of Montreal is an indie pop band formed in Athens Georgia USA in 1997 The band is fronted by Kevin Barnes, who writes composes and plays most of the music for his albums
They were among the second wave of groups to emerge from The Elephant 6 Recording Company and the Group has a style that is typical of many Elephant 6 bands due to their interest in combining musical experimentation with the basic tenets of pop ie melodies and singalong choruses band's style has been influenced by conventional indie pop psychedelic music vaudeville and music hall on their earlier versions and afrobeat funk krautrock and reggae on their recent releases
The band's style has been known to switch between its first album the band embraced a simpler odd lo-fi indie popljud sometimesbordering on twee pop band created by Kevin Barnes and named after a failed romance with a woman from Montreal, though the story changes in various interviews, Barnes was the only member of the group before moving to Athens Georgia There he met Derek Almstead later of the circulatory system, M Coast Elf Power, etc., and Bryan Poole, who also performs as The Late BP Helium
Together they recorded their debut album Cherry Peel and The Bird who continues to eat Rabbit's Flower and Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy A number of singles and a new release of The Bird who continues to eat Rabbit's Flower occurred before the release of the band's third album, The Gay Parade in 1999 with contributions from several members of the collective ElephantSex when it also contained photos from Kevin's brow, David Barnes, who would continue to do artwork for future albums
This album marked the band had moved to a fuller sound, which is also found on his follow-up Coquelicot asleep in the poppy: A variety of Whimsical Verse These two albums contain more narrative texts as opposed to the rather personal lyrical matter on the before and often imitating the style of old 1950s radio dramas
After production on The Gay Parade began in 1998 Poole left the band to focus on their task Elf Power another Elephant Six band from Athens Barnes also recruited Jamey Huggins and Dottie Alexander, who had been performing together as Lightning Bug vs. Firefly to play various instruments Derek moved from drums to bass TheBat went just after med Marshmallow Coast's Andy Gonzales
After the publication of the Gay Parade band signed with Kindercore Records would release a number of singles and compilation albums, it was not until 2001 that Coquelicot asleep in the Poppies: A variety of whimsical Verse would be released as a new album of original material The album again contains contributions from around the Elephant 6 spectrum
Kindercore Records would fold shortly after the release of the Arboretum and the Montreal status also threatened Kevin married and Andy and Derek left the band Barnes is uncomfortable with the concern that some divisions within the band took to write and perform their 2004 Panic album Satanic in the Attic mostly by himself Released by Polyvinyl Records became one of their most successful efforts to this point for the 2004 tour saw The Late BP Helium (Bryan Poole) reunited the band with some bass played by Kevin Partner Nina Barnes album marked a transition to something more electronic with traditional structures to further progress in later albums and new songs on their latest releases and concerts iBandet whole has embraced a kind oftechno-pop glam image with a bit of their previous incarnations surfacing This style is in the singles Connect Dots style would continue to be developed by 2005 The Sunlandic Twins, which was still a Barnes solo album recorded in Athens, with the exception of one track in Norway, it was a more pronounced electronic album The album became a success mainly because of the singles "So begins our Alabee" and the MTV clip for "Wraith pinned to the Mist (and other games)"
The band released several collections of singles in early 2006, Barnes recorded most of the band's 2007 release hissing fauna are you Destroyer? myself when we lived in Norway and Athens Georgia switch to autobiographical themes of suicide and depression, isolation of the album was a direct product of his troubled life under this period
of Montreal released their latest album Skeletal Lamping October 21, 2008 The album was also previously leaked to the Internet through various torrent sites
Lyrically their style has changed dramatically over the years in the beginning many songs were tales of personal or humorous situations as "Tim I Wish You Were Born A Girl" from Cherry Peel This style, however, changed with The Gay Parade, where many songs involve small narratives surrounding invented characters (with songs such as "Jacques Lamure" "the autobiographical Grandfather" Mimi Merlot "and "Robert Rose") the other act as extracts from fictional conversations ("Advice from a Divorced Gentleman to His Bachelor Friend view marriage" and "Good Morning Mr Edminton" as an example) With Aldhils Arboretum came a slight return to the previous text analysis in addition to the more poppy classical lyrical structures (such as use of the chorus, which normally exist in the Gay Parade / Coquelicot years) This style continued throughout Satanic Panic and The Sunlandic Twins, to some extent the album sizzling animals: Are you the Destroyer? The lyrics are much more personal than previously used with songs describing the feelings of the speaker
Another unique feature of the band is a fusion of ostensibly gloomy lyrics with bouncy upbeat melodies and hooks on Aldhils Arboretum, for example, texts to songs like "doing nothing" and "earlier in the Cemetery" förkunderna of apathy loneliness or death while contrasted with cheerful instrumentation Another example of this trendin their choice of covers, such as Yoko Ono's "I felt like smashing my head through a clear glass window" from The Bird who continues to eat Rabbit's Flower
True to the style of most Elephant 6 artists at Montreal's members have in a variety of side projects and other links: The band itself has performed as backing band for Marshmallow Coast on disc and on tour
My First Keyboard was the pseudonym of Dottie Alexander to release the song "The Man I Created" on Kindercore singles club Montreal were her backing band
