« Never you mind | Main | di5eps »
April 08, 2005
Hot-a-tot begotten
Avey Tare - Crumbling Land
Dave Portner (Animal Collective's Avey Tare) has such a fantastically versatile voice -even without the effects that Geologist expertly smears all over the place when they play live- he sings in such an expressive and almost stream-of-consciousness manner. There's a particular verse in one of the new songs (the 'Swimming Pool' song (maybe titled 'Banshee'?)- it's the one that's usually first in the set, for those who've seen them recently) where Tare sings "And I don't wish/that I was dead/a very old friend/of mine once said/that either way you look at it/you'll have your fit/we'll have our kids/and feeling is good", and in between the words 'dead' and 'said' Tare drops his voice to the point where it sounds like a totally different person, like a little kid trying to imitate an adult on the phone.
The first part of 'Crumbling Land' sounds like a baby rattle filtered through a delay pedal, accompanied by soft tones in the background. That gives way to a whale-sized guitar noise, like the strings were struck with a board instead of picked or plucked. Then Avey Tare appears, both in the foreground and background (at first sounding like Grandpa Joe and Charlie from the 'Charlie in the Chocolate Factory' scene where they narrowly escape dismemberment by burping out the bubbles from the Fizzy Lifting Drinks (this description is so apt it hurts)) with his voice just barely poking through the digital miasma of the song (warbly and aquatic). At one point he says, "he will eat you", then "he sharpens his chompers at night", and finally "feeling like a werewolf" repeated and harmonized until the end of the song. It's both scary and pretty (like my ex-wife, ZING!).
Anyway, this song was taken from Avey Tare's split 12" with David Grubbs that came out on Fat Cat a little while ago [BUY]. Plus don't forget, it's only about 5 weeks until the "Prospect Hummer" EP (feat. Vashti Bunyan) comes out (exciting!).
p.s. If any of you want to read what happens when I try to write about something in a serious/good way, check out this train wreck of an entry I did for the ILMixor project.
Posted by matt at April 8, 2005 08:00 AM