Panda Bear "Person Pitch" (Paw Tracks)
By Trey Perkins
Monday. May 07, 1:37 PM
One step ahead of Animal Collective, and twice as fresh.

In earnest, I should not be reviewing Panda Bear’s solo effort. That honor should go to my good friend and fellow Transformer, John Butler. But since I am, I’ll try to review it as close to how he would have. I actually got a call from him, reminiscing about the time we saw Animal Collective together: “Hey man, remember when I gave Panda Bear a copy of my album? It was sick!” Too bad I was drunk out of my gourd that night and P.O.’d at the fact that a smattering of 15 year-olds crowded the front of the stage to remember if said event ever occurred. I do remember, however, drunkenly French kissing him on my way out in an act of latent homosexuality (dude, it’s not gay unless the balls touch!). Anyway, the only difference between he and I is that I tend to stay away from adjectives like “sick” and “filth” when referring to music.

And now onto Person Pitch. Reviews of Animal Collective, and in turn Person Pitch, range from one extreme to the other. You either love them for their nuanced art school approach to psychedelia and noise rock, or you hate them for their… art school approach to pyschedelia and noise rock. Sometimes this love/hate occurs when listening to, say, Danse Manatee and then listening to the retard-Brian Wilson-tinged-campfire chant tour de force Sung Tongs (my personal fav). Look, it’s hard for me to review Panda Bear as a force separate from Animal Collective, but I will say this: tracks like “Bros,” “Comfy in Nautica,” and “Good Girl/Carrots” contain some sick hooks (okay, you win, John). Even further, it’s a pish posh of everything that’s influenced Panda Bear: “Bros” is an epic 12-minutes of strange harmonies with a tinge of mid ‘60s production values. Yet what makes this album stand out and worth listening to again and again is its strong adherence to catchy, attention grabbing hooks. These hooks rise above some of the noise so noted on other Animal Collective related releases. “Good Girl/Carrots” opens with a frantic tabla-laden percussive fury, and midway through – almost like a DJ panning out one channel to bring in another – a simple back beat heavy rhythm kicks in with a puerile melody above it. It’s the kind of melody that will make you smile. And overall, this album possesses an uncannily warm energy. Literally, you’ll feel like a kid holed up in your room, giggling over some thought you’ll never want to reveal to anyone.
www.paw-tracks.com

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Trey Perkins

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