Strawberry Jam

Occupation

• Avey Tare
• Panda Bear
• Geologist
• Deakin

Strawberry Jam is the seventh studio album by American experimental band Animal Collective. It was released in September 2007 and was her first album on Domino Records. The title and track list have been betrayed by Geologist on May 16, 2007 at Collected Animals Internet forum. The reactions in the press were about Strawberry Jam mostly positive, as the new sound was seen as a great step forward for the band. The album was also placed on the Billboard Top 200 chart and reached the highest position # 72

Genesis

The album was recorded in the Wave Lab Studios in Tucson, Arizona. The band member Geologist explained in the online forum of the band, why they chose this studio to record:

" Dave [ Portner, aka Avey Tare] and I talked a few months ago about shooting locations, and one of us said, it might be nice to record the next album in a desert, and everyone said, yeah, man, that we have not yet made, and it looks like it might fit our songs and how we want to make it sound. That may not appear every sense except us, because when you think of the desert, you think of sharp guitars, Morricone soundtracks and Jim Morrison with the spirit of an Indian, but as we do not see that actually. We looked at a lot of studios of Southern California to New Mexico and decided to stay for one in Tucson. Also, I 've lived in the Tucson area about one and a half years of my life. "

Furthermore knew Scott Colburn, the sound engineer for Strawberry Jam and Feels, the owner of the Wave Lab Studios. According to the band member Panda Bear it was a conscious decision to record the album in a desert environment.

Content

In an interview before the release of the guitarist Deakin spoke with Billboard and described the album as " edgy " and it would bring a shiver. According to the interview, most of the songs of the album were played on the live shows of the band between 2005 and 2006, but it also " nonetheless a couple of new songs were that we never played live" would.

Two songs on the album were played extensively on the tours 2005/2006, " Safe " and " Street Flash", which does not, however, appeared on the album. Avey Tare wrote to fans that the band had indeed taken the songs in the studio, however, would have decided not to take it on the album - ". Partly also because of their length [n ] " " Safe " eventually became The B- side of the first single from the album, " Peacebone " while " Street Flash" and other remnants of the recording sessions in 2008 on the EP " Water Curses " was released.

About the content of the song " Peacebone " Panda Bear said in an interview with the BBC:

"I just blende visual images from different places into one another. [ ... ] But it always comes back to the chorus, which is about to have an obsession with the past, what I've seen culturally not look at me. Music should be more than just something to which you can stomp - it should be more interactive. For us it's not always about writing a good song - we want to play with your ears, based on color and space with sound. "

Title list

Title and Cover

The name Strawberry Jam comes from the singer and drummer Panda Bear as he and the band were in a plane and flew to Greece to a gig. When he received his food package, he opened the package with the strawberry jam, which was allotted for the bread. When he removed the protective cover from the package, " marveled " it the appearance of shimmering jam and he said he wished the production of their new album would sound just like looked the jam, " so to speak: something really synthetic, sharp and futuristic looks like ", but also" spicy and sweet, almost aggressive with respect to the taste " sounds.

Avey Tare created and photographed the album covers - mashed strawberries and strawberry jam viscous. More layout and design is by Rob Carmichael, had with what Animal Collective collaborated before in other projects.

Internetleak

The Internetleak the album took place on June 12, 2007. However, it was remarkable because each always three songs were launched within a few weeks. Geologist wrote in Collected - Animals- forum that the first promo copies of the album would contain a digital watermark and every name of the journalist is embedded in each extracted file. On 19 June 2007 a ​​letter from the Press Officer of the tape was sent to music journalists. He did address the Leaken the first three songs:

"Last week leakten three songs from the new Animal Collective album. Within minutes, we were able to take the leak to a CD of a journalist. This person has got more trouble than you can imagine, and was almost fired. The person was also forced to write an apology to many people as well as the CEO of Domino Records. "

Panda Bear spoke with "Shout Mouth" about the thoughts of the band with respect to the leaks:

" The only thing we are really upset with the leak, is that there are just parts of the album. I think there are now six songs out there. The listener can not even see the whole album, which all pretty annoying us. So, leaker, if you listening now [speaking directly into the microphone ], invite the other three songs up, man! Pronto! "

The remaining three pieces - " Fireworks ", " Cuckoo Cuckoo " and " Derek " - appeared on July 4, 2007.

Reception

The reactions in the press were about Strawberry Jam mostly positive, as the new sound was seen as a great step forward for the band. The album was also placed on the Billboard Top 200 chart and reached the highest position # 72

Daniel Gerhardt writes in Plattentests.de about the album, which he valued at 7/10 points:

" A really sensible merging of his many items like " Strawberry jam " so not always succeed. The greatest achievement of this music is but anyway the consistency with which they disenchant yourself, paying half the world holds up a mirror. At the end of the day it is in fact very simple: if you want to ask Animal Collective, whether they are really stupid, should look at times, what's going on in front of or behind your own front door. "