Stream: Animal Eyes, ‘Mushroom Hunter’

Daiana Feuer on June 10th, 2016

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Harmonizing ain’t easy. Case in point, what happens every time people try to sing “Happy Birthday” in unison? It hurts. But Alaska-bred, Portland-dwelling band Animal Eyes make harmonizing seem effortless and groovy. Their voices create beautiful moments that cascade melodically over and across their intergalactic music. The band’s latest album, “Where We Go,” was released on May 20. The songs stitch threads of pop, folk, psych and rock together with dense layers of cosmic keyboard, strings, accordion, bass, beats, and other treasures. As evident in the “Mushroom Hunter” video, Tyler Langham, Sam Tenhoff, Figley, Haven Multz Matthews and Colin McArthur are a wee bit crazy and have that joie de vivre that likely comes from ingesting gently poisonous plants and fungi to enhance reality’s colors and textures. In all seriousness, the songs on “Where We Go” represent a tough time, collectively, in the band’s life. Relationship broke apart, friends and family passed away, and the guys used their music to work through the meaning of those changes. Despite the heavy subtext, Animal Eyes embrace the silliness of the human experience.

||| Stream: “Mushroom Hunter”