Animal Collective eyes spring tour behind new album

Experimental popsters Animal Collective have mapped a spring headlining tour in support of the band's just-released new studio LP.

The four-member group will launch the trek 24-city May 11 in Washington, DC, and the month-long outing concludes with a slate of Southeastern appearances, capped by three Florida shows. Dates are below.

The group is receiving widespread critical praise for "Merriweather Post Pavilion," its ninth studio album. Released Jan. 6 on vinyl and this week in CD form in the US, the set was produced by Ben H. Allen (P. Diddy, Gnarls Barkley) and recorded last summer in Oxford, MS.

The album is named after a music venue in Columbia, MD, near the group's Baltimore hometown.

"We used to go to shows there while growing up and have fond memories of times spent on the lawn," the band explains in an insert distributed with the album. "For most of the time we've been playing together, both in Animal Collective and the years before, we've tried to make music that would be deserving of an amazing outdoor listening experience. As both a name and a place, 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' represents this for us."

The new album follows 2007's "Strawberry Jam" and last year's "Water Curses" EP.