of Montreal Tour New Album False Priest due 2010
Photo by Joann Jovinelly Flickr
of Montreal
It’s 11:48 on a Tuesday night and the forever polyorgasmaniacal band from Athens, Georgia, is back in town with new material from their upcoming release, False Priest (or is it Controller Sphere? I guess it depends on who you ask). No matter its title, fans are impatiently waiting what will follow the intensely personal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007), and the sexually charged pop-disco masterpiece Skeletal Lamping (2008), of Montreal is hitting the pavement with a well-earned swagger. Like slow-moving lava, the band’s notoriety is about to gain major traction, like the wide berth of a scalding-hot flow that stays warm to the touch, even months after the explosion.
That slow, even burn has arrived at a time when Americans need it most. Carnivalesque frontman Kevin Barnes must have drank a tonic of rocket-fuel in order to rip our browbeaten citizenry from its complacency. He understands the one thing we desire most is artful distraction, or maybe a doorway to sexual freedom. He knows that we need to be awakened, perhaps even reminded of our desires, or our humanity.
of Montreal – Id Engager video
That insight may be due to Barnes’s battle with long-standing depression. Since the band began touring in earnest in 2004, Barnes’s on-stage antics have become increasingly complex, combining a complicated light show, projections, animations, as well as a supporting cast of masked and costumed performers. Blink once, and it’s like you’re on a set for a musical version of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, except the Tom Cruise character is suddenly interesting, charismatic, hyper-homoerotic, and with better fashion sense. Performers in leotards and masks pepper the stage, chaos ensues, and before you can blink again, you find yourself transported into a rich visual fantasy of animated color that echoes a scene straight out of Warhol’s Factory days, but this time on Red Bull, not Quaaludes. Colorful lights find their way past stirring glances, mock flirtations, and raw sexual gestures as the pop melodies keep it all in check with fantastic beats, psychedelic guitar licks, and witty lyrics. Is it all too much? No, actually. It manages to stay cohesive, and the audience is equally suspended between being visually charged and sexually gratified.
(Photo by Joann Jovinelly Flickr) Among the reasons why Barnes’s overtly sexual and suggestive lyrics don’t upset the balance is because they are but one part of the flirtatious relationship he shares with fans. And the theatrically of his live persona—scenes that had Barnes hanged publicly, performing from inside a coffin while nude and covered in shaving cream, or singing on the back of a live stallion—is as much as part of his personality as the music. The band’s sheer professionalism is a big reason why it all works so seamlessly. As ad hoc as it may be, fans are hooked, and the music technique is tight. The unexpected antics never compromise of Montreal’s performance. And just before you think it might all fall apart, the scene changes again, taking on yet another demon in another closet, exercised on stage before strangers who welcome the confessions with hungry ears and eager eyes.
So, welcome kids. Check the recession at the door. Of Montreal invites you to reveal your secrets, let go of your inhibitions, enable your transgressions, and forgive your improprieties, all to an amazing soundtrack. Let’s fall in love. Let’s drink the Kool-Aid. Let’s get hurt. Let’s reveal ourselves. Let’s play a different role. Let’s search beyond gender, beyond desire. Actually, a better band for our homophobic nation cannot be found, even though Barnes — even his Bowiesque alter ego Georgie Fruit — doesn’t identify as gay. Perhaps more unexpected is that he is married with child.
The story of how Barnes blossomed into the unlikely role of the psychedelic savior of feel-good pop and sex-fueled disco won’t keep you up at night. Local kid with a dream makes decent music in high school cover bands, better music and songwriting on a demo for indie label Bar/None, and still better music and songwriting as part of the Elephant 6 Collective, a group of musicians who lived and worked together in Athens, Georgia, in the 1990s, and that delivered such names as Neutral Milk Hotel and Apples in Stereo. Barnes founded of Montreal in 1997, when he was a part of E6, and continues to drive its artistic pomp and circumstance. The fact is, much of the band’s catalog — a total of nine full-length albums, at least five EPs, and countless non-LP tracks, covers, and remixes — have merit. Of Montreal — Barnes plus Bryan Poole (a.k.a. the Late B.P. Helium), Dottie Alexander, Jamey Huggins, Davey Pierce, Ahmed Gallab, and Barnes’s wife, Nina — always seemed to have considerable indie cred, even if early audiences were small. But the fact that the band has become a larger blip on the radar of mainstream American music may have more to do with Barnes’s smart business management than any change in artistic direction.
In 2006, one of the band’s tracks was featured in the hit Showtime series, Weeds, and subsequently made the show’s soundtrack, a bestselling showcase of indie music. The song, “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)” was a catchy pop tune with legs. It made the college radio circuit and brought attention to the Sunlandic Twins (2005) release. Of Montreal was officially on the map, and steady commercial success followed. “Wraith” also got picked up as the background music for a television commercial; a move that was marked with criticism. Many fans accused Barnes of selling out, convinced the end was near for the group’s unique brand of complex pop with quick switching hooks. Quite the opposite was true. Of Montreal matured, and the music evolved along with that growth, gaining sophistication and complexity with every juxtaposition of tension and release.
And licensing “Wraith” to TV became the first actual profit the band made, enabling them to record new music and further their interest in producing highly complicated and theatrical tours with elaborate visual effects. Barnes wasn’t about to lose the opportunity to gain attention and earn money just because a few people mouthed off. But his fans’ reactions bothered him, and in 2007, he went public, releasing a lengthy statement on stereogum.com about being an effective and meaningful artist in a capitalist society. At the same time, he appeared in another commercial with his band, this time with speaking lines. In his own way, Barnes was stirring the pot, reaching more fans, making music on his own terms, and paying the bills.
After the welcomed reception of their ninth release in 2008, the band worries less about the myth of maintaining an anti-capitalist credo. Barnes has said that the criticism he received after the success of “Wraith” drove him to further push the envelope on Skeletal Lamping, this time exploring overtly sexual themes. The result is an energized serving of confidence, originality, and wit that updates old-school disco with unmatched style and in-your-face authority. Even the release’s title, a reference to an old hunting technique called lamping—so-called because people prowled the dark woods with lanterns that are suddenly lit to reveal animals in hiding—promises intrigue. Quite intentionally, Barnes is revealing his own demons, though hopefully not killing them off. Still, if Lamping can’t please everyone, it should remain a reminder that meaningful art is often edgy—even difficult—and it generally takes time to appeal to the masses.
Meanwhile, as fans impatiently wait for 2010’s False Priest, those on the East Coast will enjoy this unexpected mini-tour and debut of new material. Others can follow of Montreal’s antics on Twitter, get a mindful of Barnes’s private musings on Tumblr, and wait for a generous helping of freshly ripped mp3s courtesy of the Booty Patrol.
Kevin’s Tumblr, of Montreal Twitter page
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Just a quick comment to thank you for your joyful post. Thank you. Naomi x
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