March 20th... the most beautiful day ever....

Is there something about March 20th that makes musicians with animal names want to release a record? On top of the much-anticipated new release from the ubiquitous (and not very exciting as far as Discords and Harmonies are concerned) Modest Mouse, we have (HIGHLY exciting as far Discords and Harmonies are concerned) new releases from Andrew Bird and Panda Bear.

Of course, because these albums AREN'T out until March 20th, every single blog has already heard them and passed full judgment. Now I haven't heard either of these forthcoming releases in their entirety, and of the available tracks I have heard, I'm trying to moderate my listening so I'm not ruining the full LP experience come March. But far be it for me to be the only blog to have not commented on Panda Bear, and farther be it for me to allow an Andrew Bird tidbit like this go uncommented for this long. Shall we weigh in?


Panda Bear's Person Pitch promises to be a most pleasant affair. In 2004 the Animal Collective member (known outside the animal kingdom as Noah Lennox) released the chilling Young Prayer, a vocal but indecipherable ode to his deceased father. In an ideal world, we will only hear one such album from Mr. Lennox, because as beautiful as it was, it came from suffering and grief, and heck, even for the sake of a great album I hope he's feelin' better this time. And if this track floating around blogs is any indication, the man has leaned towards his Phil Spector and Brian Wilson side to make a pop harmony masterpiece that makes me shake my booty most voraciously. First listen made me think it sounded like a slightly restrained, less screamy outtake of "Feels," but it is far more jangly, and much more harmonious.


Panda Bear - Bros (Edit)



Andrew Birds pre-Apocryphal releases have been something of a mild controversy. Back in January, the album was officially (officially? Is that the right word?) leaked across the globe, and blogs and message boards started reviewing the album crazily, only to be quickly rebuffed by the man himself, who did not want his album sliced, diced and scattered across blogger sites willy-nilly. Several bloggers out there (I Guess I'm Floating for one) retracted their mp3s and released the following track approved by Mr. Bird. Fat Possum Records posted "Plasticities," much to my delight, but also switched the free mp3 sample of the album out for "Heretics," so with all due respect to the artist, we'll post that here. The song itself is also a romping jaunt (like the above Panda stomp!) much in the same vein as "Fake Palindromes" from Eggs. It opens with Indian-infused fiddling and Bird's bored yet somehow amused sing-songing.

Andrew Bird - Heretics

So I hope these two tracks encourage you to do what I'LL be doing on March 20th - I'll be running off to the nearest record story and stocking the hell up...