Letter From The Editor

Even though it was years ago, I distinctly remember the first time I heard Animal Collective. My first impression was, wow, this is so weird, followed closely by, wow, this is amazing. It was so high energy and occasionally infused with instruments I couldn’t even put my finger on; I had never heard anything like Animal Collective.

There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing their more well-known songs (remember when My Girls was everywhere?), but then they kind of faded away for a bit, resurfacing earlier this year with a new album, Painting With.

And now they are en route to Hawaii for a show at 8 p.m. Aug. 22 at The Republik.

Staff writer Jaimie Kim had a chance to chat with one of the band’s founders, David Portner, for this week’s feature story. As he told Jaimie: “I’ve never been to Honolulu, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’m staying a couple days after, so hopefully will have time to see some cool things.”

One cool thing about Animal Collective is that the band can serve as sort of a launching point for discovering other great music — its members also are prolific solo artists that have their own individual breadth of work. (Panda Bear is my personal favorite.)

For more on the band, their new album and what to expect from their Honolulu appearance, see the story here.