Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks - Enter the Slasher House (2014)















































































Avey Tare (born David Michael Portner[1], April 24, 1979) is an experimental musician and founding member of Animal Collective currently residing in Los Angeles, California.[2]
Avey Tare met Animal Collective's Deakin (Josh Dibb), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), and Geologist (Brian Weitz) in high school. For years, the four of them swapped homemade recordings, shared musical ideas and performed in different group configurations. Avey Tare recorded the Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished album with Panda Bear, and initially released the recording on the band's own Animal label in 2000. The album is commonly referred to as the first official Animal Collective release, with Tare writing the music and Panda Bear providing the 'perfect percussion' (as cited in the album's credits).
After high school, Avey Tare and Geologist moved to New York City to attend New York University and Columbia University, respectively. Panda Bear and Deakin eventually moved to New York City, and the band became more collaborative in nature. They finally settled on the name "Animal Collective". Although the band's output is, as their name suggests, a collaborative effort, with no typical 'frontman,' Avey Tare has been cited by the other members as being the 'primary songwriter' and de facto leader of the group. On the releases after 'Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished', which was written entirely by Tare, he has written at least half of the material, and for the albums 'Feels', 'Strawberry Jam' and 'Merriweather Post Pavilion', contributed around three quarters of the songs that made it onto the album. For the band's latest release, Centipede Hz, Tare confirmed that the album has eight songs penned by him.[2]
Avey Tare's other projects and releases include Terrestrial Tones with Eric Copeland of Black Dice, a split 12" with David Grubbs, and an LP with his then-wife Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir (aka Kría Brekkan) called Pullhair Rubeye. He released his debut solo album "Down There" on October 26, 2010.[3]
In April, 2013, it was announced that Avey Tare had formed the group Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks along with Angel Deradoorian, former member of Dirty Projectors, and Ponytail-drummer, Jeremy Hyman. They are currently set to tour in the US and UK in June, 2013. Avey Tare described the band as "[a] group of three hippies on a road trip through the backwaters of 2013s rural music scene fall prey to a murderous cannibalistic band making..."[4] Their debut album Enter the Slasher House comes out internationally on April 7. Ahead of the album they released a video for ‘Little Fang’ directed by Avey Tare’s sister and featuring a puppet created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop with horror movie imagery...."[5]
His sister is Abby Portner, New York City artist and experimental musician, who creates some of Animal Collective's artwork and stage design.[6]