No Filler Music Podcast - Ep 19: Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

Episode Date: August 26, 2018

We explore the experimental and unconventional sounds of Animal Collective with a look at their 2004 album Sung Tongs. Avey Tare and Panda Bear's unique use of harmonies and repetition on this album are what make it such a compelling experimental record. This album ultimately proves to be the blueprint and stepping stone for the sounds and techniques heard on their 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavillion, their most well-received and commercially successful release to date. For more info, check out our show notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/album-review-animal-collective-sung-tongs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And you're listening to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms to fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Quentin. Got my brother Travis with me in spirit. But really, he's not really with me. Are you, Travis? Not physically. You're like several thousand miles south. That's right.

Just, you know, just in case people don't realize that we're. I'm up in Washington State and you're in Texas, you know. We've got a lot of newcomers probably every day. I hope that's true. Anyways, today we are diving into Animal Collectives 2004 release Sung Tongs. This is an album that I hold quite dear to my heart. This is just one of those albums, dude, for me. It's just, there's just something about it.

What do you know about animal collection? What do I know about Animal Collective? What do you know about Animal Collective? I would say that they're one of the most unique bands to come out ever, maybe, right? I mean, as far as, like, their sound, like, who else does what they do as effectively as they do it, right? Yeah. So here's what I know about them. Here's what I've listened to.

I've listened to Mary Weather Post Pavilion. I've listened to some of Pandaboardian. stuff and all Linux. And that's pretty much it. I've never really given, I mean, I've listened to your stuff here and there from song tongues, but I've never really given it a full listen through. So you're here,

you're here to school me and show me some stuff. Yeah, yeah, dude. Let's do our Watcher hurts first. I don't think we've ever done him last. Travis, let's start with you, dude. What you've been listening to this week? What you heard. Okay, so I'm going to do a little bit of a throwback here to episode three.

We talked about foo fighters. Dude, it was episode four. Episode three was Kings of Leon, bro. Oh, shit. So episode four, we talked about food fighters. My, what you heard for that week, was a band called Yawning Man. If you remember. I fucking loved that shit, man.

Well, guess what, man. They just came out with a new outlet. album. You're talking about the desert boys, right? Yeah, the desert boys. So this seems to be kind of a thing right now because I, stoner rock, desert rock, doom metal is, it's kind of really, really hot right now. And if you're a fan of harder rock, you know, I talked about sleep a couple weeks back for one of our sidetracks, another kind of like legendary band from like the doom metal scene. that came back and made another album this year. Yeah.

So here's Yawning Man with another, a brand new album. It just came out probably a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago. This song is called Catamaran. And I need to find out right now. Hold on a minute. If this actually, hold on me, let me hear this on my earbirds. Yeah, okay. So here we go.

This song is called Catamaran. I think this must be a re-recording of this song for this album because this is one of their songs from that era. I don't know if it was ever put on a CD because these guys had a ton of songs that they just would play in these live shows and may or may not make it onto an album. The reason I know that this song is one of their old songs

is because Kaias, which is another legendary son of rock band. I think I've talked about them before as well. They did a cover of this song on their album called And the Circus Leaves Town, which came out in 1995. So this song is decades old,

but it's been re-recorded. So again, this is Yawning Man. The name of the new album is called The Revolt Against Tired Noises. And again, this song is called Catamaran. So, Kea, what are your thoughts? My thoughts are good for them.

What the hell, dude? Would you like to expand on that? Dig? No, I enjoyed it. Just, you know what, dude? Just tell it like it is, man. I don't know, man. So, okay, let me just, I'm going to take a stab in the dark.

And say that you didn't like his voice. It was, I don't know. I don't remember, I don't remember yawning man sounding like that. Is it the same dude? It's been 30 years. That's fine. Okay. And that's, yeah, dude, that's why I'm saying good for them, man.

Well, so, okay, so one thing I will say is the one collection of songs from there is that I heard or that I've heard, there's no vocals whatsoever on the album. And that's rock formation. That's it, man. That's what's different about it. So who's singing now? I mean, that's the thing, though. One of the members?

No, they would sing in some of their songs. Okay. And a lot of their songs are instrumental. Same with this album. Yeah. But the reason that they re-recorded and put this song on the album after 30 years is because of all the popularity, it has gained as being a cover that Caius did, right?

Right. So anyway, most of this album, this brand new album, is instrumental. Okay, cool. All right. So let's listen to your what you heard, Q. All right. I'll try to keep this short and sweet because we've got a lot to cover for Animal Collective here. So I'm going with Black Moth Super Rainbow.

I know you're familiar with them, right? I am familiar with one of their songs. Okay. Well, I was just in that headspace listening to Animal Collective all week. There's something really cool about this band. The only way I can that I can describe them is like, I don't know, it's like this drippy, like ethereal, synth pop, kind of like, I don't know, you're in like a flowery meadow.

With like the sun beaming down on you. Yeah. I mean, it kind of reminds me of like, or at least literally the only song I know is Roller Disco. Okay, which is on the, which is on. Dandelion Gum. Yeah, Dandelion Gum, which was 2007. Yeah, and that song kind of has this. What a great album, dude.

Yeah. But the song itself has sort of this, yeah, makes me think of like some like trippy, like, Technicolor 70s. Yeah. Go Go Boots kind of thing, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So the song that I chose, actually just heard it for the first time yesterday,

is on their latest release, which came out this year back in May. The album's called Panic Blooms. And this track is number two. It's called Babies in the Void. So I like the music. I don't know if I like his vocals and that. track but I mean I like I would listen I would listen to just the instrumentals dude they

released a an instrumental version of this album I don't know I really like that that sound whatever that sound is I feel like boards of Canada kind of flirts with that kind of stuff so let me tell you dude and and I think I mean this is one of the reasons why I like what he does to his voice I always just picture like I just imagine if say like another 30 years from now, artificial intelligence progresses significantly. We have AI that is able to write music and sing. This is what they would be singing, bro.

And this is how they would sound. I don't think so. I'm just saying that's just, you know, this is my imagination, you know? Like this sounds like a robot like spilling his, spilling his heart out for us, you know, right in a tune. What? No, I hear what you're saying. You mean the effect that he puts on his voice?

It makes it sound almost. Yeah, it's just got that, it's got like machine kind of thing. I don't know. It's got like a sterile robot vibe to me. Okay. But it's like a robot that has stumbled upon human emotions. Okay. And has written a song.

I don't know, dude. I love it. I'm with you. I love it. So, okay, if you like what you heard, if you like Black Moth Super Roast. Rainbow. The lead frontman, he goes by Tobacco. His name's Thomas Feck.

Oh, he's done some side stuff, hasn't he? Yeah, his stage name is tobacco. He does solo stuff. Yeah, yeah. Now, that stuff is way out there. If you want to get a little, if you want to get weird, check out some tobacco.

Also, a couple more artists that come to mind right off the top of my head, if you liked that. Remember cinnamon chasers? Yes. Cinnamon Chasers and a little more poppy letting up despite great faults. Great faults. Oh man.

Remember them? Yeah, I haven't heard them in a long time. Yeah, dude. Same vein with that similar kind of effect on their voice. Yeah. So anyways, let's do, let's dive into it, man. I kind of want to get into the history of the band a little bit before we listen to some tracks. So Animal Collective is more or less four dudes.

It seems like more times than not, it's less than these four. But let's say, so the main two dudes, Noah Lennox, he goes by Panda Bear, David Portner, he goes by A.V. Ter. Those are the two main hitters. Those are the guys that are, your main songwriters are those two. then you've got Josh Dibb he goes by Deakin and Brian White's

who goes by Geologist and they add I don't know they add like beats and sampled loops and weird shit with guitars and pedals and stuff these guys have all known each other

since grade school pre-college pre-college years So aviator deacon and geologist met in a private school in Baltimore. And then Panda Bear was already a pretty good friend with Deakin. And he would kind of hang out with them during the weekends. He was going to another school at the time. But they were all friends.

And they all would kind of get together and jam, basically, in the early days. So these guys have known each other since. grade school, and they've been making music together, either together or separately since then. And, yeah, I don't want to really get too much into their history, because who cares, right? But I will say that A.V. Ter and Panda Bear were making music just the two of them since the very beginning. And actually, something that I've just found out recently. I didn't know this, but apparently this album Song Tongs is really only just Avi Tair and Pandora.

But they kind of caved into the record label just to keep with the branding and they released it as an animal collective record. But it's just those two guys. And I actually got to see them perform last month. They came up here in Seattle. They were touring just the two of them, and they played sung tongs in its entirety from track one to the end all the way through. And it was just fucking beautiful, dude. Anyways.

So our intro song was the only single for this record. It's called Who Could Win a Rabbit? And that's a song that you're familiar with, right? Drive, you've heard that one. I've heard that, yeah. What are your thoughts on it, dude? I mean, it's, I can see how they went on to make Maryweather, because you can definitely hear, like, the sort of how they were playing around with,

sort of, you know, I feel like they use their vocals a lot, like, for rhythmic, you know, as like as you know pieces of like percussion or whatever you know what I'm saying like what am I trying to say there their vocals a lot of times I feel like they use it like a drum machine or something yes dude yes um so like remember that remember that song that everybody would like row row row your belt and then you'd take you know everybody would have a part oh okay yeah yeah yeah i mean obviously they did that in brother sport right did they well they did it in one of those songs on Maryweather. But anyway, what I'm saying is like, you know, what makes them interesting is what they do, the two of them, when their vocals are. But wait, you said that this was only

A. B. Tere? And Panda Bear. Okay. Just those two. Okay. So, yeah, A. B. Tare says that he always likes to use the voice as another instrument. And that's something that, that you hear a lot in songtongs and that's something that I that's I think one of my favorite things about animal collective um it's hard to describe and I don't think it's as much so in uh Maryweather post pavilion and I would say in an album's uh since then but I would say that but from what I've heard so I haven't really kept up with them since Maryweather um but the thing about animal collective. Like, they're not, I mean, as much as they bowed down to the record label, you know,

to label this a animal collective record when they could have just called it A. B. Tarum Panda Bear. It doesn't seem like they care, man. They're going to do what they want. And some of their most recent works are the most bizarre that I've heard from them yet, where it's really hard to listen to. unlike Maryweather, post pavilion. That's interesting that you say that because personally I feel like when I go back and listen to

Maryweather, some of the songs are kind of hard to listen to for me where I'm like, that's animal collective. There's too much going on here. It's almost like my brain can't keep up with it, which could almost be considered a compliment. But sometimes it's like, I got to turn this off for a second, get my mind straight. Yeah, no, no. No, so Animal Collective has a way of, so they are so good at repetition. Yeah.

Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. No, yeah, it does. And for me, like, it's, and like you said, for you, it's like, I got to turn this off or I got to hit next or something like. Yeah. And that's because, like, you're waiting for something to change. But like, for me, the way that they do it is, like, I can't think of any other band that can pull that off to where. it keeps my interest.

Okay. So here's, I want to quote this guy who interviewed them back, I want to say it was, okay, in 2005, there's a website called Identity Theory. And they interviewed geologists and A.V. Terr back in, back in 2005. And there's something that the, that the journalist said that I thought was great. He says, if you don't enjoy flirting with madness, you will probably find this band somewhat rude. Otherwise, their music will make your day. So with that, let's play track one, which is our first pick for today.

It is called Leaf House. He's still my beating heart. Yeah, so I have heard that. I have heard that because I, you know, I've sat down and pushed play on, sung tongues before. And is this, let me, let me, let me just take a look because maybe I can figure out what's going on here. But, yeah, this is fun.

Here we go, dude. So Leafhouse is track one. Who could win a rabbit is track two. Yep. I've probably sat down, pushed play, got to who could win a rabbit and just left. Dude. It didn't go beyond that. That's possible.

Man. I'm just saying it's possible. Yeah, no. Yeah. Because Leaf House is awesome. Leaf House is great. I love that track. I love that track.

And then they lose me at who could run a rabbit. So yeah. So let's, okay. And our next pick is track three on the album, the softest voice. So if it's not familiar to you, then you definitely did stop listening after track two. Yeah, I bet. That's possible, dude. That's possible.

So one thing to know, if, you know, if you want to dive into some animal collective after this episode, you should know that if you go, if you go earlier than sung tongs, it's going to be even harder to listen to. This is kind of a break from their previous albums. They kind of dial back the noise scapes and kind of embrace more like song structure and actual lyrics. But if you listen to, so one album in particular that I've actually listened to and it gets thrown into the Animal Collective Catalog, even though it is just Aviteram Panda Bear,

is a record called Spirit, they're gone, spirit they've vanished. And there's probably two or three songs on that album that you can actually stomach listening to. And this is on purpose. This is what they do. But most of it is just, it's gut-wrenching and it is meant to make you feel uneasy. And that's just, I mean, that's just what these guys do. This is their passion is to just manipulate sounds. They are experimental, you know, big time.

That's what, I mean, that, that's why, so let's talk about how, how awesome the use of delay on his voice, like how perfectly executed it is, right? Because like, it almost sounds like something that, like, you would, you would do if you, if you got a recording device for the first time and you're just kind of messing around on garage band or something like that, you know? Yeah. It just, it works really well, you know, it doesn't come off as a gimmick. Here's, dude. Now, this is something that I, from what I've read with interviews, this isn't something that they like set out to do. But the thing about Animal Collective, the thing about their sound, I don't know, this might sound stupid. But I always, when I think of Animal Collective and their music, I think of like, I don't know, you're fucking, you got your machete.

You're chopping through the, the, the brush. in like the jungle. Stumble upon this indigenous tribe and they're just fucking, they got their drum circle and they're making music, that's Animal Collective to me. Okay, yeah, I can hear that. I mean, yeah, yeah, they definitely kind of...

It's very tribal, like, you know, it's very raw, just human sounds, you know? Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. Especially, okay, especially this album. I want to, let me just say, especially sung tongs. I want to make that clear because from one animal collective album to another, it's going to vary widely in sound and in feeling.

So let me just, I just want to quote one more thing here before we get to our next track that I kind of liked. So this is from that same interview I quoted the journalist earlier. He says, he asked them if they use, you know, field recordings. If they use a lot of stuff like that, the question he asks is, what is your general approach to creating the animal collective vocabulary of sounds? It's a good question. Geologist says, yeah, we do use, we use a lot of field recordings, electronics and feedback.

He says, and this, no, so this, I think, encompasses their sound beautifully. we like liquidy sounds but it's often something different than just a stream or a faucet that's it's weird to me that that that's a word that I would use to describe animal collective like drippy like liquidy sounds you'll hear it more and some of the some of the other songs that I've picked for today but it's just got this like organic yeah liquidy sound does that does that Yeah, I hear you.

It's like fluid, you know. Yeah. Yeah, he goes on to say, it's more like having fun and thinking about a sound and how it fits with the mood and color and feel of a song. We just use a bunch of effects and play around. He says, again, there's very little computer manipulation, which I think is important to note.

We like to turn knobs and fold. faders and such. Hang on. We like to turn knobs and faders and such. He says we've been doing it since high school, way before the laptop explosion, and we just stayed old school for the most part. So that's cool.

Let's jump into our next pick. So this one is track three on the album. It's called The Softest Voice. Yeah, that's nice. I mean, it's pretty, actually. Like, it's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, doesn't sound like an animal collective song to me. Yeah.

No, I know what you mean. Because if it's coming from someone who's most familiar with Meriwether Post Pavilion, now I don't know for sure if this is, if this is the case. But I feel like Maryweather probably had more geologist and deacon involved where it's more, it's more like beat driven. Yeah. And I only said that because that track didn't have, it didn't have any drums in it of any kind. but like thinking back to the songs on merriweather you know there's a there's more verse chorus

um there's more percussion just in general um and this song again it's so this entire album is just acoustic guitar it's it's just their acoustic guitars um one thing he says uh let's see he says every song or group of songs that we did had its own tuning and usually they were We're open tunings, right? Or open, right, right, open tuning? That's the thing. Sure. He says, with acoustic guitars especially, the strings resonate really well.

And when the tones are similar, you almost get more tones than are actually there. It makes it really warm. And that's a great way to describe this album, dude. It's just got this warm, like, enveloping, like, fuzzy vibe to it. Yeah. And like, you notice, like the little, like the, I don't know what the samples were, but like it almost sounded like maybe like

picking up a drumstick and dropping it from high up and it bounces and you you pick up that, you know, that wooden drumstick bouncing on the floor or something. You know what I mean? Yeah, I hear you. Um, it, for me, it just, I, I picture like, you're in a paddleboat in like a swampy, like, river,

or not river, but like, like, you're just paddling down the river. Okay. You know what, dude, let me tell you something. I always appreciate your imagery that comes up in a bit. Because if you remember from our Tyco episode, no, our Tosca episode, you remember? Yeah. Yes, dude, I remember. You decided that there was a song that made you think of a, like a regal woman in a bathtub just with a rubber.

In a sudsy tub. Yeah, in a soapy. bath bath water with a rubber duck. Yeah, dude. Just home into herself, man. I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think we've heard some more examples today of your vivid imagination when you're listening to music. It's a pretty. Yeah. So did you get that like liquidy, trippy vibe from that song? Do you know what I mean by that? Yeah. And I think it might have been that that sound effect that you were.

Uh-huh. to or that sample or whatever it was. Yeah, whatever it was. So real briefly here, I'll kind of go over kind of what I've read, what I found about their recording process. So I found a Q&A that they did for Reddit a while back. And they specifically asked them like, what exactly? Can you like go over the process, the recording process exactly?

like especially the percussion that's something that people were really interested about um and a v says uh you know basically it's just a lot of singing and and messing around with doing vocals in all all parts of a room he said that they they they recorded it in um avie's parents house in colorado uh it says basically it was like a two-bedroom house the living room was all cement uh and that's where they recorded and then the bedroom was where they set up the mixer. He says they rented a bunch of mics and took an eight track with him. And he says, so I guess I don't know who Rusty is, maybe one of their friends that helped record this one.

He said he would listen to every song as they played it live and he would walk around the room and decide how he would mic the guitars. like while they were playing like you know jamming out these songs and then he says noah and i both did the percussion during overdubs throughout the session as well and he says the first time we played back who could win a rabbit after we recorded the initial tracks we just cracked up and said holy shit we made that and he says in terms of magic sounds and things like that he says i'd like to keep that secret sorry so there's some things he's just never going to reveal, you know, how they, how they did it.

Okay. So, yeah, let's jump to my next pick, which is a few songs down in the album. This one is called Sweet Road. And this is, we're playing the whole song because it's like, it's just over a minute long. It's not that long. This is track six, and this one's a little more playful. Let's see what you think on it.

I'll see what you think about it. Again, this is Sweet Road. I'll tell you what that reminded me of, dude. That reminded me of Man Man. Really? Well, dude, you remember that song on Six Demon Bag? That's literally four seconds long called Fish Stick Gumbo. I don't remember the song off the top of my head.

But it's just stuff like that. Man Man would do some, do really. kind of, I mean, they're almost like throwaway tracks because you can tell it's just them kind of messing around. Yeah, okay, dude, I'm really glad that you said that. And let's just, this is going to be impromptu. If there's any way you can play this for me through our connection here. Yeah.

Let's play track eight off of this album. It is 53 seconds long and it is exactly that, dude. This song is called College. Let's play it. How I feel about this stuff. What do you mean? What I mean is like it's not a song, right? But at the same time, this is what Animal Collective has always, like obviously they, you know, they're just playing around with sound.

You know what I mean? Uh-huh. And that's what this is. It's like it doesn't have to be a song, you know? It's just experimental. That's what they are. So, yeah, basically it's like a throwaway song, dude. you know it makes me wonder was this you know an idea that that maybe could have turned into a song

and it just never did so no i always i looked into it dude i looked into it um this song was just um avi terr and panda bear just kind of harmonizing uh and then deacon or not deacon um avi ter just kind of started singing those words just off the top of his head and he's not deacon um abetair just off the top of his head and he thought it was funny because he thought that they sounded a little too much like the beach boys the way they were harmonizing while they were you know kind of just jamming and he's saying those words because he thought it was funny you know like back in the 50s it was all like it's you know like to quote the beach boys be true to your school just like he would to your girl or guy right nowadays it's it's not so much it's almost the opposite of that because of the

you know, like, oh, you want to go to college? Good luck with all the debt. Stuff like that, you know. Yeah. You know, and you don't have to go to college, basically. And, I mean, this worked out for them because, I mean, I guess, you know, most of them did actually go to college. But still, like, they're not using their degrees for their line of work because they're

musicians. But anyways, it wasn't supposed to be, it wasn't supposed to be any statement or anything. You know, it wasn't something. that they were trying to get, you know, a conversation started on about. It was just literally just a throwaway song. They just threw it on there just just because it was recorded. Then they had it, you know? Yeah, well, that's what I figure.

It's just kind of a, just kind of throw it on there, you know? It's 53 seconds. They don't need it in the album. No, right. That's what I'm saying. Like, it doesn't really contribute anything. Like, that would be, I would skip that track. For sure.

It's not a track, really. it's filler. But hey, dude, really pretty harmonizing, right? Yeah. And that did sound like the Beach Boys. Quite a bit, actually. Just the, what, the vocals or?

At the beginning, the hums. Okay. The Oz, the Ouz and Oz at the beginning there. Anyways, I don't know if I have, well, if you want it, we can just jump right into my last pick of this album, which is my favorite. So you're about to hear my favorite song on this album, dude. One of my favorite Animal Collective songs, period.

Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. So, okay, let's just, I'm going to quote one more thing here from Avey that I really liked, that I think really encompasses Animal Collective quite well. He says, it's fun to think of characters taking you through these environments that we are creating and speaking to you about what's going on. And they have the lyrics that hint at these sounds and maybe even mess with your mind a little. So that's what they're trying to do.

They're, you know, their recordings, they put these sounds in, and these lyrics in their songs that they are purposely trying to mess with you. That's Animal Collective, dude. And let's listen to track number 10. This is my favorite Animal Collective song, maybe of all time. I've got two clips to show for you, to play for you. This song is called Mouth Wooed Her. I started playing the game.

Can you please tell us what we just heard? Because I'm trying to process what I heard. Okay. Here's what Travis said while that song was playing. He said, after laughing, what is going on? Now, you said that. I guess what I'm, what I'm, let me, let me put some context on what is going on. What I mean is like, uh, what are they, like, what are they trying?

I know what they're trying to do. I know what they're trying to do. This is perfect. This is perfect, man. This is perfect. Okay. So you asked what's going on. Um, it's something that I had mentioned about animal collective that I appreciate and

really enjoy is how they it's their repetition and that's when you that's it's when you ask the question what is going on well no because i mean okay so repetition uh when you think of animal collective's repetition are you talking about in the first clip leaf house with the delay on his vocals is that repetition the way they go back and back what i'm thinking what what when i when I say repetition, what I mean is they're, what I mean is how they, well, they, I'm going to use the term, they drag on a very, you know, they repeat like an idea, an idea, like a phrase over and over to where you are thinking, okay, what's going on? Like is, I got to check my, I got to check my walkman. Is it skipping? You know? Like, but that's what I love because it like,

It's the anticipation for it to, for something to change, right? And that happens in, you know what, the song on Meriwether that comes to mind that I know you love, dude, brother sport, right? I can take it. There's a part in brother sport that goes on for so long that you're like, there's something wrong with my file. But what's, what's great about that song, though, is that when it's the payoff at the end of that really long repetition, you know, It goes into that, that, that, uh, it just kind of opens up to them kind of harmonizing. That's the payoff that you get for the repetition, you know, well, I don't think you were paying attention to, to the payoff for mouth wooer.

After that repetition at the end, dude, it kind of quiets down. And then they just come right back in like full force back into that first little phrase of the song. Okay. So I said this earlier. I feel like with this album. Like, it's like you're hearing the, like, the origin of them. Let's just say, like, it's no surprise that they went on to make Merryweather because this is the kind of stuff. It's like they were practicing and, like, honing their craft.

And then Maryweather. Well, that's the thing, dude. You got to remember, man. These guys have known each other since grade school, dude. They've been doing this stuff for a long time. This is what I'm talking about, man. I bet you they would do stuff like this when they, so are you telling me that they've been, making music together for a very long time.

Yes. Okay. So, yeah, that's what I'm saying, man. That's the kind of stuff that they would probably mess around on a recording device back in the day with some microphones, you know, and like, hey, let's put a delay on that. That sounds cool. You know, this is fun. Yeah.

Yeah, no, you're totally right. And I'm going to throw up. I'm glad that I didn't know that. So, like, what I like about hearing that fact is that that's what I hear when I listen to animal collective is two guys just having fun with with with with with with music together it sounds like uh you know if you know somebody for a long time you can goof around and goof off you know yeah and that's it makes sense that they've known each other for a long time and goof off and and and throw some 50 second track on a record because what the hell we were just goof around but we had fun right if you're

you know two people trying to take take take their music career seriously or whatever quote unquote you may never stop to goof around every once in a while i don't know does that make sense yeah no yeah absolutely dude uh yeah i i get it and and i love that about him i do have one more clip from mouth wooter and this is going to be like movement too you know like this is an entirely different feel this is how the song ends and too this is when you're really going to be like what the fuck is going on okay so here's clip two from mouth the wooed her. Dude, you have to,

you have to explain yourself right now. I can't explain. Okay, just tell, okay, tell me why this is, this in particular is your, you said this is your favorite animal collective song, period. From,

from, from the, first second to the end? Yes. Okay, but tell me, tell me what about it do you like? Okay. Because that's what I need to know.

What I like about this, Because I can't find anything about, okay, I can find bits and pieces of it that I like. I like the experience. I like what they're doing. You know, they're experimenting. Like I said, over and over again. It's, you know, I like the little ideas that they're throwing around. But then they do stuff like that clip you just played where it's like, is it supposed to, is it, I don't know, just let's, let's hear.

Let's hear your thoughts on it. All right, dude. Let me, let's, okay. So, thinking back to clip one, okay, the bulk of the song. What I appreciate and love so much about the song, it's the strumming patterns on the guitar and the way that they, it's just like he said, you know, they like to think of their voices as another instrument. I've always appreciated that with bands when they're able to do that. And I think they, the way that they sing in this song, I just love the whole. Dude

Fuck man I feel like we got to play clip one again Okay Even if it's just for us dude I'll cut it back Let's listen to clip one a little bit I'll tell you to cut it off in a second You know because they kind of repeat phrases

Let's just listen to To the first clip again All right Yeah I like I like that I like that opening I love okay I like that a lot This is it man

For me Mouth wooed her I feel like this song represents animal collective perfectly. For me, when I'm trying to describe animal collectives to someone, this song is them to me. And I love the whole,

like, you know what I'm talking about when they're like, the da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, right. I love that, too. It's great. It's really well done. That's the thing.

That's what they do better than anybody is those, for me, man. Those kind of moments. That's why you listen to Animal Collective for moments. like that. Exactly. Thank you.

There you go, dude. You just answered the question. Mike, you answered your question for me. So that, so you're saying that this song in particular has moments like that. Yes. That make you walk away and say that's your favorite song that they've done.

Okay. I'm not going to say it's my favorite song, dude. I'm not going to say that, but I'm going to say that it is, it is one that every time that I hear it, it makes me, you know, it just gives me those feelings that I want to feel when I listen to an animal

collective song. Yeah. And dude, and that goes all the way to the very end when for some fucking reason, A. B. Terry is just, he's just saying over and over that he needs,

not just water, he needs mouth water. Okay. Let me tell you what that. Okay. Let me tell you what my, I assume that he was messing around in, in the studio during a recording session.

He's probably really thirsty. He was thirsty and then they throw it on the, which is fine. That's great. Dude, and don't you picture like, okay, think back to like our childhood and, you know, like our friends that we had when we were children. Okay. Mitchell, of course, we're talking about you, bro, but we have other friends from our childhood that you can just picture us like goofing off, like having slumber parties.

Right, right. You know, one of us is thirsty and you say something goofy like that and then you laugh about it and you just keep saying it over and over. Right. I mean, who's to say if that's what prompted that, but like, that's those kind of things like you were saying, dude. Like I said, that's kind of. Yeah, exactly. It's charming.

That's the, uh, the, the chemistry that they have together. Uh, it's obvious that they've known each other for a long time. I need mouth. Water. Yeah, exactly. But so, okay, another thing, we talked about how much we appreciate when, on like a spoon track, when they throw in obvious, you know, they throw in. sounds from the studio just Brit talking with Jim

and stuff like that. We've talked about how we like it when bands do that. It's not obvious that that's what this is, but I mean, to me, that's what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And okay, dude, I'm just gonna say it, man. And dad, if you're listening,

sorry if this is news to you. But for me, it's hard to describe, but Animal Collective reminds me of the feeling, of the feelings that you have when you're taking certain drugs,

like mushrooms. I know, dude, I know this is something that's lost on you. What? I said, I have no frame of reference. Yeah, no, I know. I'm saying it's hard to describe, but like, and I've looked into it, they are 100% sober for the majority of the time they're recording,

because this is their fucking job. But, um, are you saying that? they're 100% sober all of the time? No, no way of sure. I don't know about when they're writing the songs, but when they're in the studio or when they're recording, they're for the most part sober. I don't know about marijuana because it's just a fucking flower, bro. But as far as like other drugs, like, you know, acid mushrooms, they're not doing that while they're recording or you're, I don't even know if they do those kind of drugs a lot at all. But that's

the thing about Animal Collective. Like the sound. that they make. One of these songs prompted you to ask out loud what the fuck is going on? And that's a question that people ask when they're on drugs. This song in particular,

Mouth Woother, it's the sounds from the guitar specifically in that second clip that just puts me back into that mind state and that headspace that I was in the few times that I've done mushrooms. That sounds like a horrifying place to be.

No, dude. It's not. But that's fine, dude. I mean, you know what? To each his own. That's right. It's that liquidy, drippy feeling. Okay.

You get that when you're taking those entheogenic drugs. Sure. You're probably right. Well, I mean, I am right. I've taken them. Anyways, that's our take on Animal Collective, huh? I guess we're done. That's right, man.

So I will say also, very hard for me to pick songs. I had a few other ones that I wanted to play. There is a, I don't know how to, how I would put it, but there's like a focal point to this record. And it's Trek 7. It's called Visiting Friends. It's 12 and a half minutes long. And actually, dude, you know what?

Let's just play just a smidget of visiting friends because this is a song that requires patience to listen to. But the soundscapes, the noiscapes, I guess, that they create with this song, is pretty unbelievable. And you want to talk about feeling like you're on drugs? let's play a little bit of visiting friends. So imagine that for 12 and a half minutes. Yeah, that's what it is.

I mean, like I said, I like what they're doing. Did you know, I don't, I don't dislike it. Yeah, I mean, dude, just imagine like, just try to like, okay, if you're, if you, if you want to try to give this album a go from start to finish, just do it. Even if it's hard to do, I think you should do it because by the end of this album, album, they will have put you in in a bizarre headspace, but it's, I mean, I feel like it's a space that people probably don't visit very often in their head. And the fact that, that they can take you to that headspace is pretty cool. And I think it's, it's worth diving into. And that, like, thinking back to the sounds that you heard in that song, right, even just in the, what, like,

minute or so that you play just then, like, I don't know, like, I always picture like a monster, like breathing like a breathing like monster does that make sense dude my head i never would have gone to that to that place like maybe like a like a monster that's asleep and you can hear him breathing and you're like tiptoeing across like yeah see spoken like a man who's done drugs before dude my mind does not go to those places i mean that's interesting that you say that like i always have imagery in my head associated with whatever songs playing but yeah that's i mean i can see i can see where you're going with that i'm talking i'm thinking like where the wild things are you know yeah yeah no i hear you dude it's like okay i can

hear it yeah dude but uh yeah i mean i never would have gone there but i hear what you're saying yeah um okay so that's that's it for today that is uh again one of my favorite animal collective albums. It's their fifth studio album. It's called Song Tongs. Came out in 2004. And I think our next, we've decided our next full-length album is, are we doing Amon Tobin next?

Yeah, I think so. Let's do that. I think, well, yeah, let's do that next. I thought you said you wanted to do Can next. Let's do Can after Aben Tobin. Okay, sounds good. Cool. I'll let you take the range.

on this next one dude um okay yeah cool so we'll do we'll get into some more electronic uh down tempo stuff with with amen tobin um for those gamers out there aim and tobin did uh the splinter cells soundtrack he did he did chaos theory chaos theory okay yeah um yeah i don't know what album we should do there's a couple that we're kind of tossing back and forth we'll figure it out um um For our outro this week, we're going to do this band that was prevalent in the 60s and throughout the 70s. It's a band called Silver Apple. So ever heard of them? I have heard of them, yeah.

Okay. I hadn't actually heard their music before, but I had heard the name as well. This is just a band that these guys listen to. They're kind of, they're in the avant-garde experience. mental, psychedelic rock categories. And I kind of just listened to some random songs. I didn't really pick any song or off of any album in particular. But I happened to pick a song off of their debut album.

It's self-titled. It came out in 68. And I guess I'll, yeah, let's just briefly say real quick. As always, you can find more information on our website, no-filler podcast.com. There we've got our show notes. And you can stream our episodes directly from the website if you want through our SoundCloud player.

And you can find us on pretty much anywhere that you find your podcasts. We should be there to stream. Check us out on iTunes and Stitcher as well. And as always, thanks for listening. Shoot us a message. Let us know how we can improve. let us know what you liked or what you hated. And so again, our outro is going to be a song from Silver Apples.

This is track one off of their debut album. It is called Oscillations. And we will talk to y'all next time. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis. Bye. Unlocking Pounds of sound

waves of waves of waves configurations that the pulse of sound and by my world is a song but we decide essence

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