Animal Collective Set Spring Tour

Touring behind wetting-the-critics'-pants-kinda new album...

By Blurt Staff

Animal Collective will be embarking on a month long tour this spring in support of Merriweather Post Pavilion.  The album, available now on Domino Records, is Animal Collective's ninth studio album and was recorded with Ben Allen in Oxford, Mississippi. Critics are eating the stuff up, tossing around superlatives like they were tennis balls.

Here's what BLURT had to say in the review we posted Monday:

Merriweather Post Pavilion may be the most hyped album by a band few people have ever heard of. Before it was even officially released, bloggers were proclaiming it the best album of 2009. In this case, you can believe the hype - well, most of it anyway.

Merriweather is a very strong album and another step forward for an already-terrific band. But it's not quite a masterpiece. What Animal Collective has done is combine the electronics, psychedelia and tribal rhythms of its previous records with the Beach-Boys-In-Space sound of band member Panda Bear's 2007 solo album Person Pitch. The result is an album that's both experimental and accessible, a rare feat. But like Person Pitch, there are times when Merriweather is too focused on a sound or mood, instead of on actual songs. For every "Summertime Clothes," which could be played on Top 40 radio in an alternate universe, there are other tracks that, while always interesting, tend to run together.

In other words, it's an album well worth owning. Just don't sell your copy of Pet Sounds for it.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE TOUR DATES

May 11, 09  Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

May 12, 09  Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory

May 13, 09  New York, NY - Terminal 5

May 14, 09  Boston, MA - House of Blues

May 15, 09  Montreal, PQ - Metropolis

May 16, 09  Toronto, ON - Sound Academy

May 18, 09  Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Hall

May 19, 09  Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom

May 20, 09  Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue

May 24, 09  Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom

May 25, 09  Portland, OR - Roseland Theater

May 26, 09  Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre

May 27, 09  Big Sur, CA - Henry Miller Memorial Library

May 29, 09  Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern

May 30, 09  Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues

May 31, 09  Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater

Jun 01, 09   Albuquerque, MN - Sunshine Theater

Jun 02, 09   Boulder, CO - Boulder Theatre

Jun 04, 09   Dallas, TX - House Of Blues

Jun 05, 09   Austin, TX - Stubbs

Jun 06, 09   Oxford, MS - The Library

Jun 08, 09   St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre

Jun 09, 09   Fort Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room

Jun 10, 09   Orlando, FL - Club Firestone