Animal Collective in Austin +TM

Animal Collective was a trio on this tour... Geologist's head lamp circled to the beat in the darkness and he twiddled on knobs... Avey Tare shouting staccato yelps into the microphone in one hand, pounding a cymbal with a drumstick in the other... Panda Bear singing angelic madcap choruses over the undulating beats and waves of voice and sound and layers of delay. It's difficult for me to find the words to describe them because they are trying to come up with their own musical language, and because I've lost all objectivity in my awe. They seem to not so much write songs as pull them out of a magical bag full of primal psychedelic inspiration, and lately they are truly inspired. Their forthcoming album "Strawberry Jam" isn't due until September. There was one track in particular, the last of the new ones (13), where afterwards I looked at the soundguy and he smiled and I asked "What was the name of that song?" and he said "These are brand new, they just wrote them a couple of weeks ago," so since "Strawberry Jam" has already been recorded, most of these are even newer than that. I'm only going to release this whole show because no boots have yet surfaced of this tour. I brought my video camera just for the audio capture in case no proper tapers were there, and sure enough... Actually, not much of this tour has apparently been recorded, it seems from reading the Animal Collective board that at least a couple of previous AC tapers weren't able to make this tour, although it was a very short tour and I'm fairly certain a better sounding show will come eventually. This recording is on the opposite side of the spectrum from that last Joggers post - it's a video camera capture, so expect the lower bass notes to sound worse than caca. But all told, not the worst recording I've heard. Some photos can be found here.

If you're not familiar with Animal Collective and don't want to listen to an entire show recorded half-assed to find the really good parts, here's a couple of my favorite excerpts from the new songs to give you an idea:

Sample 1 Sample 2

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Antone's, Austin, TX
May 27, 2007

1 Doggy
2 Hey Light
3 Who Could Win A Rabbit
4 new song (The Dancer)
5 new song (Song For Ariel)
6 new song (At The Tasty Place)
7 new song (Material Things)
8 new song (Walk Around With You)
9 new song (Street Vendor Cry)
10 new song (Pan Flute Jam)
11 Daily Routine
12 new song (Noone Should Call You A Dreamer)
13 new song (Brother Sport)
14 Loch Raven
15 We Tigers
16 Leaf House

Get the previous two AC albums at Fat Cat
Get everything else at Paw Tracks

And while stalking Animal Collective's Myspace friends, I found this guy. His project is called Testicular Manslaughter. He's got his own unique style of off-kilter electro-pop wonders for the new millennium, and I can't describe it any better than he does himself:

"I'm Dana Young. I make songs on casette tape 4-tracks. I use a Roland JX-3P from 1983, Korg MS 2000r, Vestax 05 Dj mixer, various cheep drum machines, DR. Sample 303 , mini flying V giutar, and some microphones. I make alot of songs, one to five a day. The lyrics are improv onto the tape. I go back and memorize them later, fix em' up. I am inspired by William S. Burroughs cut-up art, Alan Watts Zen Buddist philosophy, Caberet Voltair, The Fall, hip-hop producers from the early 90's , 80's disco like Larry Levan , Miami bass (tr808) , skate videos , surfing , Blur....they made pop good again...... I like the modern Lovers alot right now. I was born in Denver, Colorado .... been in Southern california since 1984 .... when KROQ played bitchen new wave and post punk. My mom and I listened to that while she took me on my acting auditions when I was a kid. I did alot of that ....... skated for Alva in 1990. I became close friends with Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey MaGuire when I was 14 years old........ that was a trip. I left acting to do what i like, smoke weed and record music on 4-tracks at my moms for free, to get lost. I did that for years......... till I got clean from drugs and found a way to get my songs out to people.............. myspace. so, I make a living dj'ing rare and out of print viynl records and still record music in my room..... at my own place now. I don't play in a band cause it is hard to stick with people. I found a way to play shows by myself. Like hip-hop..... with backtracks... or so we called them when i came to work for Ariel Pink in his band in 2005. I played about 50 shows with him.... most opening for Animal Collective . That is when I really decided to commit to my own work and just make it work. I had been recording for many years ... my motivation to get the work out was a gift from working with John Maus, greg Andonina, and Ariel Pink. they showed me my talent was good enough and a way to get the art out. Like make it happen."

My kind of guy. I mean, seriously, how many other musicians are so image-unconscious they can admit what they really want to do is "smoke weed and record music on 4-tracks at my moms for free." And what he records really doesn't sound like anything else I've heard.

Testicular Manslaughter "Bindle"

Testicular Manslaughter "Laundry"

Disaro Records lists some upcoming Irish tour dates (?!?), contact them or message Dana to try to find some of that rare Testicular Manslaughter for you to purchase.