Interview: Animal Collective on the “alien rock-‘n’-roll” sounds of Centipede Hz

This interview appears in ALARM #40. Subscribe here to get your copy!

Animal Collective: Centipede HzAnimal Collective: Centipede Hz (Domino, 9/4/12)

“Today’s Supernatural”

Animal_Collective_Today_s_Supernatural

What would it sound like if a band from another planet somehow heard early ’50s and ’60s rock and roll and covered it? This half-serious anecdote is how Animal Collective keyboardist Brian Weitz, better known as his stage name Geologist, frames his band’s ninth studio album, Centipede Hz. For as amusing as it is to imagine extraterrestrials clattering to The Hollies, Weitz’s rhetorical scenario points to the band’s creative motors at work, and how they manage to obscure influences beyond recognition.