Ewednesday: What Is So Great About Animal Collective?

SeaAnemone 12.10.09	sorry nope not gonna explain. just listen. enjoy or not enjoy.
MetalFaceDoom 12.10.09	Agreed I never understand the love either. Got there discogrpahy on itunes. never knew wtf was going on
handoman 12.10.09	idk ask theacademy
theacademy 12.10.09	herd mentality
Roach 12.10.09	meh 4 and 5 are pretty bad
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	specially 4
Fugue 12.10.09	4's cool, 5 is pretty bad. As for animal collective, it took me a while to get used to their style but when you get it, its worth it.
theacademy 12.10.09	just in case anybody didn't get my double entendre, i'm quite proud of it
americanmusicmachine 12.10.09	lol i get it. herd=animal collective
Ewednesday 12.10.09	4 and 5 have a certain romance to them, I really like no.5 its rugged and raw and strangely beautiful.
AggravatedYeti 12.10.09	They're very nice people.
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	herd mentality - like a collection of animals (i.e. animal collective) herd mentality - when Adam Downer writes a 4.5 review of Fall Be Kind and consequently Sputnik loves it. herd mentality I like it too academy ; )
GnarlyShillelagh 12.10.09	Yeah I definitely still don't get it either... Then again, I can't quite understand how Thrice is maddeningly boner-inducing either... Maybe I just need to listen more.
AnotherBrick 12.10.09	its just damn catchy cool music
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	Animal Collective is the most overrated band on the site imo. They're just boring, plain and simple. Nothing intriguing in their entire discography.
nychicano 12.10.09	Shhhhhh Stan. You'll wake them up
dylantheairplane 12.10.09	Animal Collective is just one of those bands that you don't like until you realize what their really about. If that makes sense. Took me a year to get into them. Go buy a copy of Strawberry Jam and a strobe light. Shut off all lights except the strobe and dance like an animal to the album
Jesuslaves 12.10.09	That is retarded. Why the hell do you need to spend a year trying to get or understand an album before like it? If I don't like it in the first five wire-to-wire listens and a few isolated songs, I stop wasting my time.
bungy 12.10.09	Thrice....lol
dylantheairplane 12.10.09	its not like i listened to them every single day saying "OKAY. TODAY I WILL LIKE THIS BAND!"
Jesuslaves 12.10.09	"Animal Collective is the most overrated band on the site imo." Wow, that's saying something.
americanmusicmachine 12.10.09	overrated is a dead word
Fuff24 12.10.09	Used to think they were overated too. Listen to MPP multiple times and sing along. You'll get it.
Prophet178 12.10.09	Listen to Sung Tongs all the way to Fall Be Kind to see the evolution of the band from release to release, that should be enough to at least let you appreciate the band for their talent, if not turn you into a fan.
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	bungy SHUT UP. nychicano: nah nothin's gonna wake them up at this point. i tend to agree with Jesuslaves...why put in all the trouble to finally "realize what the band is about" ??? Especially when "realizing what they're really about" doesn't even necessarily mean that their music turns out to be cool.
klap 12.10.09	i can't get into anything by them before MPP
Prophet178 12.10.09	"why put in all the trouble to finally "realize what the band is about" ???" Typically the bands that are the hardest to get into are the most rewarding.
Roach 12.10.09	i pretty much love most of their stuff, it's fun idk
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	Jesuslaves: yeah it is saying something, but it seems true to me. I really can't think of another band with massive hype on this site that has struck me as so uninteresting and banal. Prophet: yeah that might be true, but only when you're music taste is still in it's infancy. At this point, my taste is so advanced that i will listen to anything in any genre if it strikes me as being excellent music for that genre. This simply does not strike me as being good! And Fuff: i'll give MPP another chance, but it's just a matter of the fact that i simply am repulsed by their style of music. Sure, they may do their own style really well, but i still wouldn't care b/c i don't like it in the first place.
Tulannical 12.10.09	feels is great but really hard to listen to. love the band though.
americanmusicmachine 12.10.09	"At this point, my taste is so advanced that i will listen to anything in any genre if it strikes me as being excellent music for that genre." you need humility ... or something
ECRbubs 12.10.09	I think they're the best band in the world and sure the hype can be annoying but I think it's just because they're so unique and progressive while remaining as one of the most enjoyable acts of all time. I probably don't add much to this discussion because I'm such a self-professed fanboy but I think they strike such a resonant chord partially because everything they do is so magical, every release polarizing and almost all of them chock full of melodic wonder. I think everything on most of their albums just comes together, the contrasting voices between Avey and Panda, the lyrics and all the different instruments and melodies and rhythms... /tl;dr
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	"my taste is so advanced that i will listen to anything in any genre if it strikes me as being excellent music for that genre. This simply does not strike me as being good!" Oh my!
Roach 12.10.09	stan why are you talking bs again
Prophet178 12.10.09	"my taste is so advanced that i will listen to anything in any genre if it strikes me as being excellent music for that genre. This simply does not strike me as being good!" Then I think you should take my advice I gave to this guy and listen to Sung Tongs to Fall Be Kind. An "advanced" listener such as yourself should be able to see what makes Animal Collective so excellent. "but only when you're music taste is still in it's infancy." I don't agree with that. When I got into Animal Collective I would say my taste in music was pretty far ahead, but I still had difficultly understanding the band. But after working through their discography and realizing what the band were about and trying to do, and then fully realizing that goal on Merriweather, it all came together and they are now one of my favorite bands. Even outside Animal Collective, my taste is always evolving, that should be true for any fan of music. I used to hate punk music, but now I'm getting myself into the genre and finally appreciating some great bands that I never would've listened to before.
theacademy 12.10.09	ironically, you've gotten the answer from a fan of the band and (what i presume is) a non-fan: SeaAnemone: "...just listen. enjoy or not enjoy." Jesusslaves: "...Why the hell do you need to spend a year trying to get or understand an album before like it? If I don't like it in the first five wire-to-wire listens and a few isolated songs, I stop wasting my time." should solve your problem for you...
Consigliere 12.10.09	They are definitely not the most overrated band on this site, the honour goes to that shitty band Converge.
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	Yeah, theacademy simplified it for you very well. problem/thread = solved.
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	Ok guys obviously i didn't mean that my music taste is so far advanced that i'm just "too good" for AC. Obviously i don't believe i have the best music taste ever. Music taste is 100% subjective anyways. I was only replying to Prophet's post where he said that "the hardest bands to get into are the most rewarding." And my point was this. Once you get to a point where you've listened to enough music from enough genres to know exactly where your music tastes lie, and what the limits of your music taste are: you have a fairly good idea for what you will and will not like. When the limits of your music taste are still undefined, it's fair to say that a band "may grow on you" because you're still establishing your taste. And a band you didn't like previously, you may "grow into", because of your expanding taste. But once your music taste is established, and you've tested the limits and you basically know what your taste is: it's very fair to say that you aren't going to like a band even if you listen to them all the time and let the music grow on you. That's why i can confidently say that i WILL NOT like AC, no matter how many times i listen to their albums or try to "get them." I know the boundaries of what music sounds good to me, and AC is unfortunately outside of those boundaries.
Fapper 12.10.09	It didn't take me long to get into them.
bungy 12.10.09	stamina=dinosaurs
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	interesting argumentation ScorpionStan... I didn't quite understand before and it sounded absurd. I can't say I agree entirely, but I understand what you mean and that makes sense.
Roach 12.10.09	stan no more bs what did i just fucking say to you
MaskAtTheMasquerade 12.10.09	the answer to your question is: everything
Foxhound 12.10.09	Inde Hipster Bullshit for 200$ Alex
robertsona 12.10.09	youre all gay as shit lmao peace
EverythingEvil2113 12.10.09	i know my opinion of animal collective changed for the better when i got baked and watched the video to peacebone over and over again. i think they're one of "those" bands.
xKERBYx 12.10.09	they're loved on sputnik, duh. That's what so great about it. Just be cool and start conforming.
Foxhound 12.10.09	lol become one of them..
qwe3 12.10.09	the hype is that they're good. if you dont think theyre good it probably means you don't iike them idk just a guess
bungy 12.10.09	Dear Lord qwe's comment made sense
xKERBYx 12.10.09	CONFORM! do it do it do it.
qwe3 12.10.09	"When the limits of your music taste are still undefined, it's fair to say that a band "may grow on you" because you're still establishing your taste. And a band you didn't like previously, you may "grow into", because of your expanding taste. But once your music taste is established, and you've tested the limits and you basically know what your taste is: it's very fair to say that you aren't going to like a band even if you listen to them all the time and let the music grow on you." that doesn't make sense dude, no one has a fully realised and established music taste. you can't say definitely that you're going to like something or dislike something because music taste is never definite. i can't stand country music, yet there are a few records in the genre i quite like. that boggles me, but it's true. there are always going to be anomalies in music taste that we can't really explain. my point is, no one knows exactly what their "taste" is. i know i generally like screamo hip hop classical and metal. that doesn't mean anything though really. i agree with the last thing you said, just not in context with the rest of what you said
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	Roach: being honest with everyone about why i don't like AC is bs? if you think stating personal opinion is in itself "bs", you have some issues.
Foxhound 12.10.09	^ wow
qwe3 12.10.09	stan he wasnt saying you not liking AC was bs, but some of the stuff you were saying was pretty dumb
myhigherpie 12.10.09	I've had them on my computer for a long time and gave them the occasional listen every now and then to figure out what all the hype was about but I never really got into it. Then I realized my copy of MPP had a measly 96 bit rate and promptly downloaded the 320kbps and that sort of did it for me.
xKERBYx 12.10.09	oh downloading, how i adore thee!
qwe3 12.10.09	"Well, that's limiting." basically. and wrong.
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	qwe3: i'll state it another way. I love the band ISIS. A few years ago however, i would have thought ISIS was utter crap. But because my music taste was extremely unrefined back then (in that i hadn't even attempted to explore any genres of music beyond radio pop), i couldn't make a valid judgement on ISIS at that time. Sure i didn't like them then; but once my music taste started expanding the more i listened to, i had to reserve judgement on many bands because there was no telling where my music taste would eventually settle. Fast forward to the present day, with AC under consideration. At this point, my music taste has settled. Obviously there will be anomalies, but i now know exactly what i like, why i like it, and where the limits of my taste are. In my younger days, i didn't know where my musical boundaries were because i hadn't explored them. But now i have explored, and i know where my boundaries are. There will always be some music that i just won't like. I'm not saying AC is definitely not an anomaly: i suppose it could still possibly be. But i AM saying that because i know my boundaries now, and i know what i like, i would probably be able to recognize pretty quickly whether or not AC was going to be an exception to the rule.
xKERBYx 12.10.09	preach brother!
qwe3 12.10.09	you're not getting me. "now know exactly what i like, why i like it, and where the limits of my taste are. " that is just plain wrong.
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	so you're saying it's impossible to know the limits of your music taste?
qwe3 12.10.09	yep
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	saying you know the limits to your music taste is like saying you'll know who you'll be in 10 years. sorry, just not gonna happen.
Athom 12.10.09	my dad loves animal collective, seriously it's not that hard to get...
americanmusicmachine 12.10.09	a little late but; just cuz you don't like something doesn't make it overrated.
rasputin 12.10.09	ITT: scorpionstan once again proves the general idiocy that is inherent with the average sputnik user
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	^ yeah i know: being that "overrated" is just my own personal opinion. not stating it as fact. qwe3: that is really quite ridiculous. with that logic, you could never have a band that you didn't like. there would always be the possibility that if you listened to them long enough, you would "get them" and find something to enjoy about them. there will always be bands that you don't like simply because they just don't fit you music taste...which is to admit that your taste DOES in fact have limits in the first place.
Athom 12.10.09	This inveterate sense of constraint is a great blow to the veracity of mankind’s abilities. It restrains us and holds our minds to the ground below, averting any possibility of rising above ourselves to something greater; something not fathomed by the conventional mind
theacademy 12.10.09	You want the wisdom to know the difference between what you can and can’t change? Here’s the last step: everything disappears. Love, trees, rocks, steel, plastic, human beings. None of us get out alive. Now, you can cower in a sputnik list and ponder the limitations of 'taste' or why so many dbags love Animal Collective , or you can be grateful that when your body rubs against somebody else’s it explodes with enough pleasure to make you forget, even for a minute, that you’re only a walking pile of ashes. Now THAT is the truth. If you’re strong it’ll make you free, if you’re weak, it’ll make you…
dylantheairplane 12.10.09	you smart people with your big paragraphs and limitless music tastes
qwe3 12.10.09	"that is really quite ridiculous. with that logic, you could never have a band that you didn't like. there would always be the possibility that if you listened to them long enough, you would "get them" and find something to enjoy about them." no, you misunderstood my point. again. i'm saying no one can know their music tastes. i don't doubt that you do not like animal collective, but does that mean you know your music tastes? no, of course not. no one knows what theyre going to like or not like until they listen to it, meaning you don't ever explicitly know your own music taste. and also you should probably read what redsky said thoroughly.
SeaAnemone 12.10.09	[witty comment using vocabulary most people forget they take after the SAT's to further disprove Scorpion in glorious fashion, not simply overpowering him, but diminishing his idea to a point of nothingness in the towering shadow of the sky-scraping notions of the high-minded individual that- OH SHIT it's contagious, nevermind]
AnotherBrick 12.10.09	holy shit i feel like i just read a 3000 comment list...these comments are like books!
Prophet178 12.10.09	"And my point was this. Once you get to a point where you've listened to enough music from enough genres to know exactly where your music tastes lie, and what the limits of your music taste are: you have a fairly good idea for what you will and will not like. " I think you should refer back to the second part of my post. The idea of your musical taste being cemented forever is pretty ridiculous. I think with enough persistence and the right "gateway" bands or albums one can appreciate any genre. Even if you would never think to listen to classical, 9 out of 10 people will find something to love about "The Rite of Spring" upon listening to it. I looked at Animal Collective the same way; if 9 out of 10 people say this band is amazing, then I must be missing something. For me, going through the discography sold me on the band. The same thing happened to me with punk. Like I said before, I used to hate punk and wouldn't even want to pick up a punk album, but after listening to Fugazi and Minutemen and bands like that I've come to really appreciate the genre. So getting back to the point, I think any fan of music should be able to evolve their taste, the difference on how that happens will vary from person to person however.
qwe3 12.10.09	^ this except i don't think the evolution of taste is completely limitless. if that were the case we would like all music ever. but yeah basically agree with you prophet
theacademy 12.10.09	make sure u guys check out my double entendre up there
americanmusicmachine 12.10.09	twas a good one
Athom 12.10.09	ah mine was just some ostentatious non sequitur stolen from a shadows review
Athom 12.10.09	previous comment a reply to Anotherbrick not liking books
qwe3 12.10.09	redsky it actually made sense in context with what stan was saying hahaha
Athom 12.10.09	everyone only knows the first sentence of that BWP/Mirrorthrone opening. the whole thing is littered with gold.
theacademy 12.10.09	thanx americanmuse
AnotherBrick 12.10.09	lmao
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	ok i get your point now qwe3: but now you're making even less sense. of course no one knows whether they're going to like something until they listen to it. but once they listen to it, they WILL KNOW whether or not they like it. so in other words, of course it's possible to know your music taste. you may not be able to say for sure that you won't like something simply based on it's genre or style. i'll give you that. but once you listen to it, you'll know whether or not you like it. if it is palateable to your music taste, you will enjoy it. if you don't enjoy it, it's because it didn't fit your music tastes. pretty simple really.
theacademy 12.10.09	"ok i get your point now qwe3: but now you're making even less sense." probably not a good way to start out...
qwe3 12.10.09	"ok i get your point now qwe3: but now you're making even less sense. " huh? no it ISNT possible to know your music taste. what the hell dude? theres always going to be music out there that surprises you; there'll be music you thought you'd hate but actually loved, and vice versa. these things mean that you'll never know your music taste. if you knew your music taste definitely, you'd be able to tell whether or not you liked something before you listened to it. you're confusing having musical taste with knowing exactly what yours is. and btw. i listened to Jane Doe for about a month and a half before it became my favourite album.
Athom 12.10.09	i havent read all of the bullshit in here, but all i will say is this: Stan, someone's taste be it in music, food, art, whatever the fuck is always evolving. sure, after lots of exploration and an open mind you may have developed different tastes than what you had a long time ago, and that's good, but don't think that they will always stay that way. What you may hear one day you might write off as being pretentious bullshit or boring lagging noise but maybe a few years down the line you might hear a song by a band you didnt like and look at it through different eyes, and maybe end up liking it. that's why it's ridiculous to say that your taste has boundaries, because who knows how it will change years down the line. Also liking animal collective isnt necessarily a sign of good taste (although it helps ;) )
Prophet178 12.10.09	I guess he's ignoring me now. Stan, what AC albums have you listened to?
Athom 12.10.09	I hated The Aeroplane Over the Sea for about 5 years before it became one of my favorite albums.
qwe3 12.10.09	^ woah really? no way
theacademy 12.10.09	i actually loved "significant other" the first time I heard it. I was like, 11...but hey, to each his own, right
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	oh my jeez theacademy and qwe3: i meant that i now understand what qwe3's position is, but i still don't think his position makes sense. apply your brain here, that's not hard to understand. and you guys are making things wayyy too complicated. it boils down to this: we all know what our music tastes are RIGHT NOW. sure there's music out there that we might like which we don't know about as of now. but THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE DON'T KNOW WHAT OUR MUSIC TASTE IS RIGHT NOW. i will concede that we don't know the limits of our music taste IN A BROAD SENSE, and obviously we technically never will because we will never hear all the music that there is to hear in the universe. HOWEVER: we DO know the limits of our music taste IN A PARTICULAR SENSE, because...of the music we HAVE heard, we know what we like and what we don't like. and the fact that there is some that we "don't like" is evidence that we have a taste and that it has limits.
qwe3 12.10.09	nope dude, we have a general idea of what we like. that's the best you can say.
Treska 12.10.09	eh ive listened to em a bit but i dont know why everyone on this site loves em so much. theyre pretty cool but their work is nothing awe inspiring
klap 12.10.09	lol i still hate aeroplane over the sea
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	qwe3: in terms of all the music that's out there, we have a very general idea of what we like. but in terma of the music we HAVE HEARD, we have quite a specific idea of what we like.
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	*termS
Prophet178 12.10.09	" HOWEVER: we DO know the limits of our music taste IN A PARTICULAR SENSE" No, if you would stop fucking ignoring me and read my posts then maybe you would get it. A few years ago the only music I liked was metal. Thanks to broadening my horizons, I know can say I like post-rock/metal/indie/emo/classical/progressive etc etc etc. I did not know the limits of my musical taste then, and I still don't know the limits of my musical taste now. I'm finding new music every day, and two years from now all of that may change again, the point is you never know what you like or don't like until you give it the time and effort to explore. Going back to the point I made three times that you still haven't read, if I never opened my ears to Fugazi I would never have gotten myself into punk. The same Propaghandi album I listened to 6 months ago is now one of my favorites of the year thanks to that gateway band.
DiceMan 12.10.09	Jam out to it. Only then may you understand the power behind AC.
qwe3 12.10.09	"but in terms of the music we HAVE HEARD, we have quite a specific idea of what we like." uhhhh....so? that doesn't mean anything dude.
DiceMan 12.10.09	Oh wow. ScorpionStan is being stupid again. Surprise surprise. He probably looked at an album cover, and absorbs the music with his eyes. Cause he KNOWS he doesn't like it.
ScorpionStan 12.10.09	^ if you really believe i did that, you're the stupid one musicaddiction. have you not read one of my comments? qwe3: yes it does! the main statement of yours i've been trying to disprove is this: "my point is, no one knows exactly what their 'taste' is." and my point is: YES THEY DO. they'll never have definite limits for their taste, because there's a virtually infinite amount of music out there. but they can definitely know the limits of their taste AS IT IS RIGHT NOW. they can say "i like this" and "i don't like this" with confidence. If someone were to ask them "what is your music taste?"...they would be able to say exactly what their music taste was at that time. sorry Prophet didn't know you were so easily bruised ;) lol i did read your comments, i was just focusing on qwe3. the above is addressed to you also.
qwe3 12.10.09	"but they can definitely know the limits of their taste AS IT IS RIGHT NOW" NO THEY DONT. omg dude stop saying stupid shit. if there are limits then what changes them? how do we go from liking stuff we hated before? i'll tell you how: we never know our musical tastes.