owl and bear - live audio and dvd downloads for people who don’t like mp3s
So I went to see the Animal Collective play again, this time in Nashville as opposed to Birmingham, which cut the drive in half.
But let me tell you something. I would have driven to Iceland to see these guys again. I’m typically a fairly cynical guy, but seeing these guys is almost a spiritual experience.
2007, Kranky
With this EP, Deerhunter accommodates fans put off by Cryptogram’s decidedly freaked-out sound, without alienating the hopheads and experimentalists who reveled in their full length’s woozy washes and white noise symphonies.
2007, Jagjaguwar
“Disaster,” the opening track on Are the Dark Horse, by The Besnard Lakes, sounds like it was lifted whole and intact from the cutting room floor of the Pet Sounds sessions. It’s goddamn breathtaking.
Note: Photos in this essay depict re-enactments of actual events, not the events themselves.
Thursday, July 12
McCaskill picked me up at my folks’ house at 9PM. We weren’t planning to leave Jackson until about 1 or 2AM, but we’d decided to hang out a while and say goodbyes because, naturally, we may never come back.
Instead of going to the bar, for obvious reasons, we opted for dinner. Regardless, as with alcohol, we are both bottomless pits for food. The meal was uneventful, save for the fact that our waitress had apparently served McCaskill once before, and had taken offense to a conversation about foreskins. Despite this, the food was palatable and (hopefully) spit-free.
2007, Illegal Art
I can see Gregg Gillis, late at night, hunched over his laptop, sweat trickling down his brow in the unhealthy LCD glow, as he rips apart other artists’ works, and re-stitches the parts into a hellaciously funky monster that simply demands dance, all night.
Owl&Bear: Where did you get the name Girl Talk and what does it signify, if anything?
Gregg Gillis: I was trying to pick the most intimidating name possible, something that when people hear it, they just sense insanity.
Liars have made a pretty damn accessible album (compared to their past two), without compromising their sound one little bit.
I got my hands on 6 tracks from the upcoming Animal Collective album, Strawberry Jam, and I am floored.
Continue reading ‘Animal Collective: Miscellaneous Tracks From “Strawberry Jam”’
When I left Thursday afternoon, I felt like shit with an ungodly case of mono and, apparently, Lyme disease. I thought I might die there, but by Friday, I felt much, much better. It may be stupidly-named, but Bonnaroo apparently cures all ills.
I haven’t really tied one on for a few weeks, so apparently I was due last night. I went out (ostensibly) to eat some pizza with my friends, but they neglected to tell me that not only was it dollar slices, but it was dollar drafts as well. So I started pounding beers. Let me rephrase that: after my first beer was so refreshing and went down so easy, I started killing beers like they were trying to jump my land claim in a Clint Eastwood western. It really didn’t seem like I was drinking them, I just kept looking at my hand and there was always an empty glass in it.
Volume control and profanity became a problem, or an amusement, depending on who you ask. I flipped off all my friends repeatedly. I flipped of inanimate objects, including the new Dave Eggers book, which was gifted to me for no good reason by Katie, who also got flipped off. Everyone became motherfucker, or bitches (plural), and I was indiscriminate; males could be either, and females were wooed the same.
Do you like your Indie rock itchy, nervy, and rhythmically complex, with tuned angular guitars that suddenly shift into funky, almost tropical figures?
Scotland-based Frightened Rabbit mix folk, punk, and pop into a wonderfully Indiemotional brew.
Birmingham is four hours from where I stay, so I don’t often visit just to see any flavor-of-the-week indie rock band. Nope, if I’m gonna invest the time in an epic journey across state lines, time, and space, it’s going to have to be special. Last time, it was Califone, this time the Animal Collective. Was it worth it? Telling this early would be no fun.
Continue reading ‘Review: Animal Collective; May 28, 2007 at the Bottle Tree Cafe; Birmingham, AL’
Dan Deacon’s music-school experiences obviously taught him the ropes of playful, complex, musical deflation.
2007, Fat Possum Records
If you loved Andrew Bird’s Mysterious Production of Eggs, then you’ll probably think that Armchair Apocrypha is the bees’ knees.
