Bouncing Along Every Crack

Animal Collective “Daily Routine” (Live in Las Vegas, May 30 2009)

The version of Animal Collective that recorded and toured in support of Merriweather Post Pavilion was a trio – Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist – performing almost entirely with electronic instruments. This isn’t unusual, but the band’s approach was. The core of the band’s music was rooted in folk and psychedelic rock, but they mutated it all by forcing it all to work within the limitations of their instruments and, more specifically, what could be done when approaching machines that were not necessarily designed to be played “live” with the improvisational spirit they would bring to guitars and drums.

The studio versions of the MPP material are very focused on conveying Avey and Panda’s songwriting, which by this point in their career had fully matured structurally and melodically. The live versions were far more chaotic, sometimes seeming as though they could collapse or deviate wildly off course at any moment. Ballet Slippers, the new live album collecting recordings from this period, isn’t always easy to listen to, as the more improvisational elements of the performances are more compelling in the moment and sometimes rather tedious outside of that context. But even still, the energy is there – often disorienting, vaguely mystical, sometimes mesmerizing, and totally dazzling when those gorgeous melodies settled into the foreground.

“Daily Routine” translated particularly well to the stage as the trio could click together well in the more traditionally structured chunks of the song, and the composition allowed a lot of space to drift off into ambiance and abstraction in the second half. This coda sequence is rather lovely in this performance and emphasizes a sensuous shoegaze quality that’s less pronounced in the studio recording. The song’s lyrics are written from the perspective of a young parent getting used to the seismic lifestyle shift of caring for a child and the anxiety around trying to do it right, but in this wordless sequence Panda’s voice conveys a mix of joy, love, and fear that’s beyond what could be communicated with words.

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