Animal Collective

*David Portner – vocals, guitar, samples, keys, percussion
*Josh Dibb – guitar, vocals
*Brian Weitz – electronics, samples, vocals
*Noah Lennox – vocals, percussion, samples, guitar

American Collective is an experimental rock band currently living in New York City. Aside from writing and creating music, the band also runs the record label ‘Paw Tracks’ where they release their music from as well as the music of other artists on their label. The band was officially formed when two of the members left school and came to New York City where the band would play live shows and release limited edition vinyl records of those performances on the Catsup Plate label. Their first official album ‘Hollinndagain’ was merely a collection of live performances that the band had played and then retired the songs soon after. Their next album ‘Campfire Tales’ was a collection of live songs performed by the band one night while performing on their screen porch which included the nature sounds of the environment in the background. After mounting pressure from record labels, the band came up with the formal name of their band calling themselves ‘Animal Collective’ in order to emphasize that the band was a collective of different musicians at any one time and not simply one group of people all working together in unison. The band would release their first album as Animal Collective which they called ‘Here Comes the Indian’ under their Paw Tracks label in 2003.

In October 2005, the band released the album ‘Feels’ and then went on an extensive world tour by visiting many European countries and traveled as far as New Zealand and Australia in order to perform. They were headline acts at the Reading and Leeds festivals and would also visit North America for a short time before returning to the studio to record music for their upcoming album entitled ‘Strawberry Jam’ which would feature songs that the band wrote while on tour as well as a bunch of new material. The band would tour for most of 2007 as only 3 members with band member Josh Dibb deciding to take some time off. They would make their North American television debut when they sang the song ‘#1’ on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. In 2009, the band released ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ as their next official album and got initial praise from various magazines hailing it very early on as the album of the year for 2009. The band would later return to North American television by appearing on Late Night with David Letterman in May to perform their song ‘Summertime Clothes’ in order to promote their latest album. The band will be touring most of 2009 still as a 3-piece band and are currently working on a movie with close friend David Perez that is an interpretation of what their music would sound like if people closed their eyes and listened to their music. The movie is expected to be released sometime in the Summer 2009. You can currently purchase their latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion in stores now.

[audio:https://boobnewb.com/blog/audio/AnimalCollective_ArtistSpotlight.mp3]
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