Animal Collective

Experimental noise pop band Animal Collective was officially incepted in 2000, but the seeds of the group were planted years earlier. Members Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox and Josh "Deakin" Dibb met in second grade when they were both attending Waldorf School of Baltimore. Later, Dibb would enroll at Park School in Baltimore, where he met Brian "Geologist" Weitz and David "Avey Tare" Portner. The group would later attest to their progressive education's focus on free thought and creativity as playing an important role in their growth as musicians. All four members became interested in music during their teen years, some of them playing in a short lived band called Automine, and in college, Weltz and Portner explored the world of avant-garde music while Lennox listened to electronic artists. By 2000, Lennox and Portner were collaborating, releasing the first Animal Collective album, Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished on their own label, Paw Tracks. The following year, Weitz came on board for Danse Manatee. By 2003's Campfire Songs, Dibb was playing with the group as well, though the lineup would remain malleable over the coming years, with only Lennox and Portner remaining present on every recording. The group would release several more critically acclaimed albums over the coming years, including their 2009 mainstream breakthrough Merriweather Post Pavilion, even premiering a visual album, ODDSAC, at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. In keeping with the quirky, experimental spirit that ran through all their music, the band premiered their 2015 album Painting With over the speakers at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.