Panda Bear “Tomboy”

Paw Tracks  PAW 33  7” single  

300 dpi jpeg of front cover:

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300 dpi jpeg of Noah Lennox by Maureen Gubia:

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Paw Tracks is excited to present the first in a series of limited edition seven inch singles by Animal Collective’s Panda Bear.  There will be several limited singles total (on different labels), and each one will bring us closer and closer to the much anticipated release of the Tomboy full length.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Panda Bear (a.k.a. Noah Lennox) has blazed yet another unexplored sonic trail. The two new songs “Tomboy” and “Slow Motion” maintain the kind of upbeat vibe found on Panda Bear’s previous solo album Person Pitch, but forged with a new sonic language that isn’t as sample-centric. Dance beats meld effortlessly with electric guitars and Noah’s now trademark vocal harmonies to create the NEXT Panda Bear sound.

Single Bits:

-          Limited edition one time vinyl only pressings

-          First new Panda Bear music since 2007’s wildly popular Person Pitch album

-          Panda Bear plays the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 17th

-          These songs will not be available digitally until the release of the Tomboy full length

-          Recorded and produced by Panda Bear at his studio in Lisbon, Portugal

 

Tracklisting: 1. Tomboy 2. Slow Motion

UPC: 677517103311

Release Date: July 13th, 2010

 

Panda Bear bio:

 

Near the end of 2010, Panda Bear (a/k/a Noah Lennox of Animal Collective) will release his fourth full-length album, Tomboy. To say the disc is highly-anticipated would be a slight understatement. After the crowning glory of his previous solo album, 2007’s Person Pitch (which not only topped Pitchfork’s Album of the Year charts but also ranked in the top ten of their Albums of the Decade), Panda Bear reconvened his Animal Collective brethren and followed it up with 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, which also found its rightful place atop innumerable magazine and blog polls come year’s end.

 

Through it all, Lennox has remained resilient in following his singular vision and voice. “I’ve definitely traversed some kind of mind field the last year or so and it hasn’t always been pleasant or easy,” Lennox says. “But it’s been more a positive irritant than anything else.” Tomboy proves, above all else, that he’s risen to the challenge and surpassed (as well as sidestepped) all expectations. And in following up Person Pitch, Panda Bear has again taken to releasing the album as a batch of separate singles first, for labels like Kompakt, Fat Cat, Paw Tracks, and Domino. “Doing the singles helps me focus on every song and also helps me move along in the process.”

 

Also part of the process was moving past the gear that informed the dense sonic tapestries of Person Pitch and MPP: “I got tired of the severe parameters of using samplers. Thinking about Nirvana and the White Stripes got me into the idea of doing something with a heavy focus on guitar and rhythm.” Favoring a darker, more-streamlined sound on Tomboy, Lennox went for a more visceral and direct approach, though that rock tendency was offset by another old influence on Lennox: “With regards to where I am with Tomboy, I’m definitely reliving middle school and all the Baltimore R&B radio we used to ingest.”

It lends itself to the paradox of the title itself. Lennox explains: “A lot of the songs are about something that’s in conflict with itself, so the image of a ‘tomboy’ has become the overseeing figure as far as the group of songs go.” It might even exemplify the conflict of Panda Bear himself: underground and experimental in his approach to sound, he also strives to craft gorgeous pop for the widest audience possible. With Tomboy, he’s attained his greatest balance between the two extremes yet.