#wwvu

Sometimes, the accidental photos turn out to be the coolest.

Captured at the Balance and Composure show at 123 this past Friday.

Our annual Non-American Music Marathon kicks off today at noon and will go on for 36 hours straight! 

By U92 Asst. Music Director Nick Koban-Hogue

Animal Collective, a neo-psych band from Baltimore Maryland, is not an unfamiliar name in the music community. 10 studio albums dating back to their pre-formation experimental piece Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished have left a big impact on the scene. Their most recent effort, Painting With, looks to continue the legacy of almost unanimous critical acclaim, albeit in a slightly different way.

In the past, the group has used music to play with our souls and force us to partake in the feelings they are trying to convey through sound. Their early works are a bit more abrasive than the Animal Collective that reached early college radio and indie success. These albums brought just as much emotion as later pieces, but in a way that turned many listeners off of their sound.

After those original three works, their style began to consistently change and shift based on the underlying themes of the record. Painting With does precisely that, by employing similar instrumentation to a brand new mood in their discography, one of sheer happiness. Their sound always tends to mirror their personal lives, and over the course of their career the band members have gone through a lot of changes. Lead members Panda Bear and Avey Tare are now 37 and 34 respectively. They’ve moved past their old experimental selves, and many people, especially longtime fans, fail to recognize that.

This album is distinctly happy. The record opens with a consistent and fun, jumpy beat that can’t help but to draw a smile and a little dance from the listener. Other tracks head in stranger directions than the singles from the album, but their bright, shimmery sound resonates through the dense layers of samples. Tracks on this album force you to look back on your own life in bright, shimmering bliss and ask you why you didn’t always see the world that way. Animal Collective have asked themselves that question enough to fill up this beautiful 42 minute sonic journey.

Many critics have written this album off as being another flop, akin to their 2012 album Centipede Hz. Painting With doesn’t shy away from using abrasive samples and sounds; however, this record is meant to be enjoyed while in a similar state of self-induced bliss as the writers were experiencing. If listeners go into this album expecting the dark and haunting instrumentation of some of their more brooding records, they will be sorely disappointed. Animal Collective has never been the kind of band to dwell on their successes or care about whether or not the music they put out is successful at all. This album doesn’t care if you like it or if it’s your least favorite of their releases; it simply aims to make you happy.

Recently, I was lucky enough to experience one of their live performances in Columbus, Ohio. Hearing these songs performed by an unusually peppy Avey, Panda, and Geologist served to forward the message of this record even further. During their live performance, not only did they play many of the tracks from Painting With, but they also had reformed versions of many other songs from their back catalog. These included tracks from Feels, Spirit They’re Gone… and Merriweather Post Pavilion. Hearing these brighter, happier reimaginings of their earlier songs begged the question, what if they had been this happy for their entire career? What would their earlier albums sound like if they were put through this lens? Here’s praying for a Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Returned sometime in the not so distant future.

8.5/10

Jade Artherhults U92 DJ

A few weeks ago, an interesting article was put under my radar: How NPR Killed College Rock. After a brief history of college radio and a quick lesson on yuppies, the author goes on to argue that once NPR came to town, college stations were forced to tone down their wattages, which killed their audience. Stations that could once be heard over 100 miles away were now only able to reach listeners with the same zip code. After this, it was all downhill. Indie artists had nowhere to go. Punk was gentrified. A more marketable, less edgy genre had taken over. Indie (a very broad term that, in my opinion, cannot be defined) was now being marketed to the mainstream.

But did NPR really kill college rock? Maybe, at least for a little while. In the ’70s and ’80s, most music was consumed via radio. Take away that beloved college station playing obscure music, and undiscovered acts are dead. In recent years, however, NPR has redeemed itself. If anything, it’s helping college rock thrive. With shows such as Tiny Desk, All Songs Considered, and a local West Virginia Public Broadcasting favorite: Joni Deutsch’s weekly A Change of Tune, NPR listeners have access to much of what spins at the college stations.

If dedicated yuppies and punks still hate NPR, the internet has made it easier for college radio stations to reach people that are no longer in the same zip code. Nearly every college station has an online streaming service. Some stations are even strictly web-based due to a lack of budget. Unless you also boycott the smartphone, it’s extremely easy to be exposed to College Rock 24/7 (given your favorite station is on the air).

Whoa, haven’t updated the babes in a minute.

You guys missed out on PJ Harvey’s legs and the wonderful week of Bjork.