No, Seriously, Animal Collective Fans Are The Craziest

noah | December 17, 2008 10:00 am

This morning, an e-mail purporting to be from one of the members of the avant-garde outfit/insane fanboy breeders Animal Collective went out, and the e-mail was a plea for the rest of their forthcoming album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, to leak because, hey, two songs had made their way to the Internet already. “[The] album is intended to be heard as a whole, and nothing bothers us more than individual tracks leaking and ruining the the overall album experience,” the e-mail said. And it was in all lower-case, so it had to be the real thing! Right?

Well, as it turns out, the e-mail was a hoax perpetuated by someone who actually hacked into the e-mail account of Animal Collective member Brian Weitz. (Sorry, all you message-board denizens who have been trying to will its unauthorized release through excessive posting!) Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, another band who makes the indie kids’ knees go weak, addressed the situation on his blog: “Total Bullshit. Someone actually had the nerve to hack into their e-mail account and send this out. The truth is that AC do not want their album to leak and are trying very hard to avoid the drama around said album that has risen to a fever pitch.” Is this really what it’s come to, you guys? E-mail hacks?!

Anyway, Cox had a few suggestions for the bored types who have nothing better to do than sit on the Internet and post “Leak. Leak. Leak.” for hours and hours:

Back in the 90’s when I was first starting to make 4-track tapes I had a game where I would make a fake version of an album I was anticipating. If Pavement’s Brighten the Corners were coming out soon, I had to wait till release day to hear it. I would record a set of songs that I would want the Pavement album to sound like. Some of those songs ended up becoming Atlas Sound and Deerhunter songs years later.

My advice to those who are so desperate for AC’s album to leak is to pick up instruments and make your own version of what you would want it to sound like. Respect the BANDS wishes and wait till release day. Then you can compare your new songs with theirs. Who knows. Maybe your album will be the one people are wanting to leak next year.

This, I have to say, is probably the nicest way I’ve ever heard someone say “Um, get a life.”

Weird Energy Why? [Deerhunter via Fluxtumblr]