I'm not sure I bumped into many bands blogging their entire discography on a blog, if a physical copy is availble for sale, and I read tons of blogs. Sample songs yes, not entire records though. Unless stuff isn't going to be reissued anytime soon. We are talking about bands on very small or inexistent record labels, right?

I'm not sure. More likely, probably, but clearly successful bands sell shitloads more records.

love the cover....

the album is ok. not as good as strawberry jam but we cant have it all...

So, they named their album Merriweather Post Pavillion, eh?

That's some Maryland love right thar.

I think the cover is reason enough to buy it. I'm sure at some point I'll be playing it in the car, and the person in the passenger seat will reach for the case, "Who is thi--What the fuck?"

to the bold... I can't say yet because I have never had a major release involving my livelihood/money, but I like to think that I would. I hope to make music that people want to support, as opposed to something they buy because they are curious, and then they hear it and regret buying it. I would feel much worse about that.

and to the italicized: thats difficult, because if they are going to find it themselves anyway, and in this day it is very easy to do so, then why wouldn't it be better for me to give it to them and personally recommend it and encourage them to buy it? as opposed to them just finding it on some blog and giving it a chance.

I have seen how this works for my friends who aren't in to music that much... they are much more likely to listen to something if I recommend it, and one of 2 things happens: they don't like it, and the band gains nothing monetarily.
or they like it and the friend then ends up accompanying me to a show of theirs, buying a ticket and likely a CD at the least.
or they may really like it and end up bringing a friend of their own to the show, and they end up buying their back catalogue as well as supporting future shows.

my point is that may of them wouldn't have given this band any attention at all. If i supply them a download link and a very warm review of the band, they at least will give it a listen, which is better for the band than not having a listen at all.

i have seen both... bands with very small/nonexistant labels usually have most/all of their discography available for free, from what i have seen.


to the bold: I don't know... I was mostly talking about a band of AC's stature... Domino is a pretty major indie label. but to the average person, it's "obscure"

hahaha

Now that the hype has worn off, I do not like this album at all
I am very disappointed...
The songs have so much going on, yet they don't seem "full"
They all have that same bass kick
All seem to kind of blend in (not in a good way)
Seems like the whole album is at the same tempo (it probably is not, but it just sounds that way sometimes)
This is not half as good as Strawberry Jam (...or Water Curses EP for that matter)

I hope their next release is much better

I've known bads who would literally stand around on the streets giving away their records (or tickets for their shows) when no fucker had heard of them. Interestingly, the same bands weren't terribly impressed when their records were suddenly all over the internet. It's a simple equation - if no fucker's heard of you, spread the word, Hallelujah! If it's a release that may decide whether the label has profits for a tour, or maybe slightly better accommodation than a fucking Ford Transit wedged between a bass amp and a snare, bands are more likely to want the financial side of things to say 'this is a popular band'.

This record hasn't been released (or maybe it has, I don't know/ care) - floating voters (that is, those who buy the record and quietly think it's shit) are worth a lot of money for a 'hype' band like AC, and it seems unfair that people are going to write it off/ say it's amazing without actually putting money in AC's coffers.

I can't stand AC myself, just so y'all know, but the principle applies across the board. The number of times I've downloaded/ written off a band only to have a mate rave about them and then suddenly realise I was rash is ridiculous, so I'm a strictly OOP/ rare downloader these days.

True. However, I don't think I could possibly spend more money on music and still eat. So I'm still not sure that can applied absolutely. I get both Glice's and pork's points, though, and they're well said and taken into consideration.

I dunno. I think Animal Collective wouldn't have FREE "listening parties" for their album if they didn't want people to hear it. I mean, it's not like all those listening parties are anywhere near where a lot of people live, so it's not like everybody could attend them.

..I downloaded the link, I'm glad I heard the record, I would have heard it at some point anyway; hell it'll probably be able to be streamed for free through myspace by next week. I don't think the album is worth buying and I'm not going to buy it and really couldn't care less if I ever hear it again,
but I'm glad I heard it this time I guess. I've already deleted it off of my computer. I'm not making excuses for downloading it or anything that I do download; I spend enough money on bands, most of them who need money way more than Animal Collective...

...On the other hand, if Animal Collective ever comes around here, I'd definitely go see 'em live and buy some shit from 'em, where they'd make infinitely more money than they would from the $1 or so they get off of MPP sales (which has been a "problem" with records for the past 5 years, anyway; they're treated more like promotional tools for live shows).

animal collective a load of shit, they're like a snack size, or worse, a twee No Neck Blues Band, with keyboards

Don't understand the comparison at all, but that is funny.

Personally, I wish Animal Collective would go back to their sparser sound. The last few albums have been.. very... very... uh.. produced. For a lack of a better word.

interesting thread.

I think they've actually gotten better with production. They've finally stopped pretending they want to be avant-garde. (They don't.) Whatever they lack has been made-up for in post.

Well, there's nothng wrong with sounding good... I just wish they didn't have as much going on. Maybe that's what I meant. The production isn't completely to blame for that (though they have all kinds of ridiculous ambient interludes and voices coming from every part of the speaker all the time which is annoying). I liked the sparse Sung Tongs stuff a lot more.

..I just find AC extremely annoying at times. But SO melodically great at times that I can't write 'em off completely.

lol. i'm gonna ask them the last time they used keyboards... unless you mean in the studio? but live, its been several years

critics starting to rave and ramble... 9.6 from pfork,

AC also mentioend in National geographic explorer and GQ lolz.

and the wire review is decent.

"Okay, here's the Wire review:

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Domino CD/LP


It feels like a long time ago that I saw Animal Collective on an early UK tour - just Avey Tare and Panda Bear, pounding single snare drums and chanting secretive songs into their microphones, songs that lapped and overlapped each other in segues that stretched out into a kind of meticulously ordered disorder. The sound of Here Comes The Indian or Campfire Songs - strummed guitars, murky vocals, dimly formed songs - seems even longer ago. Animal Collective in 2008 sound like four people jamming on samplers and sequencers. Radiohead tried out the same set-up at one point, inspired by Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad, and ended up making Kid A. There are no dystopian polemics on Merriweather Post Pavilion, but the opposite, a total vocabulary for musical blissout - delirious vocal harmonising, elemental rhythms, detourned electronic signals firing out in vectors that swarm back to the song like boomerangs. Rather than via PE, Animal Collective seem to have arrived at this sound via Steve Reich, Detroit Techno, Brian Wilson and Kompakt.
Animal Collective do recall hiphop in one sense. Early DJs took the points where rhythm broke the surface of the song in funk, disco and R&B - literally the 'breaks' - then looped those bars endlessly to extend the peaks. Animal Collective do something similar to melodic hooks. From their earliest gigs to now (see "Brother Sport"), they've played with the way songs can be flattened towards hypnotic horizons, but on Merriweather Post Pavilion they manage not to flatten but to sustain a series of highs. "My Girls" is perhaps the most ecstatic possible hymning of the anxieties of finding somewhere to live. Like "Summertime Clothes", it's a wall of sound which is almost Spector-esque, with the wall a kaleidoscopic jumble of electronic graffiti. 2007's Strawberry Jam was just a sketch for this album, already one of the best records of 2009."[/i]

if strawberry jam was just a "sketch" for this album I hope they fixed it.