Panda Bear on Fallon

Last night, Panda Bear (Noah Lennox if anyone forgot) made his solo TV debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, performing Tomboy standout "You Can Count on Me." The beginning is, for lack of a better description, outstanding.

Panda Bear - You Can Count on Me (Live on Fallon)

Monday Bears: Bears and Bullets Fourth of July Free Mix!

Happy Fourth everyone. For today, I thought I'd offer something a little different; a free mixtape (haven't done that in a while).

The songs don't have any particular Fourth of July tinge or any super-American inflection behind them. They're just a bunch of songs that fit particularly well for summer 2011. You can check out the tracklist and grab the download below.

So, enjoy.

1. Surprise Hotel - Fool's Gold
2. Vibrationz - Javelin
3. Dear Les Friends - Hotel Mexico
4. Take Me Somewhere - Tennis
5. Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People
6. Each and Every Day - Best Coast
7. Big Sound - Big Wave Riders
8. Bombay - El Guincho
9. Gifted - N.A.S.A (ft. Kanye West, Santigold, Lykke Li)
10. Last Night at the Jetty - Panda Bear
11. Real Life - Tanlines
12. Eyes Be Closed - Washed Out

Fourth of July Mix - MP3 (ZIP)

Tuesday Bears: New Panda Bear video - Surfer's Hymn

Reviews of Panda Bear's Tomboy LP are pretty varied, from tantamount praise from Pitchfork to muttered disappointment from The Needle Drop, but there are a handful of tracks that standout no matter what.

"Surfer's Hymn," the first song of the album to receive video treatment, plays out like a distant dream, scoped in black and white with graveyard surfin' skeletons.

Surfer's Hymn - Panda Bear

Monday Bears: New Panda Bear - The Preakness

My natural inclination towards anything that has to do with bears might lead people to believe that I'm a huge Panda Bear fan. Well, I am, but the bear part is just an added bonus. With the release of Tomboy, his first solo studio venture in four years, Noah Lennox has been releasing a bevy of unreleased songs, including "The Preakness."

The song isn't actually on Tomboy, but part of Animal Collective's Keep collaboration; a charity cassette (alright, I guess) for the Socorro Island Conservation Fund, which is available here via ... shoes.

Tomboy drops Tuesday, April 12 via Paw Tracks.

Bears and Bullets Top 25 Songs of 2009 (Pt. II)

We'll continue the top 25 countdown with songs #20 through #16.

#20: Feel It All Around - Washed Out

Ernest Greene, more commonly known as the solo outfit Washed Out, made his first real strides towards prevalence a couple months ago with "Feel It All Around," a dream-haze recreation of Gary Low's "I Want You." The loose, earthy semblance in Greene's sparkling vocals echo behind the rich synths and droning tones to create a spectrum of sound that sticks to the listener. Neither present, future or past captures what "Feel It All Around" is, but it isn't timeless either. It's a moment, a fraction of time between everything.

Washed Out - Feel It All Around - MP3

#19: Charlie Darwin - The Low Anthem

"Charlie Darwin," The Low Anthem's story of the American working-class, is a slow-building, harmony-driven song that sails towards the end of the world, or in this case, to a newer old world. The soft harmonica spins a solemn split between the "Oh my God," chants of the sad, sad world "Charlie Darwin" feared.

The Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin

#18: Dominos - The Big Pink

Brit pop, in most forms, took a relative backseat in 2009. The Big Pink, among very few others, seemed to emerge from the once dominating scene with "Dominos," a song that flourished under massive synth bass-lines and impossibly catchy hooks. Those "girls" that "fall like dominoes" may seem a tad more trivial than the subjects on the rest of this list, but what makes "Dominos" last is the constantly flowing rise and fall of the buzzing backdrop for a loud and constant chain of enticement.

The Big Pink - Dominos - MP3

#17: The Reeling - Passion Pit

Passion Pit landed their second slot on the Top 25 Songs of 2009 list with "The Reeling," off of Manners. The glistening, both of the electro rhythm and Michael Angelakos' vocals, invigorates the pulse of the "Reeling." It sparkles as an accessible dance track, something that Passion Pit have cultivated along well with churning and bright pop music.

Passion Pit - The Reeling

#16: Walkabout (ft. Noah Lennox) - Atlas Sound

I've mentioned more than once this year that Bradford Cox, the man behind Atlas Sound, Lotus Plaza, and Deerhunter is a total workaholic. The man churns out almost infinite amounts of music behind his three pet projects, and all seem to cling to the indie blogosphere with terrific fever. "Walkabout," the lead single from Atlas Sound's album Logos, features the creative influence of Noah Lennox, more commonly known as Animal Collective's Panda Bear. Never has Cox's music sound so blippy and uplifting as "Walkabout," a song about going away and never looking back to what may or not be left behind, the spins into dream cache'd end, asking "What did you want to be when you grew up?" The question is never answered, but that isn't anything to take away from the song.

Atlas Sound (ft. Noah Lennox) - Walkabout - MP3

Check Back Later for Tracks #15-#11.

Tuesday Bears: New Atlas Sound

I'm finding it nearly impossible to gather my meager life in order at the moment, so these posts on Bears and Bullets have become very sporadic in the last several weeks. So, as it may stand (for however long it lasts), I'll attempt to continue my regular blogging rituals.

Atlas Sound, which everyone who reads the website (or any other on my blogroll for that matter) should know is the side-project of Deerhunter singer/guitarist Bradford Cox. Cox's new album Logos, which features the intrinsic "Walkabout" featuring Animal Collective's Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) that, more than likely, everyone who's reading this has heard before.

The album itself, which was leaked last year by Cox himself, has had some significant updates, altering it almost completely from the pseudo-original version. Logos (the real, full-length one) will be available October 20 via Kranky Records.

Atlas Sound - Kid Klimax - MP3

Atlas Sound - Walkabout (ft. Panda Bear) - MP3

MP3's Courtest of Pop Tarts Suck Toasted