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) "

by Deepak Mantena

DOWNLOAD: Panda Bear - Bro's (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Rusty Santos - Moving Time (MP3)

Panda Bear @ 93 Feet East, London - Mar 8th, 2007 (CRED)

Panda Bear is playing some shows this week - two at NYC's Bowery Ballroom, and one in Baltimore, and one in Philly. Along with him at each of the shows will be a circus of friends of the band. Whether you scored a ticket to one of the sold out shows or not, here is a handy guide to the Panda Bear openers...

Rusty Santos (CRED)

Rusty Santos (June 18 @ Bowery) is a New York singer-songwriter whose most notable Animal Collective connection is helping them record their 2004 album Sung Tongs for Fat Cat Records. As well, he helped with production on several Panda Bear records, including the acclaimed Person Pitch.

Kria Brekken (CRED)

Kria Brekken (Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir - formerly of Múm) (June 18 @ Bowery) and Avey Tare of Animal Collective released this year's Pullhair Rubeye. She is also married to Avey. The duo previously played many live shows together.

continued below....

Continue reading "A guide to Panda Bear's openers"