The last time that all four Animal Collective members performed live together was almost exactly four years ago, when they were touring behind Time Skiffs. In the time since then, they've been busy, together and separately. AnCo released the album Isn't It Now?, the soundtrack to Elegance Bratton's drama The Inspection, and reissues of Sung Tongs and Feels. They contributed to John Cale's MERCY. Geologist released his first-ever solo album, Can I Get A Pack Of Camel Lights?, and LPs with D.S. and Motherfuckers JMB & Co. An album he and Kyle Simon created with light from the moon is also out next month. Geologist and Deakin did the soundtrack to Sam Fleischner's documentary Jetty. Avey Tare teamed up with Geologist for an album as Croz Boyce, and enlisted Panda Bear for the single "Vampire Tongues." Panda Bear released Sinister Grift and, with Sonic Boom, the Reset Mariachi EP and the A ? Of When LP (he's also on the new Turnstile and Avalanches albums). Animal Collective just got their first-ever gold record, for the "My Girls" single, in January. And now, they will once again form like Voltron — this time, for backward-looking purposes.
AnCo's beloved 2005 album Feels turned 20 last year, and the band celebrated the occasion by with the release of a deluxe reissue and a live album MiniDisc. Next month, they'll perform that album in full at a pair of special shows in New York and Los Angeles. The NY show goes down Oct. 22 at the Knockdown Center in Queens, and the LA stop is Oct. 24 at the Fonda Theatre. Tickets will be available this Thursday, Sept. 10, through artist and local pre-sale at 10 a.m. local time, with general tickets going on sale Sept. 11.
A word from the Collective:
When we celebrated the Feels 20th Anniversary edition last year, people often asked “why aren’t you performing it live?” It was a good question, and honestly, one we hadn’t asked ourselves. We were so used to our schedules not lining up that we didn’t consider it. But yeah…why didn’t we? The celebration felt incomplete to you all, and to us too. “We can relearn this album,” we said. “We can find old loops, tunings, pedals, and a working minidisc player to grab old sounds. Then maybe if a small window of time opens up…”
Now it has, and we’re going to play the album in full (as well as some extras from the time) in NYC and LA this October. A 21st birthday party. Pre-sale starts tomorrow at 10am. Sign up for our mailing list through our website to get the passcode. Local presales start at 10am on Thursday, and general tickets go on sale 10am Friday.
We know only playing two shows in the two biggest cities in the states leaves a lot of you without an option to come out. We sincerely wish everyone who wants to see these shows could do so, and we’re sorry we can’t make that happen for you. As we said above, we only have a short window to get together right now. We’ll see how it goes and how the future shapes up down the road. For those who can come out, accept our deepest thanks, and we’ll see you down by the swimming pool.
