James Husband on Athens Soundies

Watch James Husband's new acoustic session on Athens Soundies. OK, maybe not a "session" but two songs that are still very nicely executed in what looks like (and sounds like) a post-industrial dump. Somehow Athens doesn't look like that when I close my eyes and try to picture it, but then I wouldn't know... The videos were shot by Jason Miller, who is also working (was working?) on the long-awaited of Montreal DVDs. He also shot the 24-hour Party Purple documentary.
Thanks to Dottie for the links - these gems had fallen under the Booty Patrol's radar. Be sure to click on the Athens Soundies link if you want a better video, or if you want to take a look at the other videos they shot - there are some good ones on this blog.

~~-~~ Kevin's best albums of the decade (part II)~~-~~

Everyone can understand how difficult it is to come up with a list and stick to it, so don't be too harsh on Kevin for the differences between the list that was published in Rolling Stone last week and the one that is featured in Ragged Word. Be sure to check it out because this one has annotations and you may learn a few disturbing things, like the fact that Blueberry Boat is "music to help potted house accountants in comas to grow." Who would have thought?

Kevin's Best Of The Decade

Not only has Kevin been nominated as one of the 5 best artists of the decade by Under The Radar, he has also been mandated by Rolling Stone to pick the 25 best albums and songs of the decade. Others musicians, from Kirk Hammett to Colin Meloy, from Jarvis Cocker to people who must have been in a band at some point (though I have my doubts), submitted their lists too, and no-one has actually picked any of Montreal! What kind of panel was that? Jerks.
You may want to take a look at Lars Ulrich's list, though, it's a riot. Or at the very least it could cause one.


Among Kevin's obvious choices : MGMT, Janelle Monae, Erikah Badu and Animal Collective (and a whole lot of songs of Montreal has been covering over the years), among the not-so-obvious (or maybe that's only me) : The Strokes and Manu Chao, and among the who-the-hell-are-these-people (feel free to enlighten me) : Spirit Stereo Frequency (best album of the decade, really? more like best kept secret...), the Knife, Estelle...



Take a look at Kevin's score sheets :

Feel free to discuss his choices here, on facebook or at the Townhall, and share your own best of lists... 'Tis the season, after all...

---~~~---~~~ The Booty Patrol on Twitter ---~~~---~~~

The Booty Patrol entered the world of the 140-character-tops snippets of wisdom today. The point of it is to make it easier to share links and other almost irrelevant pieces of information... Either that or it'll just mean that I didn't have the time for a real post. Whichever way, the tweets will appear on here (look, here they are, sandwiched between the header and the posts in tiny letters because I haven't figured out how to change that yet!), so if you're not a twitter fan, you don't have to worry about it. The more we change, the more we stay the same.

Towards a Beyoncé / Kevin collaboration?

Just in case you missed the information first time around and are not in the knowles (ha!), Beyoncé confessed she'd like to record with of Montreal in last week's edition of the Observer (scroll down to the very end of the interview), saying she'd like to "go outside of the box" and into indie music... Paste Magazine had the great idea to phone (or mail?) Kevin to ask him what he thought about a possible collaboration - and as expected, he answered that he'd be "fully psyched" and claimed that "most people don't realize what an amazing great singer [she] is."

You know how the studies showed that you're never more than 6 people away from anyone else in the world? Well, it turns out that Beyoncé and Kevin are only one Solange away from each other, as both "blame" her for their recent exposure to each others' works.

2010 is shaping up to be a very collaborative year for of Montreal (or just Kevin - at this point I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to decide that the terms are interchangeable) - not only is Kevin slated to appear on Janelle Monae's much anticipated follow-up to "The Chase Suite," but he also has Solange on the back burner, and Jon Brion will be working his magic on False Priest.

Janelle Monae, Kevin, Solange sharing the stage on Sept. 18th, 2009.
Picture by Townhaller/Booty Patroller Dan Jordan.

2009 - the year in pictures

The Booty Patrol - 2009 in pictures from I Rule The School on Vimeo.

Fun Fun Fun Fest

And so ended a year of intensive touring... 13 months - 97 shows on 3 different continents - 2 guitars smashed to pieces - one proposal - 359 bruises - 3 sprained ankles - the equivalent of Guinea-Bissau's GDP spent on costumes - 5 gallons of red body paint and 750 cans of shaving cream used - 2,900,078,021,023,946 feathers blown in unsuspecting fans' faces... (all verified facts, of course...)

But to the point... Both James Husband and of Montreal (plus touring partners Sugar & Gold) played Fun Fun Fun Festival in Austin, Tx last weekend.
Fun it was or so I've heard, but it will be remembered for its lack of media visibility - no webcast, no video, no bootleg (so far?), and hardly a handful of reviews. Pitchfork didn't humor oM with one despite their extensive coverage, but a couple of lower key blogs/magazines did.
Envy Mag apparently couldn't get a hold of a recent picture (much eye-rolling and head-shaking at this faux-pas, because Kevin's almost new outfit was worth breaking out the Nikon, guys!), but was nevertheless enthralled ("the most original set I've ever seen"), Neoows couldn't find "something more fun than dancing under the stars to the provocative and primal calisthenics of Of Montreal," Spin didn't mention of Montreal but gave a honorable mention to Jamey and his "slick songwriting." Meanwhile, 360 ranks amongst those who think the theatricality takes away from the music (but still enjoyed it somewhat).
In order to be as thorough as can be, I will add that the official festival site has videos coming, and that Townhaller TweakFreqStudios shot three songs from the side of the stage. Gorilla vs. Bear also has (once again) a very groovy polaroid of Kevin...

Picture by Brad C.

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On an almost unrelated subject, you have one day left to bid on Kevin's mixtape shirt - the money will go to 826NYC.org - an "incredibly cool organization founded by Dave Eggers" that is "dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teacher inspire their students to write."
( (c) 2009 - Townhall Assorted Quotes Ltd.)


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This just in : watch James Husband's live performance at the Guest Appartment here. 3 live songs + an interview. Enjoy

James Husband's Window

I'm not sure if we can call this a single (let's not start a debate over the relevance of singles), but this song now has its own video, and it's a video that apparently shot itself. Icing on the already very tasty hubby cake, Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor are in it! Well, I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty swell (that and the fact that Andy LeMaster got to, er, master the record) - it brings together the best of the Athens scene (if you haven't already done so, you seriously need to check out Now It's Overhead (especially the first two efforts) - records to get you through the winter while waiting for False Priest to come out).

Stay tuned for the Fun Fun Fun Fest wrap-up edition - waiting on my special reporters' pictures to post that.

James Husband

As Jamey's first solo record is shipping from Polyvinyl's offices as we speak, and as him, Dottie, Davey and a couple of other members of the extended of Montreal family are set to go on tour, The Austinist published an interview with the Man. It is almost as much about of Montreal as it is about A Parallax I and Jamey's previous involvements with other e6 bands, and it is well worth a read. Enjoy.

picture by Alan Bee - Field Day 2008.

New Videos

The band posted two new videos on their YouTube channel yesterday.

The first one is about Davey's wrist (the new, enhanced, bionic wrist, that is) and if you are the kind of person who is grossed out by medical procedures, you may want to avert your eyes from the 2nd minute mark on. Otherwise, just stare and you may learn a few things about bones and pins.

The second one, 24 Hour Party Purple (you gotta love the title, if you don't, there's something wrong with you) looks like a trailer for a documentary of some sort (but I'm probably imagining things, plus we've already got two DVDs and a documentary to look forward to). It was shot before, during and after the Fashion Week party of Montreal threw at Santos in NYC two weeks ago.

I am now kindly reminding you facebook users that in order to watch the videos and get your weekly dose of oM goodness, you need to come here (i.e. The Booty Patrol page, outside of fB, on the web), because they are not embedded on the fB Booty Patrol page and won't show up in your newsfeed and I know you're going to get frustrated and tell me there's something wrong and yell and stomp and cry when there's nothing I can do about it.

Daryl & Oates interview in Under The Radar

Under The Radar has now published their lengthy, two-part interview of Hall & Oates. As previously twitted by Kevin himself a while back, he got the job as the interviewer (which is why I'm posting this here, The Booty Patrol did not turn into a Daryl & Oates fan page).
Together, they discuss racial issues, recording techniques, the evolution of the music industry, Live From Daryl's House (which sounds like a really cool idea), movies, the works of Aleister Crowley (I had to mention that even though it only takes 1% of the interview), and plenty of other interesting stuff for you to read, so head over there!

And if you are as totally ignorant as I am (for your sake I hope not), you can sample three of their songs on myspace.

T5 bootleg (already) available!

We are much much much indebted to Dan Lynch, who never misses the chance to capture of Montreal whenever they hit NYC (this is the 5th recording in less than a year, if you can imagine that!). He managed to do a fantastic job this time and offers us the full recording a mere 24 hours after it happened! Dan, you're the man! Many thanks to BP too, without whom this wouldn't have happened (and I don't think it's the first time that he has to sort things out with the venue managers (or whoever) that are giving tapers a hard time.)

Please visit nyctaper.com to download the show, either in flac or mp3.

For links to photos and fans' perception of the event (and a good healthy dose of incoherent rambling, otherwise what's the point?), visit the special NYC Fashion Week thread at the good ol' Townhall - it sounds like you people had a fantastic time despite the somewhat obnoxious behavior of a few ill-advised bitches in the front row, but what's new, eh? It's either that or send the band back to some dodgy bar playing to 25 oh-so tasteful punters, and we sure don't want that, do we?

New York Fashion Week Party

On Wednesday night, of Montreal put on a much-anticipated one-of-a-kind performance at Santos Party House in New York. Reports in the form of excited tweets started flooding as the show began, and became less and less decipherable as the show went on (thus mimicking what was going on on stage, apparently.) What happens in Santos stays in Santos, and my spies are giving me the silent treatment (I don't know what they have witnessed, but I am now slightly concerned that they may never recover), so we will have to do with official reports from our favorite indie news agencies (and if it isn't enough and you want some kind of inside scoop, you can head over to oM's official twitter and almost re-live it from Kevin's perspective.

Stereogum covered the show in just 100 words but 64 pictures.
Brooklyn Vegan must have been thrilled not to see any animals on stage this time, but got carried away and half the pictures they took are of random members of the audience (I'm guessing that's the Beautiful People of NYC, but I seriously have no idea who they are).
Fluxblog was the first one to hand in his paper, and for that we are grateful. Matthew also gets the gold in the "most appropriate title" category.
Pitchfork didn't bother with words, but contributed a few pictures...
Gaelen Harlacher covered the event for Rockscope and took wonderful pictures, including these two...

NBC also covered the event, but have no pictures to show for it, as "it was so wild, in fact, that we're sad to tell you that we can't post many of the photos we took last night online." I guess this is what happens when you're working for a big network. Unfortunately, working for NBC doesn't mean you can afford a dictionary (kuddos to all of you who will spot the misspell).


Tonight, the band is playing T5 - which will (hopefully) be full of adoring, paying and quite possibly under-aged fans, but here's to hoping they bring some of the new, kinkier theatrics to the stage! Expect a full report sometime during the weekend!



On a totally unrelated note, our resident artist/Patroller Camille Wells has finished chapter 2 of her Skeletal Lamping comic extravangaza, and we have just put it online, so check it out! Her black & white style of drawing fits the song perfectly.

Win tickets to a "special performance"

of Montreal will be in New York next week to celebrate the NY Fashion Week with a show at Terminal 5 on Friday night, and a special private performance on Wednesday 16th. The good news is, you can win tickets (or some kind of Open Sesame magic phrase, who knows?) by registering on Thrillist (click on the picture below).
I'm not really sure what they mean by of Montreal ft. Smirnoff Vodka - sounds like a recipe for some kind of hipster Molotov Cocktail (matches not included). It could be dangerous, which is why you can't attend if you're under 21. Sorry, kiddies!

~~-~~ September 10th edit ~~-~~

Thanks to Lauren for passing on the information about the almost-private show the band will be playing at the Riviera in Chicago tonight - and this time you can actually score tickets! Rumor has it that it is some kind of award ceremony, there's no talk about how long the performance would be, and the tickets are outrageously expensive, but hey... if you're in Chicago and you've stolen just your boss's wallet, you may be able to make it to the show.

of Montreal gig poster auction

The Children Of The Blue Sky charity organisation, which helps homeless children in Mongolia (I don't know about you, but I'm afraid there are lots and lots of them there) put up special artwork by *gasp* Jeff Mangum up for auction on ebay, along with special items by the Apples in Stereo or the Magnetic Fields. of Montreal is now officially part of this great charity auction : you can now try and outbid everyone and get your hands on a couple of autographed gig posters.

Let's hope you oM fans out there are as insanely rich and generous as Neutral Milk Hotel's!

Blurt Online Interview

This one is really weird. It almost sounds like it's been translated from Chinese using a little bit of brain power and a lot of Babel Fish - ok, so maybe I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but someone needs to take English grammar 101 next term. Unless the writer has some wonderful excuse like "I'm French." (trust me, this one will get you out of most uncomfortable situations).
Anyway... It doesn't mention False Priest or any of the newer stuff at all, which makes me wonder when Kevin gave this interview in the first place - it all sounds very 2008 to me.

Kevin talks to the Suicide Girls about...

... new album, his songwriting m.o., rock criticism, sports, the human condition, and all the usual stuff... plus the difference between rape and consensual sex (bonus answer). Read the rather lengthy interview there. Thanks to Illuminated for the link.