Are Animal Collective a jam band?

Animal Collective are the next logical iteration of the jam band. Yes. Yes they are.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR  |  May 20, 2009


VIDEO: Animal Collective, "Guy's Eyes" (live at House of Blues)

Photos: Animal Collective + Grouper, live at House of Blues, May 14, 2009
Like many white males in their early 30s with slowing metabolisms and dorkish concerns, I never really got what the big fucking deal was about Animal Collective. I was turned onto them years ago by a friend at an old workplace; he had better taste in music than me, but also had a thing for boys who needed fake IDs to get into Avalon. So when he slid some Avey Tare and Panda Bear songs my way, I couldn’t tell if it was in the spirit of “Here, I listen to this” or “Look, they listen to this.”

Moments after listening to them years ago and hours after their show at the House of Blues last night, I still don’t get it. It’s no challenge for me to recall concerts during which I wondered, consciously and constantly, “Do I like this?” (Oh! Franz Ferdinand, what are you doing here? Is that Tortoise you’re with?). But I can’t recall the last concert where I so eagerly and actively spackled my own doubts with the assurance of other people’s enjoyment. It’s not that I wanted to like it, or wanted to hate it, or even wanted to understand Animal Collective. I just wanted to be clear that there was something to understand. Not what was it, but what was it about it?

One thing I learned very quickly, hanging over the balcony, is that kids these days have way, way better weed than I had (or have). “Copious,” was the response when we asked the grinning young couple behind us if the expensive odor surrounding us was their work. These two were up from Florida, having just started a circum-country trip, and had scored the last two tickets at the window. This, they said, was huge. Within the hour, they and 20 or so others behind me would be losing their minds and flip-flops in dizzy fits of twirling and trancey swaying, lost in a clamor of writhing white noise and bass swells that stuttered like a corrupt version of thunder.

There’s no point in delaying this any longer, so I’ll just come out and say it: Animal Collective are the next logical iteration of the jam band. Yes. Yes they are. Not arguing. Telling. If this upsets you as an out-and-proud hip person, or if you’re right now clutching your seashell necklace in horror at the thought, I know: this isn’t easy for me, either. But I know what I saw.

Mind you, there are differences aplenty: whereas jam bands tend to be technically indulgent, Animal Collective is more technologically indulgent — the stage glowed with the touchpad triggers of over a half-dozen samplers. And where the jam band protocol for losing control usually means straying as far as possible from one’s unquestionably totally awesome chops, Animal Collective’s strategy seems simpler: lose control. And whereas jam bands construct their sets to wind and wend in and out of favorites in a druggy, non-committal blur, Animal Collective’s montage is more like a system of melodies clawing to the surface from under brutal riptides of delay and distortion. They show up all scratched and dirty, with whole parts missing, while Avey Tare and Panda Bear yowl harmonies that soar and crash into an ever-present swirl of leftover noise (the latter even moaned a sort-of faithful stretch of Ravel’s Bolero). It could be the only direct corollary is the twirling and the high-grade doob.

1  |  2  |   next >
Related: Review: Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Photos: Animal Collective at House of Blues (2009), The Big Hurt: The decade ahead, More more >
  Topics: Live Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY MICHAEL BRODEUR
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   FOLK ACT  |  June 26, 2010
    Vikesh Kapoor
  •   BOSTON PRIDE WEEK: OFF THE MAP  |  June 07, 2010
    We may seem a little cranky, but us local gayfolk just love a parade, and we’re actually heartened by this annual influx of brothers and sisters from every state of New England and every letter of our ever-expanding acronym.  
  •   THE NEW GAY BARS  |  June 02, 2010
    If I may channel the late, great Estelle Getty for a moment: picture it, Provincetown, 2009, a dashing young man with no discernible tan and an iffy T-Mobile signal languishes bored upon the sprawling patio of the Boatslip Resort.
  •   ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI | BEFORE TODAY  |  June 01, 2010
    If the gradual polishing of Ariel Pink’s sound — and it’s not all that much more polished — puts his loyalists at odds with his albums, I count that as good news.
  •   MORE THAN HUMAN  |  May 26, 2010
    It’s hard to talk about Janelle Monáe when your jaw’s fallen off.

 See all articles by: MICHAEL BRODEUR