Animal Collective at Town Hall
photo by P Squared

Animal Collective release new EP, changing title of 'Here Comes the Indian' & cover art of 'People'

In time for today’s (7/3) Bandcamp fundraiser, when the site waives its cut of profits, Animal Collective released a new EP, Bridge to Quiet, which you can stream below. “During April and May,” they write, “we took a look at some of our improvisations from 2019 and early 2020. We remixed them, collaged them, and built them into songs, finding our way to Bridge to Quiet. We hope you enjoy it! It was a fun and cathartic process, which has actually pushed us to start a new project in the same fashion.”

In addition, they’ve made “the large majority” of their discography available on Bandcamp, including “all of our LPs” and “some deep cuts which haven’t been available digitally until now.”

In a statement, Animal Collective write that, “while preparing our back catalogue for release, there are a few things we felt important to address and correct.” They first point to the cover art of their 2006 EP, People, which depicts a Black nanny with white children. “There is no way to excuse using a ‘mammy’ on our artwork,” they write, “and so we have decided to remove it. We understand now that using a racist stereotype at all causes more damage than an explanation can repair, and we apologize. Moving forward, we will be donating a portion of our royalties from this record to the Equal Justice Initiative.”

“The second is our Meeting of the Waters EP,” they continue. “Brian and Dave recorded samples of the Tatuyo tribe in Brazil playing music for the Viceland program ‘Earthworks,’ which were later incorporated into Meeting of the Waters. When we released MOTW on Record Store Day we arranged for portions of those sales to go to IDESAM. As we were guests in their world, we feel it is only right to continue to show our gratitude. Moving forward we will be donating a portion of our royalties from this record to Cultural Survival.”

They address their 2003 album Here Comes the Indian next. “With utmost respect to Indigenous people we feel that having the word Indian in our record title sends the wrong message by objectifying the American Indian people which is not what we were intending with the music,” they write. “Because we have drawn countless inspiration from Indigenous people in America and around the world, moving forward, we will be donating a portion of our royalties from this record to Seeding Sovereignty, and changing the title to its original working title, Ark.”

They’ll also be splitting a donation of $10,000, along with all of the proceeds from their 7/3 Bandcamp sales, between Cultural Survival, Equal Justice Initiative, Seeding Sovereignty, Southerners on New Ground, and The Okra Project. Read their full statement below.