…that’s what she said!

Entering into serious music journalist mode, though, there’s been quite a flurry of news in Animal Collective land since my last Bandwidth installment detailing my then-upcoming trip to New York City to hear the band’s upcoming release Merriweather Post Pavilion at an exclusive listening party. (The fine people at Stories in High Fidelity have published my review, and it’s a very exciting read, if I do say so myself.)

To catch everyone up, the blogosphere exploded on November 17th when UK-based Fact Magazine posted two short clips of the tracks “Bluish” and “Also Frightened” on their website. Although the files were quickly removed, other bloggers and fans quickly began to spread the clips around the Internet Super Highway. That evening, things escalated further when an unknown French podcast leaked the album’s closing track “Brother Sport” in its entirety—save the last 20 seconds, which featured an enthusiastic French DJ singing the praises of the song in his native tongue.

Naturally, Animal Collective’s label, Domino Records, scrambled to remove all links to the tracks from the internet. Even I became victim of Domino’s ruthless ways when, on the morning of November 18th, I received an angry email from the “WEB SHERIFF” on behalf of Domino, demanding I remove the files from streaming links on my own music website.

In the wake of this ‘catastrophe,’ two more listening parties have been scheduled in the UK, and word on the street is that Domino is preparing to make an important announcement regarding Merriweather within the next 24 hours.

But, for the time being, Animal Collective fans must simply wait with their fragmented mp3 teasers to hold them out until January. It’s hard, I know…But resist the temptation to text them. They’ll call you when they’re ready.