10.18.08 – Groningen, Netherlands – Vera
10.19.08 – Hasslet, Belgium – KC Belgie
10.20.08 – Kortrijk, Belgium – Sonic City Festival
10.22.08 – Manchester, England – Academy
10.13.08 – Glasgow, Scotland – Arches
10.24.08 – Aberdeen, England – Moshulu
10.26.08 – London, England – The Wire/Electra Festival
10.28.08 – Dublin, Ireland – Deaf Festival
10.30.08 – Cardiff, Wales – The Point

Finally, if you’re also thirsting for a taste of what 88 Boadrums was like, don’t forget the eight videos that I have over here. And at the end of the page, you can enjoy 12 big minutes of “Super Going.” SHINE IN! SHINE ON!

It’s hard trying to discover news bands for this blog, as I’d rather just listen candy-ass ’60s psych pop all day and be done with it. But Boduf Songs grabbed my attention a la Raven Sings the Blues. Boduf Songs has a serious For Carnation and Bedhead thing going, which is great. I miss slowcore, especially after Low discovered caffeine in 2005. Moody, stark, atmospheric… all that jazz. And of course, it’s on Kranky. You can pick up a copy of his latest, Lion Devours the Sun, there as well.

And since we’re rollin’ with B, how about I post some aforementioned Bedhead up in here as well. Nobody writes about Bedhead anymore, and they were the original restrainers. Find it below. And let’s sling a For Carnation track up here too, for the fun of it. Ballin’.

Nice flora, dude! Ann Arbor-cum-Portland dream folk wrecker Benoit Pioulard has a big ol’ sophomore record dropping next month called Temper, and it’s going to be fantastic. “Ragged Tint” brings the John Fahey meets Slowdive feel of Precis, one of the best of 2006. His musical pallet has expanded since then, as has his musical dexterity, proving Benoit Pioulard to be a sort of sinister, paranoia-inspired baroque pop composer, like Love on a bad, bad trip. Daring and delicious. Temper is also on Kranky (no pun intended), cuz Kranky just kranks out the hits lolz (pun intended).

Eeeh, that was bad. Anyway, no pre-order option yet on the label’s site, so head over to Amazon if you want to grip it before it comes out… which you do. These fools smoke Grizzly Bear. I also included a track from Precis because that LP brings the pain.

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Now I’d like to talk about some not-really-related-to-music news stories, and attempt to connect them to some jams. Yes, I know I’m swingin’ hard on Swan Fungus‘ balls with the whole news+MP3 gig. But hey, I can’t write about zone out times all the time, right? I like to be an informed citizen able to actively contribute to democracy, so I read the news, and have thoughts on it. These thoughts consequently end up on my blog. Deal. Fucked up news coupled with fucked up music – you can’t get more psych than that.

Kids playing at home – see if you can match up the songs provided with the news story they correspond to! (PROTIP: the corresponding songs are in order, from top to bottom, exactly as the stories appear in this post)

I probably shouldn’t mention this, but I do troll the /b/ board on 4chan.org. Don’t hold it against me. As such, I have a completely different view of Yahoogate.

Last week, /b/ (also known as the Internet group Anonymous who fucks with the Church of Scientology and a variety of other organizations) hacked into Sarah Palin’s email account. You probably heard about it, but if you didn’t, the timeline is mapped out here, and the subsequent saga is outlined here (with screen caps).

Despite being a pretty big fan of the Fourth Amendment, I found this hilarious. Moreover, when you become a public figure, you pretty much fofeit your privacy, so that’s how I justify the entertainment of the “hacking.” Plus, Palin scares the shit out of me (banning books? is this Fahrenheit 451?). It’s rather annoying, though, to read all these news articles talking about Anonymous being liberal hackers, cyber terrorists, or a rigid organization with some sort of agenda. No, that’s not it at all, and most of these reporters did absolutely no research into the history and general ethos of the image board.

In the storied tradition of Ebaum’s World, Something Awful, and the like, 4chan is autonomous entertainment. It’s an image board and nothing more – you post funny and fucked up pictures, you laugh, you ridicule, you amuse yourself, you amuse others, and you find ways to get your kicks. The only lofty goal that binds /b/ and Anonymous is its anti-censorship stance, but otherwise, anything else goes. Case in point, Scientology represents censorship. So does Sarah Palin. But ultimately, most Anonymous call to arms are executed for the sole purpose of seeing if it can be done. Mission Accomplished? Lulz. Mission Not Accomplished? Epic Fail. It’s as simple as that. It’s subversive, it’s offensive, and if you’re thick-skinned, it’s fun. But Anonymous is not a political group. Last week’s Palin Email free-for-all was not a political move (despite the claim that the “hacker” was the son of a Tennessee Democratic lawmaker), and it’s not supposed to be representative of anything other than 4chan proved Sarah Palin to be none too good at Intarwebz.

The “person of interest” (I don’t think he’s exactly a “suspect” yet) might not have even hacked into the account, as this blogger demonstrates that you could retrieve a password from Yahoo if you did enough research into publicly available information about a public figure’s personal life and answered the password retrieval security questions. Fail safe, indeed. But mostly fail.

So the moral of the story? Um, I guess there isn’t one, other than reporters are also not very good at Intarwebz. In general, when you see a bizarre image on here and you wondered where it came from, chances are over 9,000 that it came from 4chan.

Big week in baseball, with Yankee Stadium closing up shop, and here in Chicago, those Go Cubbies snagged the NL Central title over the weekend. Unfortunately/fortunately, I don’t care. Not to sound like an old curmudgeon, but you can’t do anything on the north side when the Cubbies are home. Shorty and I tried to see the new Coen Brothers film this weekend, Burn After Reading, to see if the CoBros remembered how to tell a good story (since they seemingly forgot last year with their stinker No Country for Old Poop). By the way, the Kenny Bloggins verdict on Burn After Reading: very good. Anyway, I don’t know where I was going with this, except to curse the Cubs and their benign bladerdash.

Oh yeah… so growing up, I loved baseball, and had allegiances to the Indians and the Reds, depending on which league I was feelin’ that day. I liked Daryl Strawberry a lot, in part due to his prowess at the game, but mostly for snortin’ rails in the bullpen. America’s pastime is innately, and often unintentionally, hilarious. However, my favorite baseball player of all time is Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ellis has the distinct pleasure of being the first baseball player in history known to be under the effects of psychedelics during game play. LSD, specifically. He also has the distinction of being the first baseball player on LSD to pitch a no-hitter against the Padres.

Cue June 12, 1970. Ellis drops acid on a day when he didn’t think he was playing. He, of course, found out shortly before game time that he was totally mistaken. So like a good trooper, he showed up to play, swirly colors and light tracers be damned.

“I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria.

I was zeroed in on the [catcher's] glove, but I didn’t hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times.

The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn’t hit hard and never reached me.”

- Dock Ellis on pitching with his third eye wide open

For these reasons three, I want his baseball card. Next up, Michael Phelps reveals his photo finish win under the influence of purple drank. Screeeeeewed.

I’m about to get all Bruce Springsteen on that ass, so let me preface with a little HTML <rant> tag…

So last week, a booter was shot on Chicago’s south side, and is still in hospital. What’s a booter, you ask? Well, a booter is one who boots your car. Specifically, a booter is an employee of the City of Chicago’s Department of Revenue. After three accumulated parking tickets, a DoR representative will visit your car and attach a big yellow Denver Boot to your front drivers’ side tire. Then, they present to you a big orange sticky note on your windshield that reads like it was penned by Darth Vader: “Your vehicle has been immobilized by the City of Chicago.” The police don’t do this, interestingly, it’s exclusively the jurisdiction of the Department of Revenue, and as such, parking ticket issuing is strictly a business venture over law enforcement. We can thank Mayor Richard M. Daley for that, pictured below as both a caricature and a pretty vile man who laughs at us Plebeians.

The notion of parking in Chicago is a strange thing. Chicago is in a sort of nether region between New York/San Francisco and Los Angeles. Chicago is not as densely designed as New York or San Francisco (where most people don’t even bother owning a car), making the notion of parking in the city plausible, but infinitely more built up and less sprawled than Los Angeles (where you need a car), making parking very difficult. As such, there are many people like me who have a car in the city, but don’t use it. I drive my car twice a month, usually for the reasons of moving it for street cleaning or the like. But if I want to leave the city, I need it. This isn’t Europe.

Chicago maintains a myriad of tricky parking regulations, and they vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. Just in my neighborhood alone, you must keep track of which streets are cleaned on which day(s) of the month, which streets have upcoming construction projects, and whether the Cubs have a home game or not, in addition to general parking no-no’s like yellow curbs and loading zones. It’s more modus operandi to have a ticket on your car than not. I usually spend about 30 minutes looking for parking. I check my car twice a week to make sure it’s still there. This is why I don’t drive.

Now, with the city strapped for cash, the DoR is becoming even more rigid in ticketing and towing cars. They’re cutting costs where they can, such as eliminating the amount of booters in a specific zone (and thus, eliminating “safety in numbers” for tougher neighborhoods), and coming up with extremely corrupt schemes to quickly and surreptitiously ticket cars. The Expired Meter has a great story about an “uprising” in Pilsen when they tried this and the people in the neighborhood took a stand. The police sided with the residents, and you had a clash amongst city employees. Explosive.

Most people will not fight tickets, out of hassle or lack of understanding that they indeed can fight, so this is a great way to generate extra income. One of the reasons the aforementioned Expired Meter exists is to give the public information on how to fight tickets and other violation notices. And they’ve found that there’s a disturbingly high percentage of completely bogus tickets issued, with the mindset that most people will just tuck their tail inward and pay the fee.

Which brings to me the point concerning the aforementioned assault. Certainly this story raises safety concerns, and like repo men, a booter is a dangerous position to hold. Dangerous enough to where the city issues bulletproof vests and equips DoR vans with security cameras.

Another important aspect of this story that has not, to my knowledge, been discussed is what this story says about public reaction toward overzealous municipal policies. This is the general policy in Chicago: when the city needs money, instead of cutting out pork barrel projects or adjusting budgets and salaries, they go after motorists, common people, first.

In doing this, the city illustrates a textbook example of class struggle. The wealthy can afford to shell out $200+ per month for personal parking, or own luxury condos that come equipped with a parking garage. As for the rest of us, we deffer our automobiles to the street curb.

Mayor Daley’s response to complaints about booting policy is, verbatim: “just pay your parking tickets.” Sure, a 6-year-old could understand that. But it’s not that easy. Each ticket usually costs between $30 and $100, and doubles within a month. If you can’t afford parking, that suggests that you live somewhat hand-to-mouth. Your car is boot eligible after three tickets (and because of the current economic crunch, an ordinance is being reviewed in council to lower that number to two). Not everyone can drop this money immediately. These are, obviously, hard times for many people – people who work full time but still have trouble getting the bills paid. If you can’t pay your tickets, the city will boot and tow your car, so add a $60 boot fee and a $150 impoundment fee to whatever your parking violations fees add up to.

Now let’s go to the south side. South Chicago has a lot of poorer, economically devastated neighborhoods – just like the one where the booter was shot. You see many of these people in a pretty desperate situation, people who were not granted privileges in their life (contrast to neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, where most people are the dreaded “trust fund babies” and sit around in cafes all day). You have lots of people that just lost their retirement this month. You have people who can’t afford to live in their homes anymore, due to internal forces such as a personal employment issue, or external issues, such as gentrification. All that shit compounds on the collective psyche of a community. And to top it all off, here comes the Department of Revenue wanting a few hundred dollars from you for keeping something you own, your car, inside the city proper, because the municipal government cannot manage their funds. So what does that lead to? The person who represents these trumped-up parking policies, a DoR working man who has nothing to do with these policies and is just putting food on his table, is shot in the lower back.

This isn’t just an issue of “oh snap, south Chicago is crayyy-zeeee,” this is a reaction to governmental numbskullery. This is a reaction to a pristine example of injustice and a city government run amock. This is a reaction to the innate socioeconomic bias in the city’s parking regulations. “Just pay your tickets.” If people could, they would – if for no other reason to avoid the hassle. But many can’t, and when you reach a dead end, you make irrational choices. That’s the issue here. The city would do good to take notice of this, both the logistical and safety concerns of their city employees, as well as the message sent from the citizens they govern.

It’s just a cryin’ shame that this DoR employee had to pay the price for corruption. And it makes me want to jettison the fuck out of Chicago very soon.

Anyway, if you have a moment, and especially if you live in Chicago, please sign this petition to express your disapproval over the proposed booting ordinance.

</rant>

Finally, OMG BEAR MARKET! I don’t remember a whole lot from my college Macroeconomics class, other than it was a difficult-ass 50 minutes of my life thrice a week. However, the Huffington Post’s 23/6 breaks down our troublesome economic landscape rather nicely:

While Lehman Brothers is going down, down, down in flames, the Decibel Tolls is going no where but up in readership and Technorati scores. Now is the time, says baldyman Jim Kramer – buy, buy, buy stock in the Decibel Tolls. Q4 is lookin’ reaaaaal good from here.

MP3 :::
Boredoms – Super Going
Boduf Songs – Mission Creep
Boduf Songs – I Can’t See a Thing in Here
Bedhead – Left Behind
The For Carnation – Tales (From the Crypt)
Benoit Pioulard – Ragged Tint
Benoit Pioulard – Together and Down
Deerhunter – Backspace Century
Animal Collective – Runnin’ the Round Ball
The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
Indian Jewelry – Seasonal Economy