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Digital creatures

Some hairy tracks

By CHRIS NELSON | September 5, 2006

Animal Collective

You gotta be careful out there, downloaders: just as in the real world, not all the creatures you come across on the Internet are cute and cuddly. Below are a few examples of what I mean. Approach at your own caution, don’t feed ’em . . . and if one of them bites you, tell an adult right away.

Animal Collective,“Forest Gospel”
Remember that time you took a handful of ’shrooms and ran away from the party into the woods and then you accidentally joined the hidden magical forest-gnome drum circle? Animal Collective had a MiniDisc recorder, and they’re totally ripping you off!

The Bird & The Bee,“Fucking Boyfriend”
There are disgustingly twee songs, and then there are disgustingly twee songs that you can’t help enjoying anyway. California duo the Bird & the Bee’s latest single sits squarely in the center of the latter category. If the dude from Death Cab had a sex-change operation, this is what the Postal Service would sound like. If Elizabeth Fraser rebuilt Belle and Sebastian with spare robot pieces, it probably wouldn’t sound like this. But it would be pretty funny anyway.

Lost Penguin, “Mr. Whippy”
Their MySpace stats have them living in “London,” but I think that’s just a funny way of spelling Brooklyn. Then again, if Lost Penguin were really a pack of coked-up Williamsburgers, they wouldn’t know about the English ice cream mainstay that is Mr. Whippy. A quandary! Regardless of nationality, the rough demo on their MySpace page shows a Liars-like ferocity that could only get better with a proper recording.