Animal Collective Sample The Grateful Dead on “Why Would I Want Sky”

by Justin Ward on Jul 20, 09

in News

Animal Collective @ Fox Theater, Oakland 5/26/09

I’m home chilling and about to watch some evening news after running some errands — yes, I’m that cool — and I’ve got the new Atlas Sound/Panda Bear collaboration called “Walkabout” cranked about as loud as my upstairs neighbor would ever allow. I dig it.

And speaking of Panda Bear, I figured it was a good time to post an Animal Collective track I was actually sitting on for a while. I think I meant to get it posted when I posted the photos from their show at the Fox Theater in Oakland but I never got around to writing too much about that show. I’m not sure why, though. I probably could have easily gushed out 1,000 words about how much that band is changing the face of music as we know it, how nobody can compare right now, how they manage to get as many good reviews as they get bad reviews, etc. etc. I’ve been totally studying this band and their sound for a few years now, and this track still totally blew me away the first time I heard it.

Animal Collective – “Why Would I Want Sky” (BBC Session) [mp3]

The song was featured pretty prominently on their last tour through the states; I’m pretty sure it made the setlist every night, including the NPR Webcast they did. And it was pretty exciting to see that the band is actually playing into all the media coverage calling them the next “Grateful Dead” by deciding to license the use of a song by the Grateful Dead, “Unbroken Chain.” I’m not sure I really even heard it when I first heard the track, nor do I really find the sample right now. Maybe I’m just paying too attentively to the front and center sounds.

At any rate, what do you guys think of this track?

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  • coskibum

    Good — Yes

    The Next Dead — No

  • coskibum

    Good — Yes

    The Next Dead — No

  • Hef

    Yes!! Awesome song but in what ways do you think they are like the dead? Im just curious….enlighten me

  • Hef

    Yes!! Awesome song but in what ways do you think they are like the dead? Im just curious….enlighten me

  • http://phishandthedead.blogspot.com/ sam martin

    very good use of unbroken chain. never been an animal collective fan, but after listening to song, i decided to buy a couple albums and am blown away by how much they grown disc to disc, there is a true progression that this band brings with it. and having phil lesh in the back ground being sampled, i think might’ve had something to do with them winning my heart….
    sam

  • http://phishandthedead.blogspot.com/ sam martin

    very good use of unbroken chain. never been an animal collective fan, but after listening to song, i decided to buy a couple albums and am blown away by how much they grown disc to disc, there is a true progression that this band brings with it. and having phil lesh in the back ground being sampled, i think might’ve had something to do with them winning my heart….
    sam

  • Dan

    I would call them the next velvet underground or floyd, i think they’re too experimental to be the next dead. they don’t jam as much, although this track they do have a pretty groovy jam at the beginning. but lets be honest, animal collective is the first of their kind. they’re not some recycled sound, they’re new.

  • Dan

    I would call them the next velvet underground or floyd, i think they’re too experimental to be the next dead. they don’t jam as much, although this track they do have a pretty groovy jam at the beginning. but lets be honest, animal collective is the first of their kind. they’re not some recycled sound, they’re new.

  • Peta

    This band has the most tasteful and fresh jams of any band right now. What the Grateful Dead did in there day was also, tasteful and fresh. Animal Collective uses a very similar sensibility and flow in progressing the improvisation of a song. The lyrical content and guitar virtuosity are like polar opposites, but as far as pushing something totally new as far as possible goes Animal Collective is a younger brother (or sister) of the Grateful Dead.

  • Peta

    This band has the most tasteful and fresh jams of any band right now. What the Grateful Dead did in there day was also, tasteful and fresh. Animal Collective uses a very similar sensibility and flow in progressing the improvisation of a song. The lyrical content and guitar virtuosity are like polar opposites, but as far as pushing something totally new as far as possible goes Animal Collective is a younger brother (or sister) of the Grateful Dead.

  • Asher

    I could be wrong, but is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWOn8HG5Qo 0:10-0:13 the drum sample from What Would I Want? Sky?

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