maybe this innocent info will make you a little less terrified of the band:

Panda, Tare (Dave Portner, 26), programmer Geologist (Brian Weitz, 26) and guitarist Deakin (Josh Dibb, 27) got together when they were in high school in the mid-Nineties. Drawn together by a shared love of Pavement, the Grateful Dead and horror-movie soundtracks, the kids started making music in their families' suburban Baltimore basements.

For Animal Collective's early shows, the electronic-folk foursome wore surreal furry costumes onstage -- but it wasn't just an arty affectation. "It's a way of not being self-conscious," says drummer Panda Bear (a.k.a. Noah Lennox, 27), who is still very uncomfortable in large crowds.

"The music has a lot to do with love and loving in our lives in the past year," says Panda. "The others have serious girlfriends. I got married a year ago, and we've got a baby."

...Deakin, who is also a carpenter, shuttles between New York and Baltimore; Panda lives with his wife and son in Lisbon, Portugal. But the foursome still finds time to write and record. Says Deakin, "For us, playing music together is happiness."