_Coachella Announces 2011 Lineup

…And cue the music festival season.

Coachella has announced their 2011 lineup set for April 15-17th. As usual, the headliners are full of strong artists (I don’t understand Kings of Leon though…). Every year it looks more promising and I wish I could go this year. I wish. Weird how M.I.A. isn’t listed this year, her album came out last summer. Ticket info is on the Coachella website.

If I did go, I would definitely be checking out: Black Keys, Warpaint, Robyn, Crystal Castles, Cut Copy, Brandon Flowers, Sleigh Bells, Rural Alberta Advantage, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Mumford & Sons, Empire of the Sun, The Kills, Broken Social Scene, Kanye West, The Strokes (!!), Chromeo, Duck Sauce, and Ellie Goulding.

P.S. I love how they typo’d Crystal Castles. I hope this poster hasn’t been through print yet.

_Panda Bear Names 4th Album, ‘Tomboy’

Big news today, Panda Bear from Animal Collective has finally officially named his fourth studio album. It will be called ‘Tomboy’ and they even hope to have it released by September via Paw Tracks.

The live mp3s that leaked a while ago has got me all excited – but September seems way too far away. We all know that we will love it anyways, though.

Here’s one of my favorite Panda Bear songs, “Take Pills”.

Panda Bear – “Take Pills”Stream

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_Animal Collective – Brother Sport (Music Video)

Get ready for another funky video by Animal Collective to “Brothersport”.

_Sondre Lerche Covers Animal Collective’s “Bluish”

I have to be honest, I think Animal Collective was a little overhyped in 2009. They made the top of almost everyone’s “Best of 2009″ list, and personally, I don’t think they’re that great. Yes, they’re really good and interesting, but sometimes they can get annoying. Maybe I have overplayed ‘Merriweather Post Pavillon’?

Sondre Lerche recently covered one of my favorites “Bluish” acoustically from the album. It’s a very minimal cover, with the soft strums of his guitar playing parallel with his crispy voice. This is Animal Collective on a whole, new, different perspective.

Once you strip down a song to its bare basics, it’s surprising how different it sounds from its original cover and how radio friendly it can sound.

Sondre Lerche – “Bluish” (Animal Collective Cover)Stream

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_Animal Collective – Graze

Animal Collective has yet again released another single off their up and coming EP Fall Be Kind. This one is called “Graze“. In this track you notice Animal Collective not deviating too far from their experimental roots.

The song starts slow, with echoeing vocals playfully chattering back and forth, accompanied by a soft string section and the inconsistant clatter of something that sounds like wooden sticks. Dave Portner or Avey Tare’s voice reaches quite an intensity, which is uncharacteristic of his usual harmonization. The song works great as an introduction because at the last minute or so it breaks down into an epic wood flute solo, to sort of amp up the energy and add in some melody to the otherwise vocally charged track.

The depth and focus of just the two tracks i’ve heard so far gives a clear indication that this will be a very experimental album, based mostly off sounds and noises versus melody and tempo. It will be interesting to see how it fares against their earlier work. Look for the EP to be released November 23rd over the internet and by physical copy December 14th.

Listen: (more…)

_Animal Collective – Bleeding (Live)

Animal Collective are stated as one of the most successful psychaelic bands in the modern days. They have an uncanny ability to create vivid, astmospheric music, summoning all sorts of moods and trippy feelings. Here is a sneak peak off their upcoming EP it’s a song entitled Bleeding. Which kind of fits the mood here. If bleeding to death were music, this might be it. Thinking of good friends, fond memories etc, then finally accepting that death is inevitable and envisioning your world crashing down all around you. These are all the moods that Animal Collective are experts at invoking into the audience.

The song stretches out to be around ten minutes long, and would seem best fit in a live setting versus listening to it on an ipod or stereo. But I’d suggest hallucinogen drugs and a free thought process, one in which to allow yourself to wander and almost become the music. Either way it would be fun and interesting to see this performed live as there are plenty of strange and eerie noises coming from this quartet.

Animal Collective – “Bleeding”Stream

_Animal Collective – In The Flowers (Music Video)

Animal Collective have released the music video to their single “In The Flowers” from Merriweather Post Pavilion. It’s full of dancers with horrible makeup and obviously, flowers. It’s pretty trippy, but definitely not the best Animal Collective video out there.

_Animal Collective To Release ‘Fall Be Kind’ EP in December

Animal Collective seem to be at the climax of their success, both creatively and commercially to the audience. Merriweather Post Pavillion is getting better and better with each listen, but we want to hear something new from them.

“The title ['Fall Be Kind"] is kind of a play on “fall behind,” when you move the clocks back. Everything seems to be very seasonal or weather-oriented for us this year. I wanted to keep it a little bit in line with that. It felt like Merriweather Post Pavilion was really springy or summery.”

Avery Tare revealed that the five-track EP ‘Fall Be Kind’ will be released in December, while a digital release might be released earlier in November. It’s first single is “Brothersport”, which happens to not be in the EP.

“Initially, the idea was to do this Brothersport EP and then have all these other tracks on that. But the way that promotion for records goes, we wanted these other songs to be their own thing. The EP stands on its own away from Merriweather. Not that it’s completely different– I mean, it definitely sounds like it’s us, the same band that did Merriweather. But I think putting “Brothersport” on that EP, with the way our label promotes things, it would have just seemed more like the “Brothersport” single with a bunch of B-sides.”

1. Graze
2. What Would I Want? Sky
3. Bleed
4. On A Highway
5. I Think I Can