Well it looks like we have a thread turnaround here..
More on the topic of Animal Collective, which was absolutely one of the best sets I've had the pleasure of experiencing in DC all year. I'm with Snailhook on how unsual it is that this band has caught on with any of the posturing hipsters around here at all who certainly made their presence known at last night's gig. Sound exploration via guitar feedback, tribal drumming, and vocals ranging from incoherent murmurs to piercing howls -which, until last night I thought was territory explored by only the most elite of the williamsburg, bk crop. But, I was proven wrong since I even saw some people dancing.. at black cat on a Monday night?! Not to mention the fact they did an encore after already playing way longer than I think anyone anticipated.
The buzz on that band seems to stem from a number of things. One of course would be the deafening praise the online music zines gave them last year. It seemed to do wonders for The Arcade Fire and Bloc Party. Another is the very accesible and melodic nature of their latest lp, Sung Tongs, which I believe they only played one song from last night. They didnt even play the mtv2 single. tsk tsk.
I dug Ariel Pink too. Maybe it's because we don't get a lot of bands around here drawing from corners of music such as Throbbing Gristle, Suicide and the like, especially being played by kids. More psych/noise in dc please!