Written by Ariana Assaf
Has anyone noticed how elusive Animal Collective can be? My morning of research about their history suggests this is largely by design; Brian Weitz has even been quoted discussing the paranoia associated with people Googling him. That was in 2004 — while he still needed his government job, but the press was taking note of the group’s rising success and LSD-inspired adventures — but this psychedelic foursome still seems to run on too many side projects and twisted story lines to count.
I get a kick out of finding similarities between my own life’s trajectory and that of my musical interest du jour (don’t we all?). As a relatively fresh LA to NY transplant, tomorrow night’s DEAKIN and Geologist DJ set at the Brooklyn Bowl seems like the perfect opportunity to lose myself in the exhilarating confusion of navigating a new city, backed by a soundtrack no one seems to quite know what to do with. The few descriptions of what is often billed as an Animal Collective DJ set are vague, to say the least, leaving me with a vision of a blank canvas experience ready to be painted the color of however I’m feeling that day.
Perhaps that’s the whole point. After all, large discographies (both as Animal Collective and as their own solo projects) that play with various sonic and emotional themes give the sense that these musicians are always ready and willing to go wherever the wind takes them.