Animal Collective - Animal Crack Box

A1. Jimmy Raven
A2. Ahhh Good Country
A3. Iko Ovo

A1 and A2 recorded live to MiniDisc 18 September 2000 at the Cooler, NYC by Avey/Panda. A3 recorded live to MiniDisc fall 2000 at N. 4th Practice Space, Brooklyn by Avey/Panda.

B1. Pumpkin Gets a Snakebite
B2. Pumpkin's Hallucination
B3. Pumpkin's Funeral

B1 and B3 recorded live to MiniDisc February 2001 at N. 4th Practice Space, Brooklyn by Avey/Panda/Geologist. B2 recorded live to MiniDisc 25 February 2001 at Mercury Lounge, NYC by Avey/Panda/Geologist.

C1. Jungle Heat
C2. Hey Friend
C3. De Soto De Son

C1 and C2 recorded live to MiniDisc winter early 2001 at 67 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn by Avey/Panda. C3 recorded live to MiniDisc August 2000 at Mercury Lounge, NYC by Avey/Panda.

D1. Oh Sweet
D2. Young Prayer #2
D3. Do the Nurse

D1 partly recorded live to MiniDisc summer 2002 at N. 4th Practice Space, Brooklyn by Avey/Deakin and partly recorded live to MiniDisc 18 October 2002 at Warsaw, Brooklyn by Avey. D2 recorded live to MiniDisc fall 2002 at Bard College, NYC by Avey/Panda. D3 recorded live to MiniDisc 18 October 2002 at Warsaw, Brooklyn by Avey.

E1. Ice Cream Factory
E2. Hey Light
E3. Two Sails

E1 and E3 recorded live to MiniDisc March 2002 at Tonic, NYC by Avey/Panda/Geologist/Deakin. E2 recorded live to MiniDisc winter early 2002 at N. 4th Practice Space, Brooklyn by Avey/Panda/Geologist/Deakin.

F1. Don't Believe the Pilot
F2. Who Could Win a Rabbit
F3. Mouth Wooed Her
F4. Covered in Frogs
F5. We Tigers

F1 and F2 recorded live to MiniDisc July 2003 at New World Brewery, Tampa, FL by Avey/Panda. F3 recorded live to MiniDisc June 2003 at a house party in Brooklyn by Avey/Panda. F4 recorded live to MiniDisc sometime and somewhere in 2003 (recording details are lost) by Avey/Panda. F5 recorded live to MiniDisc October 2003 at Concorde 2, Brighton, UK by Avey/Panda.

After almost three years of planning Catsup Plate is proud to announce the release of Animal Crack Box, a three LP collection of Animal Collective recordings spanning the years 2000 through 2003. These songs were recorded live, at practice sessions and in other non-studio environs and most have never been released in any form whatsoever. And those that have been release sound so markedly different that long-time fans will not be disappointed.

Throughout their career, Animal Collective has existed at the crossroads of uncompromising experimentalism, classic song structure and ecstatic expressionism -- a crossroads that this set further underscores. The songs veer from the early percussion/feedback wailings to the Campfire Songs style acoustica to wall of sound forest children vocal chanting. The sonics are rough in places as these were originally recorded more for reference than for an actual release, but the power of the songs and the band's uncompromising intensity are apparent all the way through. Fans of the band's recent work may be surprised by the cacophony at times, but peel away the layers of sound and the essential compositional and performative brilliance is staring you in the face.

Each record jacket is silkscreened in four overprinted colors and housed in a super sturdy four overprinted color silkscreened outer slipcase held together by a two color silkscreened "obi" strip. This thing is a 12 x 12 brick. The recording selections were overseen by Animal Collective themselves, who poured over hundreds of hours of tapes to come up with this tracklisting. The Hieronymus-Bosch-meets-the-early-Looney-Tunes-work-of-Max-Fleischer illustrations were drawn by Jon Vermilyea and the whole package was art directed and designed by Rob Carmichael.

This is a single edition of 1000 copies, with no digital or CD version planned...www.catsupplate.com