Single Review: Panda Bear-You Can Count on Me/Alsatian Darn

Going into a record shop's vinyl section is always tons of fun because you never know what weird, unknown, or hard to find piece of wax they might be stocking. So suffice to say, to stumble upon the brand new Panda Bear 7" was a nice shock. Truth be told, I am not the Panda Bear manic that everyone else seems to be. I'm still adjusting to m y Animal Collective albums, and diving into the band members' even more experimental side projects was something I probably couldn't handle. Not to mention the parts I have heard from Person Pitch (and God help me for saying this on the Internet), seemed like annoyingly repetitive tape loops piled on one another endlessly. Honestly, I couldn't say what compelled me to grab this single, but am I glad I did. Is there even a need to review it for when one looks how fast this sold out? Contained in these grooves are some of the convoluted and unexpectedly catchy pop songs that work perfectly in condensed 7" form. "You Can Count on Me" is a throw back to Panda Bear's Animal Collective work, an ambient influenced track sounding a lot like "Derek" or the slower tracks from Merriweather Post Pavilion, the same hazy vocals over swirling instrumentation to become sublime headphone music. Where Panda Bear really comes to life is with "Alsatian Darn" the loopy track that switches from African style drumming and clapping to one of the greatest piano lines ever and back again. It's almost like Girl Talk with som many idfferent parts coming in and out for seconds at times, but with Panda Bear's siren singing-style interweaving everything, it just falls into place. I never thought I would be asking this, but how long until Tomboy comes out now?



Links:

Panda Bear on Myspace
Download the 7" tracks here, from Amazon