This band bug me the most.
They ended up on the front of Plan B Magazine because... well, presumably because folk there loved 'em. Fair enough. Not me, though.
1. Never trust or deify a band that is held up as a benchmark of radicalism by the mainstream. What the fuck does the mainstream know? There's a reason it's the mainstream. And the reason is because it seeks not to upset the status quo. The last three Animal Collective albums have been rubbish, and no one seems to care. It's enough they exist and are standard-bearers for non-NME music. Except the NME covers them, as well as every last fucking website and broadsheet newspaper on earth. Where are the alternatives? Where are the alternatives?
2. They've ruined music for a generation. Whatever the merits of their music back whenever they last produced anything of worth, now everyone (everyone that counts, i.e. THE FUCKING OMNIPRESENT INDIE ALPHA MALE) believes they need to grow a beard, act all pompous and po-faced, lift from spiritual and gospel traditions without understanding for one second what makes those traditions so vital, be dull as particularly dispirited dishwater. It's a short distance from Animal Collective to Bon Iver to Fleet Foxes. Of course, you could just blame Brian Wilson...
3. Separated at birth: Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire and Animal Collective? How do you tell these bands apart from middle distance? Squint a lot? Playing your song for a mind-numbingly long time does not make it your song any better or more important or more soulful than a song over and done in two minutes. It simply means that you like playing your songs for a mind-numbingly long time. How the hell are we going to go watch that new Spike Jonze movie with that awful din wailing in the background? That is Animal Collective, right?
4. It's great being enraptured of the moment. Be nice to get in a few folk who can actually sing to articulate your joy/despair/merriment etc, though. Also, there's a reason why Ramones' first album and Billy Childish (on form) and This Heat's second are so great. There's a reason why folk love The Beach Boys, even folk who normally eschew such 'trivial' devices as the pop song, read The Wire and consider themselves (spit) "alternative" (although of course they wouldn't be so gauche to use such a description). All those bands concentrated on the NOISE, the FORM, the SOUND, but not to the detriment of the SONG.
5. Animal Collective are like the patron saints of every mainstream 'alternative' music site going... and if that's not reason enough to hate them, I don't know what is.
P.S. ...and what's with this current fascination with 'collectives'? Fuck that.
P.P.S. Just highlighting a reply from Destroyer in the comments below:
a fellow i know once stated that the A.Collective were at the apex of what he termed “the Skipping-CD Beach Boys Meets the Lion King Soundtrack”.
recently, he informed me that era was finished now, and the “Record Your Girl-Group Songs in Pro-Tools Then Add Distortion To Make It Lo-Fi” epoch was upon us.
So you're upset about Animal Collective's audience and the media that deified them. What about the music? You say it's rubbish, but why?
ReplyDeleteIt's also strange that you talk about the last three AC albums being the worst, yet the only clear criticism you've leveled at the actual music is how long they play for. The last three albums have featured - almost invariably - nothing but short pop songs, a departure from their previous output.
I think you're just being contrary. Never mind, that's a lot of fun, but you need to work a bit at papering the cracks in your reasoning.
well, yeah, initially i was suspicious, then everybody was talking about their last album on the plan b website, so i thought i would check it out.
ReplyDeletei like it.
I'd like to read more about this "FUCKING OMNIPRESENT INDIE ALPHA MALE"..
ReplyDeleteAC were a band very much under my radar until a friend played Merriweather Post Pavillion on the drive up from the airport to ATP Mt Buller in January. On first impression it sounded to me like a big budget version of The Russian Futurists - http://www.myspace.com/therussianfuturists. Thanks to all the hype I did buy the album to give it a proper listen but am still nowhere near convinced it's worthy of the hype. To me it just sounds like a band collapsing under its beard-stroking cleverness but who forgot to wrote some memorable tunes to go with it.
ReplyDelete"I’d like to read more about this “FUCKING OMNIPRESENT INDIE ALPHA MALE”..". I experienced this first hand at the Deerhunter gig at The Zoo last month. I think I was the only male there without a beard...
ReplyDeletea fellow i know once stated that the A.Collective were at the apex of what he termed "the Skipping-CD Beach Boys Meets the Lion King Soundtrack".
ReplyDeleterecently, he informed me that era was finished now, and the "Record Your Girl-Group Songs in Pro-Tools Then Add Distortion To Make It Lo-Fi" epoch was upon us.
That is pure genius, Destroyer
ReplyDeleteSpot on. Best yet.
ReplyDeleteAre you deaf of just moronic?
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things wrong with this article it makes me think you did it on purpose. What is this similarity between MM and AF you're espousing? Have you listened to either band?
What makes you think they have beards?
What makes you think their songs are overly long?
They've been around since 1997 and only VERY recently have they been covered by the media.
The reason why they're now the patron saint of indie media is because they work fucking hard and make constantly different, engaging music.
listen to a record before you start laying into it
Everett, are you sure you haven't been listening to Panda Bear's Person Pitch? AC are virtually a dubbed-up noisy/melodic acid house band nowadays, (and weirdly, the two albums prior to the last three 'rubbish' ones were the beardy folk jams before they departed that sound).
ReplyDeleteYou hate beard bands/Fleet Foxes/Bon Iver/indie alpha male media/pitchfork music, fair enough, me too. But this just reads like you're commenting on what you're reading and not what you're hearing.
Like commenter above i'd like to hear you critique “FUCKING OMNIPRESENT INDIE ALPHA MALE” rather than lassoo the wrong band.
You'll get a lot of hits for this one though, fair play.
For me AC are just the latest in the long line running from the Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev/Arcade Fire, all major chords and a bit of reverb to make it sound big. I was expecting AC to sound a bit more like them but they are really closer to the glitchy laptop set than the average indie band. I am sure there are melodies there but they are so macro and detuned it is hard to hear them. As you can guess, I am still unconvinced.
ReplyDeleteHmm, this is the first "defending the indefensible" bit you've done on a band I actually like -go figure.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about their song length problems though - most of 'em are too long, except for he ones that are too short.
They're terrific at most other things, but I think they should have me on the payroll as song length consultant - lose the first two minutes of that one fellas, start with the good bit... etc.
"The last three Animal Collective albums have been rubbish, and no one seems to care".
ReplyDeleteNah, if anything from Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished to Sung Tongs AC were shabby, since Feels they've been superb.
That is Arcade Fire on that trailer i'm pretty sure. And that doesn't mean it's on the soundtrack y'know... they used Clint Mansell's score for Requiem For A Dream on the trailer for Return of the King. I like Volcano The Bear quite a bit more than AC but I wonder if you'd hate them even more. Like a more folkish This Heat / Camberwell now and their songs vary in length from 1min to 20+. I know you don't care though... yr just in it for the blog hits! ;)
ReplyDeleteAlright. Let's scotch this whole "I'm in it for the blog hits" thread before it gets too out of hand. yes, I want people to read this blog. No, I don't care for all the negativity. I post plenty of positive entries on this blog - discovering and praising new music. No one seems to care for those. Does that say more about me, or my reader?
ReplyDeleteA.C songs are too long, for sure. But they've got more digestible over time, their early stuff was too abstract & boring.
ReplyDeleteThey sound nothing like Modest Mouse actually, but I don't overly care for either of these bands. Although, MM were making some pretty interesting observations when they started (or they just ripped off early Built To Spill well), if a little too wilfully obscure. Now they verge on middle of the road pub-rock and they suck.
What about the F.O.I.A.M subject? That's more interesting than all this humdrum over a bunch of Brooklyn scene hippies done good. If you took a flame-thrower to ATP, End Of The Road.. Those beards wouldn't stand a fucking chance.
see below for intelligent responses to this piece of 'journalism'
ReplyDeletehttp://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4191352
everett, it says that your readers are the same as others anywhere on the internet: they're drawn inexorably in towards squabbles, complaints, and indignation. happens all the time.
ReplyDeletewhat this series of posts also says about you, i fear, is that you're pandering to this kind of impulse, whether you recognise it or not. if you genuinely don't care for this kind of negative writing then give it a rest: i don't think you do it particularly well, and i think it makes you look like you're chasing attention in a half-hearted and slightly cheap way.
1. Animal Collective were a widely beloved band before the mainstream ever got wind of them (which was when Merriweather Post Pavilion was released). Why are the three most recent Animal Collective albums rubbish? You do not mention the actual music once in this entire paragraph. It's just paranoid babbling about the "mainstream." The "mainstream" did not create Animal Collective.
ReplyDelete2. You say that they've "ruined music for a generation." Which generation? Yours? You generation has had it's time, and if you don't like the musical idioms that have become dominant in this decade, then there's probably no reason for you to continue writing about music. What they've actually done is inspire a decade's worth of experimentation that you're unable to appreciate. What they have to do with facial hair trends, I have no idea. You can clearly see in the picture YOU posted that only one member has a beard (but this is irrelevant). You also make mindless lazy comparisons to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes (this just proves how lazy you are), and suggest "blam(ing) Brian Wilson." For what? Inspiring some of the most brilliant groundbreaking music from the sixties on? Ok, I'll blame him. Again, you mention Animal Collective's music NOT ONCE in this entire paragraph.
3. More lazy incoherent comparisons, blathering about a Spike Jonze trailer and pretending to confuse two groups that sound nothing alike. You make reference to the music for the first time(even if it's in the most vague way possible) by saying AC (and Arcade Fire)'s songs are "too long." Why that's up to you to judge, I have no idea.
4. Saying the Ramones can sing better than Animal Collective suggests that you've never listened to either artist.
Animal Collective and their ilk have ruined music for a generation. Semi-ironic stances, lack of bass, disengagement with their audience etc. A band should be vital, an antidote to something, which these aren't.
ReplyDeleteYou will write a Radiohead review for this session? they are the champions of the bullshit. One of them top hits are inspired by a Lamwoer Deth song.
ReplyDeleteIf you think AC are disengaged with their audience then you've obviously never seen them live. I don't know what this bullshit about "semi-ironic stances" comes from but any interview with the band will show you that this is not true. As far as the bass comment, if you see them live then you will know that they generate ENORMOUS amounts of bass (frequencies, not the instrument).
ReplyDelete[...] it. Yeah, there was so much good juice spilt over it that there eventually was a backlash. I read Everett True’s article, his attack, which seemed a bit unfair. I’m sure if we get a lot of good reviews, there will be a [...]
ReplyDelete(from Faceook)
ReplyDeleteDavid Rothblatt
I don't get it.
Fri at 2:05am · Delete
Everett True
nothing to get. i don't like 'em, other folk do.
Fri at 2:06am · Delete
Everett True
hear tell they're very nice people though
Fri at 2:07am · Delete
Andrea Pavanello
yeah, Panda Bear especially is a real cool guy.
search also "Fecal Matters" on youtube.
Fri at 2:11am · Delete
[...] not the dance, hip-hop, pop and R&B, silly. All that Bangs-awful Animal Collective/Radiohead/Arcade Fire/Walkmen indie [...]
ReplyDelete[...] More piano. More American bands who’ve listened to the same bloody three Beach Boys albums as Animal Collective. More boy vocals sung like they’ve been muffled by beards and woolly cardigans. This is the [...]
ReplyDeleteWow. Only just found this. You've gone and articulated something I have always suspected but thus far been unable to verbalise.
ReplyDeleteAwesome.
Then again, I do have my hate on at the moment.
But I still can't fucking stand that tuneless chin stroking warble.
"You can clearly see in the picture YOU posted that only one member has a beard (but this is irrelevant)."
ReplyDeleteLOL
"4. Saying the Ramones can sing better than Animal Collective suggests that you've never listened to either artist."
ReplyDeleteLOL LOL
Seriously, regarding #2: I read your old Pavement reunion post yesterday, and while it pains me to admit this, they did sorta ruin a generation of bands that wanted to be just like them (and yes, they were absolute rubbish by end--if you paid to see them on the BTC or TT tours and plan on shelling out for the reunion extravaganza you should use that money to have your head examined). But YE FUCKING GODS, trying to consider the extent of the damage that will be done to future sounds if AC inherits that mantle is enough to put you off hearing entirely.
ReplyDeleteAnimal Collective does suck. I just wish you would get over it. People get sick of reading some of Pitchfork's bullshit, but get just as tired reading why Pitchfork and the bands they think are awesome really suck. There are plenty of VERY good artists that fit you're "beard" stereotype, Bon Iver, DeYarmond Edison, Iron & Wine, etc. And I'm talking about the music, not writing them off just cause they have a beard. If I'd written off half the bands wearing a bandana in the sixties I wouldn't have shit left.
ReplyDeleteAnimal Collective's music does suck. Comment on that and why, and quit talking like you're working for a fashion magazine. I like you're writing but this is just bullshit.
peace