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I am one man who writes (pretty poorly) about music because I love it. I study, play, produce, engineer, analyze, and obsess about music. Enjoy all the topics I can muster up to write about.
I’m no musician, but I can’t help but cringe while listening to the very very different live sound a.c. produces. I admit to having trouble with their recorded albums, but their live stuff—well it doesn’t hold a candle to the recordings. I recently saw Grizzly Bear live and was happily surprised at their show—the sound they delivered on stage was practically indistinguishable from their recordings, and in many cases even more enjoyable. I make this statement because many songs they produce are filled with “heavily produced” sounds (difficult I’m sure) to replicate on stage. And yet, I remember them making only one weird and off key note at the beginning a of one flute loop. Animal Collective, certainly not so.
If musicians can’t replicate their sound on stage, should they play live?
Thanks Kerri.
You raise a good point about musicians performing live.
The benefit of going into the studio is you can produce sounds and arrangements that are impossible to reproduce with a small, touring band. Some bands take this into account, and some throw it out the window.
A band like Radiohead somehow has mastered this. They keep the same 5 man line-up that is used to record their music in the studio, yet when you go see a live show, you are almost sitting at home listening to a heart pounding version of their albums.
Animal Collective just doesn’t seem to be able to reproduce what they put on record. So should they tour? Well, that’s how they make money. So I guess they should. But are they good and worth going to see? My vote is absolutely not.
In total agreement with you here. “MPP” was the first album that I “got” Animal Collective, in fact, I’m still obsessed with the album and it’s my favorite of the year. But when I saw this, I was pretty disappointed. it’s absolute shit.
“It’s absolute shit.” I think you summed it right up here Adam.
It’s sad really. I’ve looked for other performances of the same song and they have all come up pretty similar.
How can such a great song on record turn out so poorly live??
Great production maybe…