More On Panda Bear - New Videos From Governor's Island

With the recent release of "You Can Count on Me", and the announcement/leak of "Last Night at the Jetty", we here at BAL are getting very excited for Panda Bear's upcoming Tomboy LP. From what we've listened to and saw at his live show at Governor's Island, the new album is looking to be shaping up quite nicely. One of our favorite new tracks, "Drone" was recently released as the b-side to "Last Night At The Jetty", which can be watched as part of our massive 5 song, 20 minute one-off video here. Featuring only a synthesizer stripped to its most basic functionality and equally bare vocals, "Drone" sounds like its named and yet is summed up in so much more. Take a look at the show's opener, which follows "Drone" with "Daily Routine" and "Tomboy" and you'll know what we mean. 

Panda Bear - Drone / Daily Routine / Tomboy

Also recently released on Domino Records to a limited 500 pressing, "You Can Count One Me" with b-side "Alsatian Darn." Take a look at our video of the a-side, with its booming rhythm and gorgeous melody, below. This extremely limited edition pressing is sold out at most places but may be available at local record stores - we got our's from Other Music and last we checked there were still some available at Princeton Record Exchange. "Last Night at the Jetty" is still available for pre-order from Insound and is limited to 3000 copies. No word on any official dates for the Tomboy LP, but we're guessing it's not gonna make the "Fall 2010" timeframe originally projected. In the meantime, peep the rest of our full coverage of the Governor's Island show, which now includes the entire set minus "Song For Ariel (Guys Eyes)" and "Bullseye".

Panda Bear - You Can Count On Me

Panda Bear - Governor's Island 9/11 - Videos

(More from this show was added on 11/14, with videos of "Drone", "Tomboy" and "You Can Count On Me". Click here for that post.)

Panda Bear - Ponytail / Last Night at The Jetty / Benfica / Comfy in Nautica / Slow Motion

Ridiculously exciting post here for you all. Last night we caught Panda Bear playing a rare solo gig in advance of his new album Tomboy hitting the shelves later this year. Let's us say very directly - this set was fire.

Panda Bear - "Surfer's Hymn", an upcoming song from Tomboy

Similar to his previous dates supporting Person Pitch in 2007 and the monster Animal Collective tour for Merriweather (Vids of their Prospect Park show here), this concert was seamlessly performed and precisely executed. Whereas AC's dance crazed rhythms inject their live output with an infectious and widescreen bounce, Panda Bear's performances exist in extreme close-up and pronounced slow motion. Opening with "Drone" and blending into Animal Collectives "Daily Routine", he established this fact immediately - an already droned out number was divided even further - extrapolated to a slow crawl, and intensified visually by an enveloping, swirling light show.

Panda Bear - Encore - Alsatian Darn / Chores (I Think I Can)

Using a familiar song beautifully mangled as his starting point, Panda used the rest of his set to unfold brand new material off Tomboy. As our footage will attest to, this album is looking very sturdy indeed - pairing hypnotic washes of sound with some gorgeous melodies and brash noisy counterpoint. Ditching some of the more straightforward Kraut-imbued rhythms of Person Pitch, the new tracks veer more into the spectral spaciness of Cluster while retaining the signature melodicism that makes Panda such a popular and likable act.

BAL is proud to present this very special footage, starting with this epic five song medley, continuously filmed, with the following songs: “Ponytail”, “Last Night At The Jetty” (3:16), “Benfica” (8:21), “Comfy in Nautica” (12:14), and “Slow Motion” (14:36). A very special thanks to the great community/forum at Collected Animals, who came through big time for us after we ran into some technical difficulties at the show. AC/Panda fans are among the most loyal and active out there, and they deserve props for making this production possible.