What's the deal with Panda Bear?

[willywoody]

I thought the comparison to Grizzly Bear was odd, because while Panda Bear has his freedom in looping and melody and schitzo structure, Grizzly Bear has a lot of more convential structuring. I thought the album was good, but I didn't really think it sounded entirely like a cohesive album, more like a bunch of ideas. Maybe that's my one problem, is that the loose structures of the songs don't make them sound like flowing parts of songs but entirely different songs nonetheless. Definitely interesting, though. I don't get how musicianship is a question, there's more to that title than simply being a good time keeper/guitar player/whatever, there's definitely a lot of care taken in all it's pieces and that's part of being a musician.

 

 

didn't really mean to compare the two except in that i haven't warmed to either and both have received a good deal of critical praise in the press. i keep wondering if i'm playing the grizzly bear lp at the wrong speed.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I can and do too - except it's like 6 -12 hours of Grateful Dead per day. Yes, I'm insane.

I consider this a potential source of sanity, not insanity.

[mountain bed]

I consider this a potential source of sanity, not insanity.

I miss you man.

[bigideas]

i think if the record was the exact same length wise, order wise, but just had more track stops it would be a lot better to me. some of the tracks go on and on and i don't want to listen to it every time. also, it's been awhile since i've listened to it, but i seem to remember one track starting out with about 4 mins of ambient industrial sounds and then turning into beautiful Pet Sounds-esque pop. if i could skip right to that i think that would be great.

[m_thomp]

I'm a big fan. There's not a lot to dislike about this it contains fantastic melodies and captivating rhythms. Crucially, though, there's a mastery of the sampler, sequencer and recording/mixing desk to create its washed out, transient qualities. He creates the same musical environments within a song that you'd expect from King Tubby or The Orb where the incidentals and the accidents become the key notes.

 

I also don't subscribe to this structureless concept? Surely music based around looped samples has to have a structure?

[Good Old Neon]

OK, so this Panda Bear is on many top 10 lists of the year and I thought I'd check it out. I have tried about 5 times now and every time I listen to I keep thinking that I need drugs to appreciate it. I'm not making assumptions about anyone who digs this, but I cannot listen to it. Am I wrong in assuming it must sound better with chemicals?? To me, it sounds like a acid-influenced Beech Boys experiement gone wrong.....

 

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday whilst giving PB yet another chance

[Littlebear]

Here's my deal: anyone send me a copy, and if I happen to like it, I'll keep it.

[DAngerer09]

I couldn't stand this record.

 

That's my 2 cents.

[bigideas]

Here's something I wondered - the list of all the artists in the album booklet - did he sample from all of those but manipulate it to the point where they couldn't sue him? Some of those tracks sonically sound so close to Brian Wilson circa Pet Sounds that it's uncanny.

 

If you took an isolated drum track from one album and added with tambourine on another, etc, you could make something that no one could really prove where the sample came from. That's what I'm getting at.

[giraffo]

I was just wondering, I honestly am not the biggest fan of the record, but why don't people like it? I'm only wondering because it seems like people here dig Animal Collective out the wazoo, but this seems so much more accessible, but that's just me, I guess. Alot of AC seems like noisy sample mashups or weird dissonant chord smash freakouts headed by 'Avey Tare' while this one seemed more focused and just easier overall.

[DAngerer09]

I'd like to listen to this album without his annoying voice on it.

[Synthesizer Patel]

Here's something I wondered - the list of all the artists in the album booklet - did he sample from all of those but manipulate it to the point where they couldn't sue him? Some of those tracks sonically sound so close to Brian Wilson circa Pet Sounds that it's uncanny.

 

If you took an isolated drum track from one album and added with tambourine on another, etc, you could make something that no one could really prove where the sample came from. That's what I'm getting at.

 

I think you are right about the list of artists being the people he sampled. My favourite one I found on the record is on Good Girl, which is a sample from Ducks On The Wall by The Kinks. On the orginial song it's a duck call sound, but he's slowed it down to make it sound more like a horrible screaming noise. He quotes them on the album sleeve, so it fits in with you theory - also, here are a couple of threads on the Collected Animals Forum which have a load of other examples of this: 1 and 2

 

I was just wondering, I honestly am not the biggest fan of the record, but why don't people like it? I'm only wondering because it seems like people here dig Animal Collective out the wazoo, but this seems so much more accessible, but that's just me, I guess. Alot of AC seems like noisy sample mashups or weird dissonant chord smash freakouts headed by 'Avey Tare' while this one seemed more focused and just easier overall.

 

I don't think many people on here like them at all, and I'm sure that everyone who does likes Person Pitch too.

[Good Old Neon]

I was just wondering, I honestly am not the biggest fan of the record, but why don't people like it? I'm only wondering because it seems like people here dig Animal Collective out the wazoo, but this seems so much more accessible, but that's just me, I guess. Alot of AC seems like noisy sample mashups or weird dissonant chord smash freakouts headed by 'Avey Tare' while this one seemed more focused and just easier overall.

 

 

At one time in a not too distant past, I was in love with the

[imsjry]

The whole album sounds like some half-forgotten childhood summer.

 

See, my childhood summers wouldn't sound like acid-baked Beach Boys interpretations. Maybe that's my issue with this Panda Bear I cannot stand The Beech Boys. My childhood summers would actually sound like a AM Radio Hits>Kiss>Tom Petty>Grease Soundtrack nightmare.

 

And is the disc really mostly samples? Maybe that's another reason I'm not "feeling" it.

[lamradio]

Well, now I'm gonna have to get Panda Bear.. I'm always intrigued by the weird stuff.. For example, Grizzly Bear amazes me everytime I listen - Weird, brilliant stuff... I'm a songwriter and I've never been able to write anything very weird without it sounding ridiculous and dumb.. So I have always wondered; for artist like Panda Bear, when they are about to write a song, do they think "ok, I'm going to try and make this as weird as possible" or does it just come out that way naturally?

[tongue-tied]

 

if i had and knew how to use photoshop, i'd replace George with the panda.

[bigideas]

i don't think Panda Bear is as weird as some of your are thinking that haven't heard it.

really the "weirdness" is that he's taken the Pet Sounds song format, but extended it.

really the songs could be easily edited in 2:30, 3 min songs.

there are some weird soundscapes here and there, but Bwilson did that with Smile too - just analog instead of digital.

 

i just got Strawberry Jam for Christmas - my first Animal Collective experience - and i could definitely see someone attributing the "weirdness" title to it. not sure i've ever heard someone jump octaves and scream like Avey Tare. Panda Bear mimicks double tracked Brian Wilson on Person Pitch - i'm guessing you get the pun:

Pet = Person

Sounds = Pitch

that's how i take it anyway.