Animal Collective Rabies, er, Fever!

As we await the long-playing followup to Merriweather Post Pavilion, let's dip back to the point where the Baltimore/Brooklyn band started to get our attention.

By Ron Hart

With the success of their universally creamed-upon 2009 release Merriweather Post Pavilion and its subsequent Grateful Dead-sampling EP Fall Be Kind, Animal Collective bid farewell to the ‘00s in a hailstorm of happy hype.  So what better time than now to revisit one of the great lost gems of the group's catalog.

Originally released in 2003 on their own Catsup Plate vanity imprint, Campfire Songs, newly reissued on Paw Tracks, serves as the turning point in the Animal Collective story where Panda Bear, Avey Tare and co. transcended the electronically enhanced squalls of noise that overpowered much of their early material like 2001's Danse Manatee in favor of a stoned soul picnic of mellow modality. Recorded on a porch in the band's native Maryland utilizing nothing more than some acoustic guitars and mini-disc players (remember those??) capturing the atmospherics of their surroundings like chirping birds, insects and trees blowing in the wind, the five tracks here meditative in nature and Holy Modal Rounders-esque in their chant-like, devotional tone as the group is captured aiming to become one with the environment that envelops them.

Campfire Songs is one of the great products of the early ‘00s "freak-folk" movement and a telltale precursor to the Collective's true masterpiece, 2004's Sung Tongs. It's great to see it back in print.

[Photo Credit: Benjamin Corrigan]