Animal Collective

Animal Collective is synonymous with experimental music that mostly does the trick. A group of young boys who were brought together by their love of horror films and gothic music went on to make music that would be experimental and innovative at the same time. The four members of the group came together in the early 90s and have done joint ventures apart from successful solo works.


Animal Collective, the band is originally based in Baltimore, Maryland. The members of the group share a long story that began with kindergarten. Noah Lennox and Josh Dibb were together in kindergarten. Dibb met Brian Weitz and David Portener later in school and became good friends. This friendship grew into a close bond where they started sharing their musical interests with each other. It was Portner and Weitz initially who started playing together. In high school the trio officially came together and formed a band named Automine with one of their school mates Brendan Fowler. This group, however, was completely isolated and alienated from the Baltimore underground scene. In this isolation, however, the boys learnt to find their individuality, something that became one of their strengths later in the career and the growth of the band.


Automine recorded only one album as a group named Padington Band. Around this time the boys were around 16 and had already started improvising their music while experimenting with psychedelic music and sound music like Krautrock and Nogging. Portner, who was only sixteen at this point sang and wrote one of Animal Collective’s most famous song ‘Penny Dreadfuls’. The following period was a time of lots of mixing and experimenting, playing solo, sharing ideas and swapping recording which they were now producing extensively. This time also helped them grow as a band and find their individual strengths in the context of the band.


The inspiration behind Animal Collective comes from horror films and the soundtracks. Films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho and the likes defined the band in terms of the kind of music they wanted to work around. This is also clearly evident in the music that the band experimented with later in their careers. Most of the music that they’ve produced has a strong resonance of bands like Pavement, The Cure and Poison, inspirations that the band has publicly acknowledged. Animal Collective can easily be termed as a band that does Neo-psychedelic, Noise, Indie-Rock and experimental rock.


The names of the band members are also one of the band’s highlights. Panda Bear, Avey Tree, Deakin and Geologist are the group members. Noah Lennox, who has done many solo acts which have benefitted the band as well, says there is nothing proud or intentional behind his name Panda Bear. He asserts that he compulsively drew panda bear over the covers of his initial albums probably because it was easier to draw and he was getting used to the idea. Later he chose the same name for himself because of the affinity he shared with the image of a Panda. Avey Tree comes from thwarting the name David, Deakin was the name Josh used to write letters to other members and Brian adopted the name Geologist because someone mistakenly thought he studied geology at school.


Animal Collective also owns the label Paw Tracks which has released some of their albums. The group has released seven albums and each member does his respective solo acts which are sometimes included in the albums. The seven albums include the maiden album Spiris They’re Gobe, Spirits They’ve Vanished which came out in 2000. Besides that they have produced Danse Manatee, Here Comes the Indian, Campfire Songs, Sung Tongs, Feels, Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion. These albums have been lauded by the critics as spacious melodies that allow for a lot of personal space. Animal Collective Tickets is a listening experience which you cannot afford to miss if you like well-constructed harmonic compositions.