ANOTHER ANIMAL: Uncool as Cool/Invincible Band

The parenthical portion ["(I'm not sure they're capable of that particular expression, to be honest.)"] of this excerpt from Mark "the Collective Animal Collective's Penis Inside Me" Richardson's recent Pitchfork review is dead-on, though he doesn't seem to perceive this negatively, as I do. If you have ever listened to any two Animal Collective albums - because you might think that the seriousness was just a one album thing - you'd know that these guys take themselves and/or their music very seriously. There isn't room for self-effacing parody in Animal Collective's music, and it's a shame and a drag. The greats all make fun of themselves and what they're doing, from Warren Zevon to Dylan to the Hold Steady to the Replacements, even the Beatles. A good artist knows that when you get right down to it writing and recording music is a little silly.

Further: has anyone seen the audience that Animal Collective makes music for? The way they act, dress, and what gets them off? Mark "play Sung Tongs at my funeral" Richardson says that AC isn't trying to be cool - and I don't think they are. But he fails to mention that Animal Collective's core audience will undoubtedly think that this uncool vibe is very, very cool. And I'm not gonna say that this music is uncool, I'll just say this: many people in this audience wear cosmetic glasses; glasses not needed; glasses whose only purpose is to look like you have bad vision, which is, uh, cool.

As to the Fall Be Kind EP itself: dank stuff. I like it. I like all of Animal Collective's music and this EP is not an exception. Two things, though:

1) Mark "Avey Cock" Richardson says he can't imagine them failing - as if that is a good thing! How utterly fucking boring. The only band that has never failed musically is - wait for it - The Beatles, and you could debate that issue and I just might agree with you. But a band that you can't imagine failing? That's horrible. That's part of the excitement, listening to a band you love, knowing they take chances, and wondering, Is this gonna suck? Are they gonna fuck up? And then, when it's good, it's that much sweeter.

and 2) If you're reading this Animal Collective, let's get a little less serious and start smirking a bit, eh? I've met YOU, Avey Tare, in the flesh, and I could see that stick poking out of your asshole. Let's get it out and start realizing that you're just making music and maybe it's time to embrace some levity and start laughing at yourselves for making ridiculous albeit good music - and the masks aren't enough because you've stopped doing it and that was part of some attempt to seperate musician/performer from the audience blah blah blah that's fucking stupid: why the fuck would you want to distance yourself from the audience, that's what I say.

Anyways, that's it. Another critical blog post about Animal Collective. But hey, any band that would cause me to write this much about them must be doing something right - I mean, they ain't doing anything wrong because, you know, they can't fail.