Geologist Rocks

The latest from Animal Collective.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Animal Collective has been creating mini-universes with each release since Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz) formed the group in 2000. At times folksy, droney and tender (Campfire Songs), they can also be free, unwieldy and noisy (Sung Tongs). Then there's the newly released Strawberry Jam (Domino Records), their eighth full-length that manages to be all of the above with a lyrical sensibility more poignant than anything in the past. Geologist explains the latest project and what brought them here.

City Paper: Your family left Philadelphia years ago. Are you still tied here somehow?

Geologist: I was, like, 14 when my dad and granddad's company got bought by a larger company and we had to move to Baltimore. My mom's family is still from Philly. And I just got a message from my brother who's there. He's been texting me the Eagles score all day. I'm bumming that I'm missing the games because we're touring.

CP: Nobody likes tags. How do you guys feel about getting lumped into the whole freak folk continuum?

G: It doesn't bother me so much. It got thrown on us in 2004 when Sung Tongs came out. And we did that EP with Vashti Bunyan that just happened to coincide with being acoustic and Devendra and Joanna Newsome blowing up. The tag went on. It bothered us then because it was lazy journalism — especially as it was album No. 6 and nothing we did previously sounded like it. But that's fine. We weren't offended. Being mentioned in the same lump with that lot was great. We just didn't want the old stuff to be ignored or the stuff that came immediately after.

CP: Right around recording Feels, you guys moved away from each other and Panda Bear released solo records. Good or bad?

G: Good now. We freaked at first. Especially since in the middle of Fields Noah moved to Portugal. But when he came back, we had a two-week practice — something we had never done before. That would've been hellish. We would've gotten sick of seeing each other. But a little separation made us happy to see other, really joyous. Each time now, it's a happier experience. Maybe we were getting too old to live together and on top of each other; tired of seeing your best friends. [Laughs.]

CP: I can't tell you why, but "For Reverend Green" feels like a centerpiece.

G: It's a total linchpin of the Strawberry Jam era. And I have the guy it's named after sitting next to me — our tour manager, Brad. We think of records like eras.

CP: There're two tastes to the record — songs catchy but not exactly poppy and then the intricate, avant-garde bits. Were these songs devised at different times or differently than your past stuff?

G: This one just felt right with the more concise songs. I think we've always made pop songs. But this time I think it's been about how we've orchestrated and mixed it. It was just that we had these shorter, bouncier, rhythmic songs and a bunch of spaced out songs we didn't put on the record. They were just too long. Then again, short for us can be 10 minutes.

Animal Collective, Sat., Sept. 29, 8 p.m., $15, Starlight Ballroom, 460 N. Ninth St., 866-468-7619, www.myanimalhome.net