Animal Collective - "Taste" (Live or Studio?)

When compared to the version on Animal Collective's latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion, it's this live rendition of "Taste" at the 2007 Midi Festival (in the beautiful French Riviera) that appeals to me more. I'm guessing this is because I heard this version six months before MPP came out and was really psyched about it once I'd read it was going to be on the album. I also really enjoy the stripped down vocals and the sparse beat/melody in this version. It's just solid live AC.

Basically I was left a little disappointed that they had changed the beat and slowed down the tempo on the album. Obviously the MPP version of "Taste" kills and supplies the album's signature sonic motifs, but there's this raw energy that's refreshingly unmatched when they play it live. In a live setting the band also adds these panned-out vocal samples of Panda Bear and Avey Tare shouting "Hey!" during their end mantra of "Am I really all of the things that are outside of me?", which gleefully provides more psychedelic depth. But that's just me. Below is the studio version... so you be the judge!

Taste - Animal Collective

Could Mystery Music Video Teasers Be New Christina Aguiliera?

"was there a point for deleting the videos and then reuploading them. you know the whole point of a viral campaign is to generate as much of an awareness as possible. those videos had hundreds of thousands of views. thousands of people would have favroited them and hundreds of blogs were featuring you. generating massive traffic. THOSE LINKS ARE ALL NOW BROKEN!! you think ppl are going to go and edit there posts. no!! you basically have had to start again. and judging by the views of the videos in 4 -5 days although that is alot of views, its not enough to create a massive hype. you shudda left it alone."

This comment on the mysterious Youtube account page of iamamiwhoami just sparked this post, cause this shit just got heavy! Either there were some copyright issues involved, or whoever is responsible for these vids just doesn't care about this commentator's thoughts. Two months ago, like a giddy schoolgirl, I posted the above video on Skyler's Facebook wall due to speculation among the Animal Collective fan community that it was a cryptic teaser to their new visual album, ODDSAC. This was denied by the band's management and I was then left a confused and lost puppy. (See the creepy trailer for ODDSAC here.)

Needless to say, the videos soon garnered over half a million within days, accompanied by thousands of comments by rabid theorists as to what in the fuck this video is all about. There have been proposals of the video belonging to Swedish electro duo The Knife (especially Fever Ray, 1/2 of the Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson), Goldfrapp, Bjork, Animal Collective, Aphex Twin, Daft Punk, Lady GaGa, MGMT… and Christina Aguilera. A month later, another video from the ominous Youtuber was posted. Observe. (Note: the dimensions of these videos don't translate too well to the blog world, you're better off watching them on Youtube.com.)



We know it's not The Knife/Fever Ray because they've been hard at work on that awesome opera inspired by Charles Darwin that they're getting ready to release. However, I still can't be too sure. Also, numerous of the other aforementioned acts have denied association with the vid. So let's talk about this Christina Aguilera business. We do know that she's been working hard on a new album with collaborations galore. Forward thinking female artists like Goldfrapp, Ladytron, Le Tigre, and Santigold are all on the bus. Goldfrapp is known for her fondness of owls. Remember the owl in the second vid? Also, Aguilera's new album is titled Bionic, which sounds nothing like what we'd come to expect from the girl who did "Candy Man". But still, we have one more reason to believe this is the real deal. The Persona Sauna blog came to the conclusion that the titles are in fact codes. The number sequence has intermittent decimal points. This is where the message is contained. When the numbers are matched with their corresponding letter of the alphabet (i.e., A=1 and Z=26), add up the numbers before each decimal point, and this is what you get:

Video #1 – Prelude 699130082.451322 – CH. AG.

Video #2 – 9.1.13.669321018 – I.A.M.CH.

Video #3 – 9.20.19.13.5.723378 – I.T.S.M.E.C.

Here's the third vid and enjoy your weekend!



Randy