In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Avey Tare, the "John Lennon of Animal Collective" had numerous insightful insights about the status of his solo record, and the state of his popular band The Animal Collective. It seems like this interview was 'hella controversial', since he opened up on topics like

a) the Panda Bear vs. Avey Tare war
b) The Future of AnCo
c) The controversy / mystery behind Deakin's departure from the band
d) his thoughts on chillwave

First, he went ahead and said, 'no, we don't want anything to do with that chillwave shit.' Cant believe the interviewer 'had the balls' to ask him about chillwave. Not sure if this is a 'brilliant' question, or an entry lev question:

Pitchfork: There seem to be a lot of "bedroom" artists that have taken Merriweather as a sort of jumping-off point for their own ideas. Have you investigated that scene at all? I guess the rough term for it would be "chillwave," but the music obviously is a little more broader and less easy to corral than that. Do you have any thoughts about that scene? Anybody in particular you listen to?

AT: I don't really know a lot of it. I don't know what goes under the "chillwave" moniker. Sometimes I hear that it's stuff Ariel Pink influenced. When I hear stuff that's supposed to be "chillwave," it sounds really like 80s or new balearic, Italian prog, Goblin soundtrack kind of stuff. I try and listen to a lot of stuff that's out there right now. I feel like I heard a lot of sweet tracks this year. In terms of what feels to me like "bedroom," homegrown stuff, Teengirl Fantasy to me right now stands out as something I'm really super psyched on. I'd gotten their EP last year online and just jammed it a lot. Totally feeling that.

Did u write an EP in ur bedroom after hearing Merriweather Post Pavillion? Do u think Avey Tare 'respects' chillwave artists, or does he think they are 'full of shit'? Do u wanna vibe out to the Goblin soundtrack, riding the Golbin wave?

Anyways, then the interviewer asks him about the new Panda Bear record, TOMBOY, and Avey is all like, "I don't talk to that mother fucker--how the fuck should I know what he does? U think I wipe his ass for him?"

Pitchfork: Do you think Panda Bear's Person Pitch follow-up, Tomboy, is going to come out this year?

AT: I can't say. I have no idea. I think the reason I held back so long on saying anything about my record coming out is just, I know sometimes when you're like, "Okay." You just jump the gun. You're like, "All right, I'm gonna have this record ready and this is when it should come out." I always want to be really, really sure. I've always wanted to be that way with Animal Collective stuff. It's been like, "Let's not say this record's gonna come out until I'm out of the studio." You know what I mean? In the case of Noah's record, as far as I know, he's not even done recording.

Also he said Geologist had a baby, so An Co will probably tour less since they are 'homebodies.'

Pitchfork: Animal Collective's rise has been pretty meteoric in the past three years. Is that part of the reason why you guys are taking a little time off from touring right now? Was it all too much at one point?

AT: It wasn't really a strain. We all talk a lot about how we miss touring right now. We love playing live, but primarily we enjoy hanging out with each other, we enjoy hanging out with our crew, the people who go on tour with us. We're old friends, like a tight knit community. For our personality types, and the fact that we're essentially homebodies, we just felt like we were getting pulled away too much from being grounded and being able to move forward and think about new stuff. Brian just had a kid, actually, last week. Noah just had a baby recently. We knew that was coming. The most touring we've ever done for a record was for Merriweather. I don't think we'll ever be a band that will just tour and tour and tour. We'll probably tour less now, honestly.

Congrats Geo Bro! U gotta press release that shit, releasing pix of ur baby so the blogosphere can be happy 4 u. Sad u hid that shit from us. Will pay 'top dollar' for pix of Geologist Jr & Panda Bear Jr & Panda Bear III.

Really hope AnCo live show tickets are like $60 each now so that the low-end fans will be 'priced out.' Glad I am growing older and have more discretionary buzzband income.

Anyways, then the interviewer 'has the balls' to ask him to tell what happened to Deakin, and why he quit/was thrown out of the group for a while.

Pitchfork: Deakin [Josh Dibb] helped you produce Down There, and I saw you guys DJ at [Queens art museum] PS1 earlier this summer. It seems like he's coming back into the fold with Animal Collective.

AT: He's been doing a lot with us the past few years, especially working on Oddsac, honing his recording skills a lot. It's always a "time and place" thing for us. We don't really have a lot of concrete plans right now for what we're doing next. We know we wanna start working on new material early next year. Josh has definitely been out of touring for a while, but we're taking a break from touring right now and really don't have any plans as to when we're gonna tour next, so it's hard to say if he will or won't be on it. It's up to him too. [laughs]

Pitchfork: It's been a little vague, but can you explain why Josh took off time from the band, or is that a personal thing?

AT: It's not that it's hard to talk about. I don't think it's really my place. I think it would be more his decision. It was his decision and it was a group decision. It was just, recording post-Feels into Strawberry Jam-- it was a very transitional time for all of us, with Noah [Lennox, Panda Bear] having a kid and us working on having to travel around to start writing a lot in Lisbon and the U.S. I think it was just harder for Josh to really keep his feet on the ground. He just wanted to step away for a while. That's the best way I could put it.

Seems like Avey was, 'Listen bro. Stay out of our fucking business. We're humans 2. Stop treating me like I'm some sort of Win BUtler indie idol. I'm just an Avey Tare.'

Ultimately, it seems like Avey Tare gave this 'tell all' interview in order 2 get 'more buzz' for his album. It seems clear that it is his goal to outsell Panda Bear + win over the critics by giving them more info. By giving more bloggable bits in interviews, critics will see him as a valuable long term resource who they don't wanna 'isolate/piss off.'

Does Avey Tare h8 Panda Bear?
Does Avey Tare h8 bullshit chillwave artists?
Will we ever know the truth about Deakin? Maybe when he has to promote his own album?
Will Geologist Jr. pix ever 'surface'?
Is Animal Collective 'more authentic' than any chillwave artist?
Does AnCo have to 'trash' chillwave to make sure their brand is preserved?
Will chillwave evolve into 'the new AnCo', or will both brands 'go down the shitter'?

Animal Collective

Buzzband

Animal Collective is the definitive band of the Era of Internet Indie Music Discovery.

Lists: received above a 9 from Pitchfork, Members of Animal Collective, critical darlings, cool dads, alternative tenure

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Avey Tare

Buzzband, Alternative Celebrity

Avey Tare is the lead singer of Animal Collective who wants to prove he is more important than Panda Bear by writing better songs than him.

Lists: Members of Animal Collective, indie hunks, college educated, 2k10 buzzbands

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