Panda Bear @ The Music Hall of Williamsburg (7.3.2010)

Panda Bear played this past Sunday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The show felt like a bit of a victory lap (in a good way!) for Panda's recent release, Tomboy. He played, for the first time, the tracks in the same order as they appeared on the album. On top of that, he also collaborated with Sonic Boom/Pete Kember of Spaceman 3 (the producer of the album) for the show. Pete added samples and sounds to give the songs the complete feel they had on the album. Danny Perez was also on stage, adding his perfectly fitting projections to the music. He also had two projectors shining light out onto the crowd, completing the surreal environment. The effect was to make you feel lost in the music, especially during the more droney sections between songs

Update

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to write a quick post to update everyone on our plans for Two Sails.  We plan on redoing some of our older recordings including Black Dice and Born Ruffians to make them sound as good as possible.  When Evan and I started this blog last year we only used Garageband and possessed little knowledge of the technical side of making a live recording sound good.  A year later, we have become proficient with Logic and what a difference that makes in the final sound of our recordings!

We also have a recording of Deakin (of Animal Collective) at the New Museum from December 2010. We posted the Garageband Eq'd version of the recording on the old Collected Animals board but will work on compiling an official post for that recording (redone with Logic) in the near future.

James Blake @ The Bowery Ballroom (5.11.2011)

Britain's James Blake released his self-titled debut album this year and it was well received in the U.S. upon its emergence.  Resulting from this high acclaim, Blake extended his live shows and made his live American debut in March of 2011 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.  Tickets sold out incredibly fast and unfortunately, Evan and I got shut out of the show.  Tickets for the event were selling for over $100 each on Ebay and StubHub which was completely out of our budget.  Luckily enough, he announced another set of U.S. dates for the spring/early summer, two of which were to occur in New York.  We attended his performance on May 11th at the Bowery Ballroom.

Gang Gang Dance @ The Music Hall of Williamsburg (5.4.2011)

Gang Gang Dance has always been a blast to see live.  We caught them at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in January of 2009 and then again opening for Grizzly Bear at Governor's Island in August 2010 (check out the recording!).  They released their new album Eye Contact this month which leaked a few weeks prior to its release date and was sold a week before its official release at this show.  The mood for the evening was set almost immediately upon arriving outside of the Music Hall of Williamsburg.  Paper lined the street with the phrase "It's Everything Time," a spoken line from the beginning of "Glass Jar," the opening track to Gang Gang Dance's new album Eye Contact.  The sheets of paper also formed a giant GGD on a wall across from the venue.  By the time we arrived at the venue, one of the papers in the second "G" was missing so I'm using a photo taken by Collected Animals member Carradio.

The Books @ Zankel Hall - Carnegie Hall - NYC (11.13.2010)

The Books released their latest album The Way Out in the summer of 2010, their first release since 2005's Lost and Safe.  I always found The Books to be a rather enticing band; their synthesis of traditional instruments with audio samples makes for a unique and atmospheric musical experience within every track. Cellist Paul de Jong and singer/guitarist Nick Zammuto, along with Gene Back, a multi-instrumentalist added for their live performances, collectively created an environment that was pleasing to the eyes and ears.

Panda Bear "Surfers Hymn" Demo (2008)

Here's another post that is a little out of the ordinary for Two Sails.  We have been given the opportunity to host a link for Panda Bear's demo version of his song "Surfers Hymn" from 2008 given to us by Collected Animals member dirtypants. After years of hearing about how he had an early recorded version of this song, he finally got permission from Noah Lennox himself (through the help of Sonic Boom) to share the early version.  This is what Noah had to say in the email to Sonic Boom:

'surfers hymn was one of the first two songs i did (for tomboy lp) . the other was a very different version of friendship bracelet which at the time was called i want to go with you. i had originally done the surfers hymn recording for a skateboarding video part featuring a friend of mine but the video producers rejected it so it just kind of sat around. i dont mind if people want to share around that version although i wonder where they got it haha.'' 

Additionally, dirtypants provided us with some background information on his involvement with the track:

"In 2008, I got a phone call from a friend who works for Alien Workshop asking if I wanted to hear some new Animal Collective tracks. He got the tracks because he was heavily involved with their 2009 video "Mind Field." I ended up listening to the finished studio versions of In the Flowers, My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Daily Routine and Brother Sport, which were still mostly referred to as Dancer, House, Bearhug, Daily Routine and Brothersport. He then opened a folder that had Surfer's Hymn and mentioned that Noah was going to put an album out the following year featuring that song. 

Almost 3 years later and here we are now! It was really hard to not share this with anyone, but I had to honor my promise so my friend wouldn't lose his job. Hope it was worth the wait!"

This version of "Surfers Hymn" resembles the more minimal version on the ATP 2009 recording.  Enjoy and thanks to everyone involved!

Download "Surfers Hymn" HERE

Panda Bear @ ATP (9.11.09)

This post will be a little bit different than the norm since we didn't actually record this concert. Me and Jen were there though, we just didn't have a recorder at the time. This recording comes courtesy of Collected Animals user Maxwell Hell, who ripped the concert off of an internet broadcast by WMFU radio. This concert is probably the best I've ever been to for a bunch of reasons: the setting (Kutcher's Resort in upstate NY) was beautiful and relaxing, it was our first time seeing Panda Bear solo, and the setlist (complete with 3 songs we had never heard before) was a near perfect mix of new and old, with I Think I Can, Surfer's Hymn, and Friendship Bracelet for the first time, along with what is probably the best version of Bros and a rare live version of Boneless.