banshee beat

“You have your fits, I have my fits, but feeling is good.”

Animal Collective is a difficult band to talk about.  Even in their heyday they were often unsettling, discordant, abrasive.  They were also amazing musicians, but it took some time to parse that out.  The path generally went what is this noise?  Is he screaming?  Then, ah, wait, there’s something happening here.  Then oh shit, it’s something rocking.

Banshee Beat, for me, is them at the height of their powers.  It’s not the best audio quality, that chick in the audience keeps screaming over the chorus, but still I always come back to this specific performance.  The time of day, the way it comes together, the color of the sky, I don’t know.  I don’t have a favorite song, but I do have songs that would be in the discussion.  This.  This makes me calm.