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of Montreal

of Montreal

The brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal was among the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collective. A native of Athens, Georgia, Barnes was inspired to form the euphoric indie ... The brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal was among the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collective. A native of Athens, Georgia, Barnes was inspired to form the euphoric indie pop group in the wake of a broken romance with a woman from Montreal. He signed with Bar/None Records while living in Florida, subsequently moved to Cleveland and Minneapolis in search of compatible bandmates, and finally returned home to collaborate with bassist Bryan Helium (also a member of Athens' Elf Power) and drummer Derek Almstead.

Of Montreal's debut album, Cherry Peel, appeared in mid-1997, followed that autumn by an EP entitled The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit's Flower. From the start, the band buoyed its bright, flamboyant indie pop sound with elements of psychedelia and vaudeville; Of Montreal's earliest records also exhibited a lo-fi sound that bordered on twee pop, although the band steadily shed those influences throughout the early 2000s. After Helium left the group in 1998 to focus on Elf Power full-time, Almstead assumed bass duties, while keyboardist Dottie Alexander and drummer Jamie Huggins both joined the lineup. Nevertheless, the band's second album, 1998's The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy, was recorded primarily as a Barnes solo project.

Multi-instrumentalist A.C. Forrester signed on for 1999's sublime The Gay Parade, while the retrospective album Horse & Elephant Eatery followed in the spring of 2000. The group continued with the release of Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse in April 2001 and Aldhils Arboretum in September of 2002, both of which were issued by the Georgia-based label Kindercore Records. With the subsequent folding of Kindercore, the departures of multi-instrumentalist Andy Gonzales and Almstead, and Barnes' marriage, 2003 proved to be an up and down year for the group. Barnes' wife, Nina, joined Of Montreal's lineup as the group signed to Polyvinyl Records and delivered one of their most celebrated records, Satanic Panic in the Attic, in early 2004.

The following year found Barnes exploring a bouncier, synth-driven avenue with the release of Sunlandic Twins, but things began to get complicated in his personal life at the same time. He and his wife moved to Norway for the birth of their baby. Deprived of familiar touchstones, Barnes fell into a deep depression and, upon returning to the States, continued to travel progressively downhill. He and his wife separated for a time, and she returned to her family in Norway with their new daughter. Through the emotional turmoil, Barnes concocted what was to be his darkest, most personal, and ambitious album yet -- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? -- in 2007. Arriving one year later, Skeletal Lamping furthered that ambitious sound by emphasizing Barnes' outrageous alter ego, "Georgie Fruit," whose influence pushed the album toward funk and prog territory. An Eluardian Instance (Jon Brion Remix EP) followed in early 2009, featuring five remixed tracks from the previous album. Of Montreal's tenth studio release, False Priest, arrived the following year and featured cameos from fellow genre-hoppers Janelle Monáe and Solange Knowles. Songs written for that album but not used saw the light of day in April of 2011 with the release of thecontrollersphere EP. The following year Barnes revisited the raw emotion of Hissing Fauna with the album Paralytic Stalks, exploring themes of self-loathing, revenge, and romantic turmoil to create Of Montreal's most personal offering yet. At the end of 2012, the band issued the Daughter of Cloud compilation, a collection of unreleased b-sides and outtakes from 2008-2011.

Jason Ankeny
AllMusic.com
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tapes
Tape	Songs	Comments	Author
Let me know what you think it's missing I am making this playlist to give to a girl and want feedback	16	16	salvatorevalestra
Good Songs Beginning With B A mixtape containing good songs that begin with the letter B.	28	3	adamus
JohnnyLurg's Favorite Songs A nice selection of my favorite songs.	173	7	JohnnyLurg
Music from The OC I don't even watch the OC, but I've found out that apparently they play some pretty decent music on the show :)	57	1	indiexchick
one year after the broken bones My boyfriend made this for me for Valentine's Day, one year after we first met (He called 911 when I got into an accident and broke both my ...	20	1	cassadilla
Rainy Sunday Afternoon just some stuff i've been listening to lately, on rainy afternoons	26	1	eowyn797
Graveyard Girl	14	2	PaintMeAnything
Sexy Exciting Music for the Everyday Man Do you like good music? Me neither!	22	3	cgears09
Clear Overhead! Songs that got stuck in my head while I sweated my way through firefighter training.	20	2	Tamarack
adam's mixtape	13	5	adamus
Favorites Favorited song meanings or lyrics	31	0	magui
i saw you through tinted glass	15	0	seniasunshine
hear.	30	0	DreamingOfRainbowButterflies
Anti-Valentine A mix to play when you feel particularly jaded about love.	7	1	Mellow_Harsher
JohnnyLurg's Favorite Songs Vol. 17	30	0	JohnnyLurg
Flirty Songs ...um...oh come on, just read the title. It's pretty self-explanitory.	8	0	leftright
The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion Songs that never fail to put me in a good mood.	30	6	JohnnyLurg
Attempt #1 I'm exchanging indie mixes with a girl. We have two rules. 1) 15 songs 2) No: Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Elliot Smith, Flaming Lip...	15	7	acerimmer
October O-Face This is just a monthly collection of my current favorites, mostly new, a few possibly older.	18	0	carpeomniachica
Summer '11 ...	15	0	feathercanyons
Favorite Lyrics. This mixtapes are just FULL of my favorite lyrics by my favorite bands.	3	0	sexifreakshow78
Mix	10	1	bsmiffay
JohnnyLurg's Favorite Songs Vol. 24	30	1	JohnnyLurg
Cool Stuff ...of Montreal, Noah and The Whale, Miniature Tigers...just really great stuff.	19	4	leftright
oktober songs with the month of october mentioned	13	0	smokintnt
of montreal	30	0	Julialove
feelgood Rhythm A portmanteau of songs of varying genres that intrigue me.	14	2	theadrianman
xmess Volume 1 putting the mess back into christmas	18	1	fkngslp
Girl, why not take out the trash? Songs about spring cleaning your life of dickish guys. http://8tracks.com/daringfeline/girl-why-not-take-out-the-trash	8	1	DaringFeline
of montreal Volume 1	8	0	Julialove
Beautiful Music	15	0	CorrinMarvelyn
Practicing 1-	2	0	BrunadeMer

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