In 2025, after decades behind the drum kit and electronics in Animal Collective and his solo project as Panda Bear, Noah Lennox stepped into a new role: the frontman of a band. On his latest Panda Bear album Sinister Grift, Lennox and his co-producer, Animal Collective bandmate Josh Deakin Dibb, created an invitingly warm and immediate sound using the elements of a traditional rock-and-roll ensemble - guitar, bass, keys, drums, most played by Lennox himself. To reproduce those instrumental layers live, Lennox assembled a Panda Bear touring band for the very first time - with himself on lead vocals and guitar, Tim Koh on bass, Rivka Ravede on sampler, Maria Reis on keyboards and percussion, Tomé Silva on drums, and all four on backing vocals. The result was a thrilling new chapter in the Panda Bear story - the signature psychedelic soundscapes now injected with the richness of live instrumentation and harmonies and the pure charm of five crack musicians blending and bouncing and riffing off each other on stage. It was a moment that deserved documentation, and in the fall of 2025, following the initial leg of the Sinister Grift tour in the UK and Europe, the band gathered at the legendary Power Station recording studio in New York City to record pb band live 25 at power station.