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December 19, 2005
forest love songs, from a birch to a maple
Animal Collective have covered Nirvana on two separate occasions: once during an in-store at Other Music in New York, and another time during the Breezeblock sessions (the same one that 'Sleeper Factory/Doggy' came from). Both times, the band drastically (of course) reworked the original song, to amazing effect. The guys in AC have remarked that Nirvana (like Pavement) was particularly important to them when they were growing up-
Animal Collective - On A Plain
Avey Tare and Panda Bear show this song a sort of gentle reverence, as if they were art historians brought in to clean a painting that had grown dingy and tinted, displayed for too long in public. They're not overly careful with it though, as the song is so much lighter in their hands, almost fragile and oddly celebratory in a way (listen to Avey's intermittent yelps). One of the best moments of this cover comes in the verse from 3:17 to about 4:00, when Panda and Avey punctuate the end of each line with an exclamatory avalanche of wild strumming. (This one's from the Other Music in-store)
Performed during their Breezeblock session, 'Polly' moves in a sort of halting, asthmatic way. Avey Tare sings the words as if they're being beaten out of him by the pulses of the guitar; everything about the song is delivered in a way that seems to imply some sort of extreme physical effort on the part of the band. Similar to one of the songs from "Campfire Songs" (specifically 'Moo Rah Rah Rain') texturally, this cover is a little harsher than 'On A Plain', but given the original, that seems like the way it shoulde be.
Posted by Kevin at December 19, 2005 12:17 AM
Comments
there are times when one has to start hanging up his own inner critic to hold for the sake of truth and subjectivity.
um, what i mean by that is, as much as i like the AC, both those covers were complete and utter shite.
"compelling in its own right"?
c'mon!!
Posted by: just passin through at December 19, 2005 02:05 AM
I don't think the songs are all that bad- I mean, I'll admit that I like 'On A Plain' much more than 'Polly', just for the fact that the former's very much like the stuff on "Sung Tongs". But AC are almost always reworking their own old material, so both tracks here are interesting in the way that they show the band giving that same treatment to outside songs that they clearly care about a lot.
Posted by: Kevin at December 19, 2005 11:10 AM