Animal Collective

Here's a list of headlines from the week: Sonar owner Dan McIntosh named in federal indictment . Baltimore man sues Live Nation over Jackson Browne tickets. The Don't Know Tavern lawsuit was settled . Animal Collective won't play 'Merriweather' at Merriweather. " Liam Flynn's Ale House to open Saturday. The Virgin Mobile FreeFest line-up will be announced Monday. Summer Spirit Festival was cancelled. Def Leppard was rescheduled. Adele, Gaga have highest-selling albums of the year.

They looked like tonsils, or maybe they were pincers: the tessellated structures that curved to points above the members of Animal Collective. At the mouth of the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion were two rows of cartoonish teeth and gums. So by the time the experimental band of Baltimore-area natives hit its stride at Tuesday night's show, a question had emerged: Was the imagery meant to suggest that Animal Collective was swallowing us or that we were consuming them? Was the band playing songs they thought we'd want to hear, or were we there to see them do whatever they pleased?

They looked like tonsils, or maybe they were pincers: the tessellated structures that curved to points above the members of Animal Collective. At the mouth of the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion were two rows of cartoonish teeth and gums. So by the time the experimental band of Baltimore-area natives hit its stride at Tuesday night's show, a question had emerged: Was the imagery meant to suggest that Animal Collective was swallowing us or that we were consuming them? Was the band playing songs they thought we'd want to hear, or were we there to see them do whatever they pleased?

The four lifelong friends of Animal Collective had spent years living apart. Scattered across the globe, from Los Angeles to Portugal, they'd collaborate through emails and phone calls, coming together only for tours. So when it came time to write "Centipede Hz," the highly anticipated follow-up to 2009's " Merriweather Post Pavilion " that was released on Sept. 4, the members returned to their childhood home of Baltimore for three months, ready to work on the next batch of off-kilter psychedelic rock songs.

This isn't as surprising as it is intriguing or exciting: Animal Collective, the experimental Brooklyn, N.Y.-via-Baltimore avant-pop group, will release its next album, "Centipede Hz" on Sept. 4 via Domino Records.  The album's press release was predictably thin, with only a not-so-informative video (watch it above), tracklist and release date given. Last week, the band unexpectedly released a digital 7" single of "Honeycomb/Gotham. " It will get a physical release on June 26. Stream it below after some extended white space.

The four lifelong friends of Animal Collective had spent years living apart. Scattered across the globe, from Los Angeles to Portugal, they'd collaborate through emails and phone calls, coming together only for tours. So when it came time to write "Centipede Hz," the highly anticipated follow-up to 2009's " Merriweather Post Pavilion " that was released on Sept. 4, the members returned to their childhood home of Baltimore for three months, ready to work on the next batch of off-kilter psychedelic rock songs.

The news that Animal Collective would perform at Merriweather Post Pavilion — which inspired, at least in name, their breakout album of the same name — was greeted in some corners of Baltimore with unmitigated glee. But on Saturday, don't expect to hear much of "Merriweather" at Merriweather. The show will be 12 songs — 70 percent of them new, said founding member Dave Portner. Still, he said, fans abroad, where the band has just come back from a tour, have responded well.

By naming their latest - and most critically acclaimed - album Merriweather Post Pavilion, one might assume Animal Collective holds the concert venue in high esteem. Or that the Baltimore natives carry some nostalgia for shows they once saw there. Or that someone in the band lost his virginity there. Something. Not so much. The band named their album Merriweather Post Pavilion simply because they like the way the words sound together. "They were the first group of words we came up with that we thought would be really cool to name the record," says the band's David Portner, who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. "It sounds kind of futuristic to us."

Fans of Animal Collective won't be surprised to hear that "ODDSAC," the movie the band made with director Danny Perez that's getting its local premiere Saturday night at the Senator Theatre, is about as far removed from a conventional concert film as possible. "I really don't like to use the word ‘film' too much; it kind of carries with it some expectations," band member Brian Weitz, who grew up in Lutherville, says from his Washington home. "It doesn't have any narrative, doesn't have any dialogue.

Animal Collective [Domino Records] *** 1/2 The processed sounds bleat, converge and tumble. Beats pulsate as majestic choruses build and build before giving way to layers of fuzzy synths that churn and then disperse. At times, one song sounds like three different tunes. But bizarre musical transformations have long been the hallmark of Animal Collective, the avant-garde Baltimore band now based in New York. The group pays tribute to its Maryland roots on its new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, named after the famed Columbia venue.

This isn't as surprising as it is intriguing or exciting: Animal Collective, the experimental Brooklyn, N.Y.-via-Baltimore avant-pop group, will release its next album, "Centipede Hz" on Sept. 4 via Domino Records.  The album's press release was predictably thin, with only a not-so-informative video (watch it above), tracklist and release date given. Last week, the band unexpectedly released a digital 7" single of "Honeycomb/Gotham. " It will get a physical release on June 26. Stream it below after some extended white space.

Saturday, April 21 is one of those days where there is almost too much going on. Only almost, because in reality, I don't think it's possible for too much to be going on. All day long is Record Store Day, when a bunch of new, special release records (y'know, that stuff made out of vinyl) will go on sale in limited quantities. And Celebrated Summer Records, 3620 Falls Road, will be participating, carrying new Record Store Day records by Flaming Lips, Mastodon, Deerhoof, RunDMC, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Arcade Fire, Feist, Animal Collective, Otis Redding, Afrika Bambaataa, Of Montreal, Aretha Franklin, Rainer Maria, Tegan & Sara, The Misfits, Poison Idea, Integrity and many, many more.

After years of gaining fans the old fashioned way - self-produced albums, incessant touring - the time came in the summer of 2009 for Dr. Dog to graduate from low-fi psychedelic folk group to a fully formed band, with the confidence to rise above knock-off Beatles comparisons. Around then, the Philadelphia sextet left tiny Park the Van Records for the much larger ANTI- label, and producer-extraordinaire Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck) signed on for the group's next record.

Has Ryan Adams finally made something as good as "Heartbreaker"? That's what the early reviews are saying about "Ashes & Fire," his new album.  He'll be playing material from the album on his Fall tour, which he announced Monday, the same day NPR started streaming the album. Adams will kick-off the tour in San Diego on October 11, the day the album's released, and will perform in Philadelphia December 2 and at Baltimore's the Lyric December 4. Tickets for the Baltimore show, at $53.80, go on sale Thursday.

Here's a list of headlines from the week: Sonar owner Dan McIntosh named in federal indictment . Baltimore man sues Live Nation over Jackson Browne tickets. The Don't Know Tavern lawsuit was settled . Animal Collective won't play 'Merriweather' at Merriweather. " Liam Flynn's Ale House to open Saturday. The Virgin Mobile FreeFest line-up will be announced Monday. Summer Spirit Festival was cancelled. Def Leppard was rescheduled. Adele, Gaga have highest-selling albums of the year.

The news that Animal Collective would perform at Merriweather Post Pavilion — which inspired, at least in name, their breakout album of the same name — was greeted in some corners of Baltimore with unmitigated glee. But on Saturday, don't expect to hear much of "Merriweather" at Merriweather. The show will be 12 songs — 70 percent of them new, said founding member Dave Portner. Still, he said, fans abroad, where the band has just come back from a tour, have responded well.

Joshua Dibb sits cross-legged in his mother's secluded home in Owings Mills, takes a moment, and marvels at how quickly his life has changed in the past month. For nearly two years, Dibb, a founding member of the indie rock band Animal Collective, has been something of a recluse. He took an indefinite break from the grind of touring and performing with the band in 2007 to focus on his personal life. He moved from New York, where the band is based, to Owings Mills, where Animal Collective once wrote and recorded.

There have been many variations of the Tea Party: The Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party Movement, the Tea Party Express, the Tea Party Nation, etc., etc.  But the latest variation could be the most influential, at least among those of us who are into irony or whatever.  Meet the Hipster Tea Party.  Their slogan? "We were into Animal Collective and Rand Paul in like, 2001. "   Watch below:    Hipster Tea Party with Ryan Hansen from Ryan Hansen

There have been many variations of the Tea Party: The Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party Movement, the Tea Party Express, the Tea Party Nation, etc., etc.  But the latest variation could be the most influential, at least among those of us who are into irony or whatever.  Meet the Hipster Tea Party.  Their slogan? "We were into Animal Collective and Rand Paul in like, 2001. "   Watch below:    Hipster Tea Party with Ryan Hansen from Ryan Hansen

For a TV series neither set nor filmed in Baltimore, the city sure plays a prominent role in the Peabody Award-winning HBO drama "In Treatment. " And the off-camera roots of the program about the work and life of a brooding, emotionally wounded psychoanalyst run even deeper into Charm City soil, according to executive producer Anya Epstein. Paul Weston, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based therapist played by Gabriel Byrne who is at the heart of the series, is constantly referring to Baltimore.