Animal Collective’s Geologist Announces Debut Solo Album, Shares New Video: Watch

Brian Ross Weitz, the Animal Collective musician better known as Geologist, has announced his debut solo studio album. The full-length, Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?, is out January 30 via Drag City. Below, watch director Molten Synapse’s music video for lead single “Tonic.”

Geologist named his new single “Tonic” in honor of a Keiji Haino show he saw at the now-closed New York music venue of the same name. The song features contributions from drummer Alianna Kalaba and Geologist’s Animal Collective bandmate David “Avey Tare” Portner.

“Most of the formative music in my teens was guitar based, and, at that age, you try to play like your favorites,” Geologist said in a statement. “But I was never very good at guitar myself. A couple years ago when trying to come up with a solo hurdy-gurdy drone set to take out on tour, I heard a story about Greg Ginn playing guitar solos over a drum machine. I was coming to accept that whatever drone I could make on the hurdy-gurdy would never live up to when I first heard Keiji Haino play one at Tonic in 1998. So I went the Ginn route instead and wrote this record. I still can’t play or write like my favorites, but the hurdy-gurdy got me closer than guitar ever did.”

Geologist worked on Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? with Alianna Kalaba, Avey Tare, recording engineer Adam McDaniel, drummers Emma Garau and Ryan Oslance, clarinetist Shane McCord, cellist Mikey Powers, and vibraphonist Adam Lion. In addition, his son, Merrick Weitz, plays guitar on “Government Job.”

Earlier this year, Geologist released a collaborative album with Doug Shaw called A Shaw Deal. The latest Animal Collective album, Isn’t It Now?, arrived in 2023.

Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?:

01 Oracle Road
02 Tonic
03 RV Envy
04 Not Trad
05 Color in the B&W
06 Compact Mirror / Last Names
07 Government Job
08 Pumpkin Festival
09 Shelley Duvall
10 Sonora