FeelsI was sitting on the beach today, just listening to the lapping waves of low tide and the idle chatter of fellow beach-goers, when I got the chorus of a song stuck in my head. I don’t know where it came and I couldn’t remember what is was… it was a nice song to have in my head, and I was tapping the rhythm part on the sand, but not knowing the artist and song was driving me nuts. When I returned home I tore though my iPod trying to figure it out. As soon as I scrolled past Animal Collective, it hit me. It’s the screaming chorus part of “Grass” off of their latest LP, Feels. I get the joy of being the 809,701st blogger to write about the joys of Animal Collective; maybe Technorati will give me a special prize. However, if I get to pass on the glory that is this song to just one set of virgin ears, then this post will be well-worth it.

I once heard Animal Collective described as freak-folk. I can understand why someone might call them that, especially on some of the more down-tempo songs. But, they can rock out, and that’s the stuff I like best, the indie-rock aspect. I would tell you that Animal Collective is like Band X or Group Y, but they really defy comparison… not in the way where they’re so great they have no equal, but in the way where they’re just so different it’s hard to pull out a band with a similar sound. Maybe if Herbie Hancock, Devendra Banhart, The Firey Furnaces, and Do Make Say Think had a child together, and a punk band taught it to scream (which is very different from a metal scream), then you would have something close to Animal Collective.

I found Animal Collective from the same place I find most of the indie-rock I love, a strong Pitchfork review. You can check out “Grass” by Animal Collective courtesy of this Hype Machine search.