Animal Collective spreads 'Strawberry Jam'

New York-based band Animal Collective has a new album on deck and will support it with a world tour that kicks off next week in the US.

The underground art-rock ensemble's North American run is scheduled to kick off Sept. 5 in Boston and make its way to the West Coast and back, with a two-night finale Sept. 30 - Oct. 1 at New York City's Webster Hall. Several Canadian cities round out the itinerary, which is listed below.

New York Magazine described a recent Animal Collective concert as a "chaos of sights and sounds," with one member flailing around and banging on things while screaming, another standing behind a mixer and singing gorgeous harmonies and yet another sitting on stage with a spelunking lamp on his head. It went on to say that the mania seems to be driven by a greater sense of purpose.

"All their howls and moans and unusual tones from synthesizers and guitars coalesce into hooks that hint tantalizingly at pop," the publication said.

The band's hard-to-categorize sound is described in a press release as combining "a love of sonic free form electronic horror gospel hip hop soul pop madness." Animal Collective "brings it all together into something that is (hopefully) at times totally pleasing and at others completely scary and confusing but most importantly is refreshing in this crazy crazy world."

The band's forthcoming album, "Strawberry Jam," is its sixth effort and first for Domino Records. The set is scheduled to hit the streets Sept. 10.

Bandmates Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Geologist and Deacon, who grew up together around Baltimore, recorded "Strawberry Jam" earlier this year in Tucson, AZ.

According to Domino's website, "There was much Tecate drinking, barbecues, Javelina sightings and other desert oddities that might have influenced this record ... like the day the desert was covered in glistening ice."

The album's lead single, "Peacebone," described as "clusters of synths, looping rhythms and lyrical bursts of high pitched wonder rushing to fall over each other," is streaming at Animal Collective's MySpace page.