Today's Supernatural

Album: Centipede Hz (2012)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from the American experimental group Animal Collective's ninth album, Centipede Hz. The song was premiered on July 29, 2012 during the band's Animal Collective Radio venture, which was a weekly online transmission in partnership with The Creators Project and Domino.
  • Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox explained the album title to The Sun: "The centipede was an image we talked about as we began writing the first bunch of songs. We liked how alien it looked and how complicated and snaky it was and we wanted the music to feel like that. So the alien coupled with the radio stuff set up the title."
  • This song was one of the kick-starters for the writing process for Centipede Hz. Multi-instrumentalist Josh "Deakin" Dibb explained to AUX Magazine: "It was one of the first songs where I feel we found a satisfying language to work with [in] these songs. So I kind of always refer to it as the totem of the record. There's a certain emotional, psychological resonance with music that, when it's there, it's kind of indescribable," he continued, "and that song, just the style of lyrics, the way the vocals are, and the way it came together, it still gives me chills, even working on it for so long. It's just as simple as the 'come on, let go' line. There's something for me about that sentiment, something even from the lyrical kind of melding of vocalization and lyrics. It's really powerful to me for some reason."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.