photos by Erez Avissar

Noah: "I was living in Brooklyn, right on the edge of Brooklyn Heights, right near Red Hook over there. I was walking to work actually and walking towards the subway and I didn't know anything about it. The first plane had crashed when I was walking and everybody was walking the other way from the subway towards somewhere else. It just felt weird and smelled weird and I guess a women saw me going towards the subway stop and she was like, 'The subway isn't running right now.' And and I was like "What happened?" She just pointed up in the sky and I could just see a really big pillar of smoke and you could see the building on fire."

With the NYC skyline aglow from the Sept 11th memorial, Panda Bear headlined the Beach stage at the serene Governor's Island with his AnCo cohort Avey Tare on the one's and two's, and opening sets from Teengirl Fantasy and Portugal's Gala Drop.

...The 100-layer-electro-pastoral-pop burrito thing [aka Panda' Bear's sound] has its charms: His new "Tomboy" shows up early, a few angry-sounding power chords giving it form and drive; his songs are better the more they sound like temper tantrums, particularly "Song for Ariel," wherein he bellows "I want what I want what I want what I want what I want" until you're ready to give it him already.

It all just starts to blur together garishly after a half-hour or so, though there's rarely not a sweet, simple tune buried under there, and he's much better at keeping it at least faintly audible: Even at his worst it only sounds like, say, two Passion Pit songs and a Bruce Hornsby song playing on top of each other. And his voice, as always, will rescue both him and you, huge and brassy, traces of both Thom Yorke and Rufus Wainwright, selling his more grandiose drama and doing major damage the softer and sweeter and simpler his backdrop gets: "Ponytail," the slight, painfully delicate closer to his rapturously praised Person Pitch, is the exception that makes the rule bearable. As for the rest, just do what you do when you're drunk: Find something in the room and stare at it until the room stops spinning. -[Village Voice]

The easiest thing to stare at Saturday night was the visuals on the screen, which when not covered by the smoke from the smoke machines, made for excellent eye candy though I couldn't help but look towards the skyline at times as well. The full Panda setlist, courtesy of NYC Taper who taped the show, is below. Teengirl's setlist is down there too along with a 20 minute Big Ass Lens video that you need to check out.

For more Animal Collective, don't miss Deakin tonight (9/13) at Glasslands, or Avey Tare and Danny Perez speaking on East 3rd Street. Avey deejays Glasslands in a couple of weeks.

The Panda Bear show was one of two Noah Lennox played over the weekend. He played Baltimore the next day (9/12). Panda Bear will also appear at Moogfest on October 20th, and that's it for now. Hopefully he'll spend that time working on Tomboy, which currently has no official release date (new single out in October).

More pictures, video, and setlists from the 9/11 show are below....

Continue reading "Panda Bear played Governors Island w/ Teengirl Fantasy & Gala Drop (pics, video, setlists & live recording) "

interview by Billy Jones, FYF photos by Chris Juarez

Panda Bear @ FYF Fest - Sept 4, 2010

"Noah Lennox (born July 17, 1978) in Baltimore, Maryland known as Panda Bear, is an experimental musician and a founding member of Animal Collective. He chose the name "Panda Bear" because he drew pictures of pandas as artwork on the recordings he made as a younger musician. Lennox grew up in the Roland Park section of Baltimore, Maryland, and had attended high school in Pennsylvania. As a child and teenager, he played sports, mainly soccer and basketball, and had studied piano until he was eight and then cello. He later sang tenor in his high school chamber choir. At the age of 17 he began to listen to electronic music styles like house & techno and artists such as Aphex Twin, all of which became a huge influence on his later work" [Wikipedia]

Panda Bear is currently making his way to NYC for a big headlining show happening on Governors Island Saturday night, September 11th (tickets are still on sale). On this past Saturday, September 4th, he played a set (that he wasn't too happy about) at FYF Fest in LA (pictures from that show are in this post).

On Monday he played the Fox Theatre in Oakland. Live Music Blog was there and said, "I left the concert speechless, completely in awe of what I just experienced. One of the best shows I've seen in a while." That's good news for those who were scared away by what they heard about the Pitchfork Festival.The Fox Theatre setlist is at the end of this post.

And it was right before that Oakland show (at the venue) that BrooklynVegan interviewer Billy Jones was able to get Noah, an ex-Brooklynite and father of two who currently lives in Portugal, on the phone for a few minutes. Their chat is transcribed in this post.

They talked about when Panda Bear's album is coming out (if you haven't heard, it's called "Tomoby"), whether Animal Collective is still a band, FYF Fest, 9/11, Governors Island opener Gala Drop, and much more. Read it below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear (about the album release date, status of Animal Collective & more) "

And now comes, "You Can Count On Me", the second in the series of 7" singles from Panda Bear previewing his forthcoming album Tomboy, the much-anticipated follow-up to Person Pitch.

A gentle duet between Panda Bear and himself, "You Can Count On Me" glimmers with third world melodic overtones, an ethereal uplifting number that is over before you become too familiar. "Alsatian Darn" on the other hand is a much different creature...a slightly foreboding track with an off-beat melancholy chord progression that occasionally lets the light break through with a jaunty two-step, if ever so briefly.

A limited edition of "You Can Count On Me" will be available in stores beginning October 19th. Only 500 copies are available for pre-order from the Domino Mart.

The news of Panda Bear's new single (that's the cover art above) coincides with a week's worth of live shows kicking off Saturday, 9/4, at FYF Fest in LA. Though originally they were saying Tomboy would be out in September and then October, there doesn't seem to be an actual release date scheduled at the moment. Just the single for now. .

Not counting Moogfest on 10/20, Panda Bear's last tour date is 9/12 in Baltimore which is one day after the 9/11 show at Governors Island in NYC. And since we last spoke, there have been a lot of updates related to that NYC show. Not only will there be opening sets by Teengirl Fantasy and Gala Drop, Panda's Animal Collective bandmate Avey Tare will be DJing between sets. Tickets are still on sale, AND we have a pair you can win. Details at the end of this post.

And speaking of 9/11 NYC shows by Domino-signed bands that I have a pair of tickets to giveaway for, Dirty Projectors and Owen Pallett play Terminal 5 on that Saturday. Details on winning those tickets (you can buy those too) below.

Dirty Projectors will release Bitte Orca Expanded Edition on September 28th via Domino...

This limited edition Bitte Orca expanded 2xCD set comes with premium packaging and a second disc that features never before released tunes from a very special and intimate live acoustic performance at New York's Other Music record store, rare vinyl only b-sides and a stunning cover of Bob Dylan's "As I Went Out One Morning". This is the definitive version of Bitte Orca.

Bitte Orca Expanded Edition will be released on CD and digitally. Pre-order Bitte Orca Expanded Edition.

Full tracklist with updated DP dates below.

Avey Tare, who recently DJ'd with Deakin, also has a DJ set scheduled for Glasslands on September 24th. Deakin plays Glasslands on September 13th.

Can't wait for 9/11? Teengirl Fantasy play a NYC show at Coco66 SATURDAY NIGHT (9/4) with Detroit In Effect:

CLUB DONUTS with resident DJ Pickpocket (Kat Matutina) and resident video/visual artist AC (Alison Childs) will be throwing their 2nd party in New York this summer.

DANCE PARTY WITH LIVE BANDS, DJS & FREE DONUTS ALL NIGHT ! ! !

Witness the first ever live New York performance of DETROIT IN EFFECT!!! With several releases on CLONE, after more than a decade, witness D.I.E. in full effect! Pure Detroit electro tracks in the tradition of Juan Atkins Model 500 project and AUX88 and the likes. Detroit in Effect pure Detroit Electro Techno that bring back the funk in techno and electro!

Get on the Detroit Party Train with these heavy bassed Cybotron inspired electro tracks!

TEENGIRL FANTASY make dream music. With a beat. They play a crazy, fun live show. Experience it for yourself!

All Teengirl Fantasy dates below.

Gala Drop are coming all the way from Panda Bear's current home, Lisbon, to open the Governors Island show though they will play at least one other show while they're here, and that takes September 10th in Chinatown at a No Ordinary Monkey party.

All dates and stuff below...

Continue reading "Panda Bear single & updated dates (w/ Governors opener info), Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca expanded, ticket contests, Teengirl Fantasy & more"