San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Animal Collective’s ‘Sung Tongs’ back
Fans of the influential experimental pop outfit Animal Collective are a dedicated group. In some ways, one might say they’re even slightly obsessed.
Recently, a user of the online social platform Reddit discovered a few details about the band’s next album before Animal Collective had even announced it. It’s now public knowledge that the group’s latest project, “Tangerine Reef,” is an audiovisual album set to be released as both a film and a record on Aug. 17 (lead single “Hair Cutter” is currently available).
Worrying about the practicalities of their profession like album announcements has never appealed much to Animal Collective.
“That kind of information isn’t sacred to us,” says founding member David Portner, who also performs under the moniker Avey Tare. “It’s cool if fans want to talk about it, and it gets out there a little. It doesn’t undermine what we’re doing.”
Instead, the band prefers to dwell on its creative aspirations, which have led to 12 studio records, almost as many EPs, three visual albums, and a reputation as one of modern music’s most innovative entities. At present, Portner and fellow Animal Collective founding member Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear) aren’t thinking about the band’s latest album. While fans may hear a cut or two off “Tangerine Reef ” on the band’s current tour (the duo recently played new track “Sea of Light” at a show in Atlanta), the bulk of the material they’re playing is focused on 2004’s “Sung Tongs,” a seminal record for Animal Collective that saw the band pivot from the abstract noisescapes that populated its earlier work and instead begin to experiment with song structure and concrete lyrics.
But while Animal Collective is best known as a four-piece ensemble that includes Josh Dibb (a.k.a. Deakin) and Brian Weitz (a.k.a. Geologist), the version set to perform “Sung Tongs” in full at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Monday, July 30, will be pared down to just Portner and Lennox — the two members that created the record 14 years ago.
The quartet hails from Baltimore. Lennox met Dibb in the second grade, while Portner and Weitz bonded in high school. By the time all four became friends, they quickly discovered a shared passion for music — namely psychedelic rock and the timeless pop of the 1960s.
The band’s first record, “Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished,” was recorded in Portner’s bedroom in 1999. Three more albums followed, with “Here Comes the Indian” representing the first effort to feature all four members together. It was at this time, Portner says, that a change in direction appeared necessary.
“I think our situation following the ‘Here Comes the Indian’ tour was that we felt confused and a little bit down,” he recalls. “We were wondering if it was really going to be feasible for us to just exist as a band anymore. We were definitely all interested in playing music, but it just seemed like touring was a little too difficult.”
So they decided to keep it simple and “figure out what the barest minimum was that we could get by with that would still be experimental.”
The result: “Sung Tongs,” a
record built on acoustic guitars and vocal exercises.
While 2009’s “Merriweather Post Pavilion” continues to serve as the band’s biggest commercial and critical success to date, “Sung Tongs” reflects a landmark moment for the group as well. From the opening notes of “Leaf House,” it’s clear that the record is a quieter counterpart to its more brazen older siblings.
Initial reviews for “Sung Tongs” highlighted a sense of childhood wonderment that seems to anchor the album, like young eyes peering out into a world as yet unsullied by adult interference. Songs like “Winters Love” and “Who Could Win a Rabbit” are built around whimsical vocal harmonies and swirls of acoustic guitar. The record also incorporates everything from woodpecker chatter to ethereal chimes to invoke the feeling of a long summer day spent playing in a backyard forest.
”Melodically, I think we honed in on what we were going through in life at that time,” Portner says. ” That record defines where we were at in that moment. That’s such an abstract term, but it’s sort of the only way I can put it: It defines a certain era for me.”
Animal Collective is known for the intricate light shows and captivating visuals in its live performances, but Portner believes playing “Sung Tongs” in sequence provides an opportunity to step outside of that chaos and return to simpler times.
“I feel like we’ve kind of been hidden for the past couple of tours,” he says, “so it’s nice to be a little bit more out in the open and let people see us playing music.”
Zack Ruskin is a Bay Area freelance writer.