New tracks from animal bands
Picking a name can be a make-or-break deal for a band. Some names just don’t have the right ring to them, while others don’t convey the band’s personality clearly enough. Animal names have been a popular choice for bands from a variety of genreshere are three wildly different bands with recent releases.
- Deerhunter The band’s new album Halcyon Digest (their fourth full-length and their first exclusively on the 4AD label) shows the experimental group at new heights. The title refers to a fascination with memory and sees the post-punkers integrating nostalgic musical touches to eras past.
- The Moondoggies The Moondoggies do their best Neil Young impression on new album Tidelands. Opener “It’s a Shame, It’s a Pity” is short and sweet, and pretty much exactly what you’d expect. If you’re bored of spinning those old records over and over, you could do worseor you could just get Neil Young’s new album Le Noise.
- Swans Swans emerged as part of the New York No Wave scene in the early 1980s, developing a highly idiosyncratic brand of noise punk madness that often seemed to fade away into nothing before pounding back again. The band has done the same thing, returning with the similarly dividing My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. You’ll either get it or you won’t.