Of Montreal

First round in my set. It starts amazing!

Gonna see them in SF soon. Should be wild

ugh, fuck me.
if anyone wants a ticket to their sold out show this tuesday (Music Hall of Williamsburg in NYC), let me know and we'll try to work something out.

my boyfriend woke me up with this bullshit this morning. sounds like guys in sunglasses on coke.

They were an E6 band so probably weed and...like...a pastel trombone.

Been totally bingeing on these guys. Not much of it is sinking in, but it's kinda groovy inna superficial kaleidoscope way. Best material seems to be on the later (last two) records.

totally. last two are two of my favorite albums this decade, but a lot of their earlier stuff hints at the greatness that was to come.

no way. best one is sunlandic twins. last two are afterglow

i dunno, i still think aldhils is the best

is it the first one you heard?

not by a long shot

me either. first one i heard was the gay parade. they're dynamic enough though that i can imagine first one heard remains the favorite

omg the track-titles for their 'early four-track recordings'

It really is all about the second half (Triphallus onward) of Skeletal Lamping, although interestingly I still can't pick a standout track. It's all about the journey, not the stop-offs.

what's odd about skeletal lamping is that is does seem genuinely self-indulgent in about three different ways, none of which really maps onto what people usually mean in calling music self-indulgent

it is a somewhat monomaniacal exorcism of self in sound, but it traverses quite a lot of interesting territory in an effort to splatter every tortured psychosexual aspect of him and his weird shemale alter-egos into our consciousness

^^^i hope this conveys the record's self-indulgence

i dunno, i still think aldhils is the best

― do not read if you meatus (electricsound), Wednesday, 17 June 2009 04:26 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

is it the first one you heard?

― kamerad, Wednesday, 17 June 2009 04:34 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not by a long shot

― do not read if you meatus (electricsound), Wednesday, 17 June 2009 04:35 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Aldhils is the only thing by these guys that has really resonated with and it was the first one I heard... what does this mean kamerad do you think

resonated with *me* obv

i think maybe i just don't find his 'psychosexual hangups' very interesting, amounting to, as it does:

i. i like having sex
ii. i like the intimacy of romantic relationships
iii. sometimes i wonder if the primacy of (ii) over immediate, hedonistic (i) is not a big lie
iv. sometimes i think queers/women (delete as apt.) have it easier

^ in every straight person ever

the standout track on skeletal lamping is "eluardian instance" for that bit where it goes "noooow iiii'm view-ing my me-mo-ry reel in reve-er-erse". the single version included an edit that made it a lot more palatable to those who don't get that whole mishmash steez they do.,

& the more he worries at it, the more glaring becomes his inability to actually write, perform and record dirty mind

(xpots.)

Quite a lot of interesting MUSICAL territory. I don't really listen to the lyrics as much more than a stream of fairly loosely-linked horndog imagery.

the standout track on skeletal lamping is "eluardian instance" for that bit where it goes "noooow iiii'm view-ing my me-mo-ry reel in reve-er-erse". the single version included an edit that made it a lot more palatable to those who don't get that whole mishmash steez they do.,

― dog latin, Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:13 AM (3 hours ago)

oh man you're so right, after about the thirtieth time i'd listened to this track it was defnitiely my favorite part too.

also i'm not usually a big 'lyrics' guy (in music i like them to be serviceable and not get in the way), but of montreal's lyrics are pretty special to me. the last album especially which is about exploring oft-subverted facets of your personality and the fantasies which accompany them is really resonant with me, though sadly not on a completely literal level ;)

the last minute of "an eluardian instance" is awesome and does not go on for long enough but I suppose that is the point

the whole thing is really an outlier - sonically and structurally, at least - on the album. very straightforward and a classic of montreal tune in every sense. my favorite on skeletal lamping has got to be "nonpareil of favor" though. they played it when i saw them a few months ago and your mans kk was like ^______^

^^^that opening track is stone classic, especially because after 2 mins of classic schiz-pop-ness it gets *stuck* in some noise groove and *cannot* escape it despite blatantly trying to...it's such a cool experiment in tension

my favorite from "hissing fauna" is "we were born mutants again with leafling". they're actually really similar songs, and i like listening to one after the other

& the more he worries at it, the more glaring becomes his inability to actually write, perform and record dirty mind

(xpots.)

― thomp, Wednesday, 17 June 2009 13:15 (4 hours ago) Bookmark

^^^this otm now I think about it.

I kind of didn't like Hissing Fauna, maybe I should try again. (Loved Skeletal Lamping, couldn't be bothered with the others.)

I prefer the moments to the songs, as I've said. The exchange about "you don't think I've got caller ID?" into that chorus in Triphallus is one of the most perfect pop moments this decade

Hissing Fauna seems quite good, but The Past Is A Grotesque Animal and maybe the two tracks after it kinda tower over everything else

i love love hissing fauna. sam, maybe you should try the final track ("we were mutants...") first, then "the past is a grotesque animal", then maybe the singles ("heimdalsgate", "a sentence of sorts").

especially "a sentence of sorts in kongsvinger". goddamn that goes over incredibly live

listening, first time, to skeletal lamping, when the DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN tchk tchk do do tchk tchk groove comes in, i had this horrible feeling of 'i am going to spend my next x listens to this trying to convince myself that this moment succeeds musically in what it is trying to do'

this is common to me when listening to follow-ups by indie bands who have managed to make something that succeeds fantastically on its own terms

the sorts of craft being displayed on hissing fauna seem more sympa to kevin barnes than those he attempts to put on show in skeletal lamping: also, the former's grounding in real events help lend perspective and/or meaning to the georgie fruit shenanigans

i mean 'real events' as in "the narrator of a song is referring to something that actually happened in context of the song" rather than "stuff that actually happened to kevin barnes": although, probably, the latter too

I have listened to Skeletal Lamping so much that I've kind of forgotten that Hissing Fauna existed. (This might be because my CD drive plays the former and rejects the latter)

He writes so absolutely clinically *on* about depression that I'm prepared to forgive him his occasional missteps about sexuality - except, honestly, most of the time, they don't feel like missteps, more like brutal honesty. The songs, lyrically, work for me, even without knowing whether he's singing them from a Personna or not. (I tend to ignore artists when they sing in "Personas" - because, honestly, every aspect of songwriting and performance is done from a stance or personna anyway. I have never understood why songwriting is always supposed to only be written in the first person experiential, like musicians are unable to have imaginations in the way that novelists or painters do?)

(It's all about Plastis Wafers -> Death Is Not A Parallel Move for me)

dan what i think i meant was that i've always felt they're a weird kind of love-hate band: people tend to love the first record they hear by them and then not care as much for the rest of their stuff. they're like a really smart but way too hyper-active friend you're charmed by at first but then get sick of after a while. except the first one i heard (gay parade) i couldn't stand, and the next one i heard, sunlandic twins, i still love, so my portrayal here isn't exactly airtight

Aldhils Arboretum is such a goddamn sad album :/ Never really noticed when playing it in the background because it sounds so upbeat/goofy.

'kissing in the grass' is probably their most perfect pop song ever.

free show in Toronto tomorrow night. I got boys' clubbed out of the poker game my husband's going to, so I might go dance around at Yonge-Dundas square!

Riiiight. Busy weekend this weekend.

I saw Iggy Pop last year(?) and the crowd was insane.. hoping the OM crowd will be a bit smaller, but I think the Flaming Lips are playing later so maybe not.. at least I'm tall. :P

If you're not at work you should go to this show (not of Montreal but seeing as we're talking about NxNE shit) it's happening right now

I can't go I have a cold and am also at work

http://justshows.com/toronto/2012/06/15/nxne-nxnexperiment-ii/1671/

Just got off work but have a hair appointment on Queen west in 15 minutes. :(
Feel better!

I realize this is such an obvious statement that it was incorporated into the Hipster Olympics sketch that came out years ago, however:

They jumped the shark after the Outback Steakhouse commercial. It's one thing to license your music to advertise a steakhouse; it's quite another to take one of your popular songs, add a digeridoo and change the lyrics to be about steak.

Everything was downhill from there. Hissing Fauna was totally overdone and self-indulgent. I gave the next album one listen, and all I remember about it was that it sucked and that he got Janelle Monae to awkwardly sing the word 'nigger' on one of the track. And that it was canned and underproduced -- like Kevin Barnes' band is slowly quitting and now it's just him and his laptop singing along to the sound of his own multitracked voice.

Satanic Panic in the Attic deserves more love on this thread, though. Sunlandic Twins was their breakthrough, but the previous album is just one pop gem after another, from start to finish -- and there are a lot of tracks on that album.

Also their debut album is very good.

The show was insane. So many weirdly becostumed dancers, crowd surfing and Kevin Barnes eyeliner. High energy. Much of the crowd just standing, waiting for the Flaming Lips but I felt like I floated out of there. Dance party in my front room now.

"it's like we weren't made for this world..but I wouldn't wanna meet someone who was"

And free! And I was back home exactly two hours after I'd left. Perfect dose of badass music!

Really like the two new acoustic songs in this. (Don't know the story behind "Feminine Effects," the first song on it. It's on the outtakes/rarities album that came out last year.)

http://www.npr.org/event/music/169709211/of-montreal-tiny-desk-concert

"Feminine Effects" has been floating around for years - the version I have is Barnes solo on piano. First came out circa Hissing Fauna iirc.

What do people think of Daughter of Cloud, the out-takes album? For me I think it's okay but OM's last album has so totally ruined that band for me, I find it hard to even go back to things I used to love by the band.

Don't know, but I had that Sunlandic-era tour EP with "Psychotic Feeling" and "Noir Blues to Tinnitus" on it. Those tracks are something.

Liking Daughter of Cloud more than Paralytic Stalks.

gave up on this dude after whatever the one after "skeletal lamping" was (skeletal lamping ruled tho)

agreed.

could be a thread: "releases that ruined bands you previously loved"

How has it managed to ruin them for you? They have a pretty massive amount of albums out, I'm not sure why the latest one has managed to tarnish them that much. I think the album is OK, personally, but completely understand why it has gone down less well with some...

As I've said elsewhere, the last OM was my album of 2012 and the best thing I've heard OM do. So, let's put it down to the vast scope of subjectivity and allow them their scorn.

Daughter of Cloud is ok. Nothing on it feels particularly essential. I've changed my mind on Paralytic Stalks though, it took me a while but I think it's great now.

False Priest ("the one after "skeletal lamping"") is actually my favorite of Montreal album

xpost there's a link to a review i wrote about that album upthread. it's a curate's egg. for me the whole thing kind of shattered a lot of the illusions he'd built up for me around HFAYTD and SL. like watching a really good movie that ends in such a frustrating and terrible way that it kills all sympathy for the director and actors.

Just so enamored with "Imbecile Rages" from that NPR video I linked to above. Realized today that that snatch of Dylan melody in there comes from "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." (Couldn't place it at first.)

New album in fall:

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade/2013/04/of_montreal_kevin_barnes_interview_lousy_with_sylvianbriar.php

deserves new thread!

Another one? The guy doesn't stop. Somehow I wish he'd settle back and take a bit more time over his stuff. He's ultra talented but it feels like he's burning through material at a rate of knots when really he could make another hissing-fauna masterpiece.

so this has leaked. anyone heard it yet? i was a full-fledged up through sunlandic twins, enjoyed a lot of hissing fauna, didn't like skeletal lamping much at all, and thought false priest was awful. does this one continue the trajectory?

...or will i have to listen to it myself and form my own opinion?!

*shivers*

first impression: best since 'hissing fauna'. there are honest to goodness songs instead of overstuffed psych-disco collages

that would be a start

HF and SL are classics in my book

here is the thread for the new album: of Montreal - Lousy with Sylvianbria

that's weird, i even did a search for Sylvianbria and didn't find anything. i must have spelled it incorrectly.

Thoughts on the new single?

http://pitchfork.com/news/65869-of-montreal-announce-new-album-innocence-reaches-share-new-song-its-different-for-girls-listen/

To my ears it's one of the catchier, more coherent songs he's done in a while (not that I've been paying very close attention). Lyrically, sounds like he's still, um, working through some stuff…

Not a Joe Jackson cover? For shame!

Real talk though, I've been caning Aureate Gloom for the last few days. It's fucking amazing and maybe one of the best albums of recent years. Let's give this a listen with high hopes then. .

yo this is a cool new sonic tack from kevin <3

haven't quite parsed the layers in the lyrics yet. will assign the case to tt

video is fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_WDugKPnlk

haven't listened to anything by them post-false priest but this seems promising.

new album, this guy is a machine.

this sounds better to me than the material on the previous album, looking forward to seeing it live

I'm a big fan so I have time for every recent album he's made. But I'm hoping the single is an indication he's heading back to more fun and catchy material. Too much anger and misery over the last few albums

Innocence Reaches is now available for streaming on NPR First Listen

hmm

so is this going to be shit or not?

I'm a massive fan and I think this is kind of middling. It has some great moments (Chaos Arpeggiating in particular stands out for me), but overall it's a bit 'light'. It doesn't have the seething anger of the previous album, nor is it as obnoxiously fun as something like Skeletal Lamping. A couple of the tracks sound like reworkings of old material too. I'm still going to listen to it A LOT.

Paralytic Stalks was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

In a good way, right? Well, this is considerably less psychedelic and sprawling than that. Two of the tracks have trap beats...

I think Kevin is at his best when full monster.

nah, i pretty much hated that album. and yeah i loved skeletal lamping. just got sick of his passive aggressive whining really.

That's fair enough. There's a *bit* less of that here, especially as compared with Aureate Gloom.

I thought AG was really cool, and it only got better with repeated listens

It really grew on me too and overall is probably my 3rd favourite. It's a vicious album with some amazing crescendos.

Now youre going too far...

dl AG might be worth a listen, its really in the same vein as the amazing run from Satanic Panic to Skeketal Lamping

the mediocre pitchfork review has arrived

It's a mediocre album tbf

Aureate Gloom might well be their BEST album though, it's completely wonderful

nah this blows it way imo. already has about twice as much replay value this early. there are some hints at melody this time

um...what

AG is nothing but wonderful melodies

This has one song up to that standard (Gratuitous Abysses) and one successful trap experiment (Trashed Exes) but little else to sustain me. Will relisten though

Chaos A r Peggi a ting is good too coz tt told me to say so. We're at a beer festival

I enjoyed Aureate Gloom a lot. Not heard this new one yet.

Aureate Gloom is alright, it's just Kevin's misery is starting to grate a little. He's still pretty miserable here but musically it seems much more alive and he keeps threatening to get back to proper melodies again. Either way, I think IR is twice as good

"My Fair Lady" is really nice.

I managed about a song and a half but it was quite enough for me. This guy really needs to step back and consider what he's doing. You can't make music this detailed and release as much material as he does.

i had no idea what to play today so i decided to throw on this new album, Innocence Reaches. the single seemed too forced for me so i didn't know what to expect. the first half didn't grab me but continued to play it. the album seemed to get more and more psychedelic as i went on, very 60s. i think i might actually like this album, looking forward to playing it again in the next few days.

trying to listen to Innocence Reaches. I don't say this about too many albums but this is nigh-unlistenable. It just sounds like a huge mess. Kevin's lyrics are wooden and don't so much as rub-up against the music than barely attempt to work with it. The music itself regularly goes into sections that sound like a mistake that should have been sorted out in the early stages of mixing.

new album White is Relic/Irrealis Mood out March 9 on Polyvinyl

Two important events occurred during the making of White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood. I became “Simulated Reality” paranoid and I fell in LOVE.

Well a lot more happened during the process of writing and recording, but those are the two big ones. I also reached a healthy point of self-forgiveness for my failed marriage and became deeply educated in the lies of America the Great.

I feel like a switch was recently turned on in my brain and now I’m beginning to see through the lies that have been fed to me my whole life by the masters of media and by those who control and manipulate the narrative of our cultural identity and social order.

My paranoia began during the presidential election cycle and reached a dangerous peak shortly after the inauguration. In the meantime I watched and read countless works of art in a mad effort to be reminded of how many truly brilliant people there are living/struggling among us and to try to maintain a positive outlook. The works of Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Chris Kraus, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Autobiographies of Malcolm X and Mark E Smith were all great inspirations, to name a few.

Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles back in the ‘80s. It’s so cool how a lot of the 80’s hits had these really intricate and interesting longer versions that wouldn’t get played on the radio and could only be heard in the clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended “club edit” of album tracks.

I also decided to abandon the “live band in a room” approach that I had been using on the recent albums and work more on my own or remotely with collaborators. I used the same drum sample packs throughout because I wanted the album to have a rhythmic continuity to it. I wanted the drums to have a strong and consistent identity, similar to how Prince’s Linn Electronics LM-1 drum machine played such an important role on his classic albums. Zac Colwell also played a huge role on this album, adding saxophones and synths to most of the songs. I also got a lot of help from long time collaborators, and “of Montreal” touring members, Clayton Rychlik and JoJo Glidewell.

The two title concept came to me when I was thinking about how difficult it is to frame the message of a song with just one title, because so often the songs are about so many different subjects. ‘White Is Relic’ was inspired by James Baldwin’s writings regarding the creation and propagation of a toxic American White identity. I’ve come to learn how it’s just a tool wielded by the 1% to give poor white people a false sense of superiority in an effort to keep the masses placated and numb to how deeply we’re all getting fucked by our capitalist rulers. An ‘Irrealis Mood’ is a linguistic indicator that something isn’t yet reality but does have the potential to become so.

I’m always searching for new identities so this concept of the death of “Whiteness” appeals to me greatly. Might be the only way to save the world.

-Kevin Barnes, January 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuFw4IZWOUE

show i saw last april was fantastic, wasn't really familiar with anything past Skeletal Lamping and the new stuff sounded great. the new song is very much in the vein of that show and the EDM vibe of Rune Husk/Innocence Reaches

Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles back in the ‘80s. It’s so cool how a lot of the 80’s hits had these really intricate and interesting longer versions that wouldn’t get played on the radio and could only be heard in the clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended “club edit” of album tracks.

this is p much word for word neil tennant's explanation for how 'introspective' came to be

OM is probably the single band I'd describe as the most truly unpredictable when it comes to how good their next release will be. hopefully this one will follow 'innocence' with the pattern of 'lousy' -> 'aureate' in that a new sound will be prototyped and then gloriously realised

otm re unpredictability of quality. I loved the two "live in a room" psych-rock albums - felt like a new resurgence - but the last album did nothing for me. The new song is decent. and lol at another artist just now deciding/discovering capitalism is bad

yeah it strikes me that he should have been realising this stuff maybe twenty years ago?

and agree that the last album was kind of off

i think it's a marketing tactic

When people say Barnes is too prolific, they're talking shite, basically. He releases an album every 18 months - with the same timeframe, the Pixies wouldn't have been able to release Trompe Le Monde until 1996 or something

I think it's a fair accusation in his case cause a bunch of his releases feel like less-good iterations of / variations on the previous one

right, and their popularity plateaued a long time ago. they're in the same spot as Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu... haven't been hip or hyped since 2010 at the latest, playing the same clubs to ever diminishing audiences. although it's reversed for Montreal: they play the same places but sell them out every year, and young kids always come out, but their records are m/l ignored. Deerhoof & Xiu Xiu get pretty good press for their records, but man, the kids are not picking up on them, and the turnout at their shows in recent years has been pretty dire and depressing, ime.

and of Montreal totally earn that live success, because their stage show is consistently awesome & different.

Don't really understand why he should be encouraged to take longer between albums. Is it to build anticipation or the idea that he'll be more inspired after taking extended time off writing?

I don't get it because I largely like why do anyway, and it's not like he is that prolific. An album every 18 months, with an EP six months later. Seems pretty normal to me personally and not some GBV-esque trip. Opinions will always vary for each release but I don't think he's put out an career-wreckingly disliked album. Stalks was fairly controversial but seems to have won plenty of fans over time.

*what he does
* a career

etc. i'm tired

Only people saying that are industry people. Longer you take between albums, more attention each one gets. Of course the risk you take is the public forgetting about you completely, which I wouldn't take over being a working band and keeping up a regular touring/recording schedule. If you wait years between records, you could get a hiatus bump like Fleet Foxes, LCD, Vampire Weekend... or you could just vanish. I really admire bands that just keep working.

I was speaking more on the creative side. some of the albums feel like the songs needed more time to bake properly, or for him to realize the material wasn't that special

I could understand that point of view more if it really did feel like he was just churning them out say annually, with the extra EP, in the way someone like Luke Haines does. Or like Ray Davies in the 70s, flitting from bloated concept album to next with no space to breathe. I don't think the albums have sounded any less focused as a consequence of coming out at these regular intervals.

I find it interesting that opinions will vary though, where on here you might see someone bat for Aureate Gloom, whereas other fans may see it as a tune-free low-point (I like it). I like that he's leaving behind all these albums which may take a few years to appreciate.

xp I agree. and I suspect he's of the mind that you gotta keep working or you'll be forgotten. a band like that is always in a precarious place. by touring regularly especially, he's kept a healthy fanbase, even if the records are neglected. and I guess he feels a need to have something new for those tours and not rest on his laurels, also he's obviously so prolific and not content to stay in one spot for too long. the 'live band in a room' period only lasted 2 or 3 years.

xp tbf he has done that, last full length LP was in 2016, and last year he put out a (really good) EP, in addition to a Hissing Fauna reissue.

his live band was absolutely incredible btw

I mean that the album appears every 18 months and pretty much as a routine there's an EP which follows about six months later, most likely from the same sessions. He's been doing that since at least Hissing.

I mean a healthy routine, not simply by rote

yeah i've seen of Montreal 3 times, in 2014, 2015, and 2017. all three were really extravagant shows: props, lights, half a dozen costume changes... and all three were totally different from each other, presentation and setlists. last year was especially sweet, he was fully in the EDM mode, all the backup players behind these huge LED platforms, he was in drag the whole time.

man needs to take a break i reckon. just can't abide much he's released since ooh.. a bit after Skeletal Lamping. I am kind of interested in the description of this new one though

Yeah if he stops making albums I'm into then I guess he should just stop

by my count, since Skeletal Lamping he's released two amazing albums, one good album and two slightly shonky albums. this does not count any EPs or whatnot

proceed, kevin

It would be alright if he'd released two amazing albums (Skeletal Lamping was 10 years ago, sure, but god it feels like less time than that and to have released FIVE more full-lengths, a bunch of comps and a handful of EPs just seems ridiculous for the kind of music he makes).

Skeletal Lamping is great, one of his best
False Priest isn't liked as much as others for reasons I don't get, it's my personal favorite
thecontrollersphere is great
Paralytic Stalks is tough to get into, but does some amazing things
Daughter of Cloud is a bit uneven (as would be expected for a collection of rarities and unrealeased tracks) but has some great songs
Lousy with Sylvianbriar is very good, though it feels like this is the point where it gets a bit less interesting
Aureate Gloom is an ok album with one amazing track (Empyrean Abattoir)
Innocence Reaches is fine. I listened to it a bunch of times when it was released, but never really felt to urge to revisit.
Rune Husk - I know I listened to this, but I don't really remember much about it.

So yeah, a pretty good 10 year run, but it seems like he's been dropping off the last couple of years. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see him release another amazing album though.

I dropped off after Paralytic Stalks. It just sounded like a parody of everything that made Hissing / Skeletal so great > complex arrangements but WAY too complex and never settling in place for more than 5 seconds, plus LOTS of whingeing and preciousness. Tried giving the others a listen when they came out (Rune Husk? Didn't even realise this existed) but it was just 'ach I can't bear this any more'

Otm.

the first couple post-Hissing Fauna records really suffer from his trying to build conceptually from the second half of that album, to pretty smdh-y results

the whole Georgie Fruit conceit is pretty nuts and would absolutely NEVER fly today (although this isn’t really borne out in the lyrics, just the press releases)

it was nuts but just totally off the scale down-the-rabbit hole loopy that it worked. you're right, it wouldn't work today without coming under fire from a million blogs

I don't think there are a million blogs keeping track of what of Montreal is up to these days

There was a time for me where Kevin Barnes was like...I couldn't believe what he was doing. Sunlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna. The Sunlandic Twins is my favorite album from this century. I lost interest in the period after that but have liked this and that and I kinda neat to catch up.

kinda NEED to catch up

Love this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYiB4XPRiM

the new album is great. I lost interest around False Priest, never listened to Paralytic Stalks (though I'm positive that one is going to undergo some serious critical reevaluation, much like Pinkerton or Adore), and he totally lost me with the garage rock albums with unbelievably awful & ugly album covers. though they've always been an amazing live band. but the new one is really great, his idea to make an album of "extended club mixes" worked. it's not a total break from the past like the previous EDM records (which I also never listened to, but when I saw them last year, those songs sounded great), it's actually a lot closer to the core, the heart music that defines of Montreal: Prince.

I've only given it one listen but it seemed...fine? some short stretches of inspiration here and there (sax solo (iirc)!), some stretches of not a lot of interest happening. also for all of his talk about it being a "political" album or whatever the concerns seemed to be more of the same.

oh the whole race angle is totally bullshit and completely contrived, I chalk that up to cynical marketing/publicity move. that's the curse of being in a band that never breaks up, if you plateau in popularity your records usually get ignored. like Deerhoof or Xiu Xiu, who continue to make amazing work but don't get the attention or respect they deserve imo. I like this record a lot because to me it sounds like after 5+ years of searching he's finally comfortable in an idiom other than rock/pop where it's not distracting or gimmicky, and his gift for melody and songwriting and arranging shines thru again.

holy shit the closing track

oh hm it didn't turn out the way i was hoping. he started rapping ffs

i don't like this very much i think. 'best since ____' is such a lazy narrative about this band anyway - their albums are so different to each other

aureate gloom 4eva suckaz

Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia is an all-time classic. I like how he clearly follows his muse and doesn't give a fuck about what any detractors think, then moves onto the next thing leaving everyone to catch up five years later

Yeah that's the best song by a fair way

Track 3 is really great as well

Last two tracks are so frustrating. There are really fantastic things about both, but really jarring things too

I don't much like tracks 1 & 4

Hmm

Two great songs is better than the last album at least

OK I think I like the opening track now. Second half of the album is still iffy though

hmm

this is qute the grower! :D

also i think...Writing The Circles might be even better than PI/BD? they're both incredible

I wasn't able to follow it thematically on first listen, but I really like this album. If we're looking at a lot of his post-Hissing Fauna albums as different genre exercises, this is probably the one that appeals to me the most, not just because I love '80s dance mixes but because it's something that's really in his wheelhouse and I think he nails it. It's the best glimpse I've seen in a while of what a virtuoso he is.

Band sounds fantastic.

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/v5opug/the-opposition-with-jordan-klepper-of-montreal----soft-music-juno-portraits-of-the-jovian-sky-

wow that's an great performance -- need to hear this now

enjoying this album, looking forward to living with it a little. "sophie" is probably the most conventional song for them on the record, can totally see it as a skeletal lamping B-side

whoa last song is amazing

really into "writing the circles..." and "plateau phase..." now -- the latter almost strikes me as an erykah badu attempt

Kevin Barnes is a genius. He should release albums more frequently

plateau phase is the best

The bass playing on "Forecast Fascist Future."

love that tune. this band is coming to Honolulu this month and i think i'm going to see them. kevin fired the whole lineup and got a new band together since they last were here, from what i've heard, which is a shame. i wonder what happened

satanic panic in the attic is straight gas from front to back, cant believe how little it was discussed in this thread. perfect summertime pop music, so much fun and strikingly beautiful in its sincerity

of Montreal should release an album...

in seriousness, while I fell out lof love with this band a looong time ago, I'm revisiting some of their better work and putting a playlist together. Despite being familiar with a good chunk of their output, there's still a lot of stuff I don't know, especially the early and more recent albums.

I've made this list collaborative, so fans: feel free to add your personal faves. I'm sure even the recent stuff has at least one good song on each album.

https://open.spotify.com/user/1153731601/playlist/0niIJHexTQ6bah96EhXTJa?si=DIu-W5TDQ365EAzkp3d0NA

i feel the same as you, going to try out your playlist. thanks for taking the time and sharing it.

Due feb/march I think. There was a bunch of Instagram stories containing previews recently. Sounded poppy and good!

thanks for the playlist DL, most of your faves are mine too. Forgot how great "No Conclusion" is.

Their early years were pretty nauseatingly saccharine/twee, but there were a couple of decent gems in there. I'll try to add some later.

their imperial phase managed to balance the early tweeness and the later navel-gazing just about enough. Sadly Barnes succumbs to both way too easily, to the point where often it's hard to tell if he's as serious as he appears to be trying to be...

turning point was whenever he fired his band (~2013?)

Well, what are you asserting occurred at that turning point?

he recruited a new live band who were possibly even better, is what happened. witness 'snare lustrous doomings'. we saw them on that tour and they were absolutely fucking incredible. end of story

I should go next time they come. Have not seen them in a long while.

Added a few faves to the playlist.

xp first time I saw em was in 2014 and they were amazing, the new band is great but the 2013 record was awful... nothing since has grabbed me. white is relic has its moments

lousy with sylvianbriar wasn't so strong but it has gained something in retrospect and is worth a return

since then his albums have gone amazing-> bad -> pretty good so he's still got it afaic

innocence reaches wasn't even that bad, just much less good with some highlights, like false priest before it

There was a Tiny Desk Concert performance where he did a couple of really amazing solo guitar versions of Sylvianbriar songs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-H9Vf2Wa1c

Ur Fun
of Montreal
Alternative
Expected Jan 17, 2020

1. Peace To All Freaks
2. Polyaneurism
3. Get God's Attention By Being an Atheist
4. Gypsy That Remains
5. You've Had Me Everywhere
6. Carmillas of Love
7. Don't Let Me Die In America
8. St. Sebastian
9. Deliberate Self-harm Ha Ha
10. 20th Century Schizofriendic Revengoid-man

Hey my birthday. Not like I’ve kept up with their recent releases though.

based on the preview track, seems like a bad one! that's okay he does this. maybe it's going to strictly alternate from here on. the problemawoke sexpop/insane progge dialectic played out without resolution. maybe you cannot have one without the other. maybe I'm being reductive and spotting patterns which aren't there. maybe it's all different shades of insane problemawoke sexproggepop

I like the new logo :)

lmao at "20th Century Schizofriendic Revengoid-man"

I don't hate the single!

new anthem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3mOomxq-ec&list=OLAK5uy_k47gvF-4g2GKfl6Mddw85tqRt_fqmOa7g&index=7

shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3mOomxq-ec&list=OLAK5uy_k47gvF-4g2GKfl6Mddw85tqRt_fqmOa7g

I love UR Fun. Best album since Hissing Fauna...?

it's like the 6th best since then

first 3 or 4 tracks good, never really recovers that level, decent album overall

new one is pleasingly all over the shop, and Kcrraanggaanngg!! is an anthem

WHO NEEDS A HEART WHEN A HEART DOES MURDER
PISSING ON ITSELF IN HEAVEN'S GARBAGE

so good. where r u ilm. is kevin yesterday's news already

i got around to listening to this today. it did make an impression on me and will have to play again to see if i like it.

this album is pearls before fuckin swine tbh

enjoyed this, looking forward to going on a walk tomorrow to it

thank god lol

deffo stood out more than anything ive listened to since hissing, don't think i've repeated any of them albums

Lousy With Sylvianbriar stood out like crazy whether you enjoyed it or not. I thought it was fantastic, but it was a big departure from their established sound.

so good. where r u ilm. is kevin yesterday's news already

― imago, Friday, 19 March 2021 13:18 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh no, someone who torched their popularity ten years ago surely can't be making some of the most cutting-edge pop now, they must be really old and bad or something

listen to the new album you fools

Okay fine I will

getting a White Is Relic twinned with a less obnoxious I Feel Safe With You, Trash vibe. No bangers. Good album