Avey Tare (born David Portner on April 24th, 1979) is a musician and founding member of Animal Collective. 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. After high school, Avey Tare and Geologist moved to New York City to attend NYU and Columbia University, respectively. Panda Bear and Deakin had eventually moved to NYC, and the band started to become more collaborative in nature. They finally settled on the name "Animal Collective". Avey Tare's other projects and releases include Terrestrial Tones with Eric Copeland of Black Dice, a split 12" with David Grubbs and a LP with his exwife (ex-Múm) Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir (aka Kría Brekkan) called Pullhair Rubeye.
