Merry Christmas

Townhaller mkdevo is year's Santa!

He (she? it?) decided to share with us two shows he taped in 2008 and 2009 : the incredible Roseland Ballroom show (think naked knight on a white horse), and the New Haven one from this year's spring tour (the one that didn't have a fancy name, sadly). And when I say two shows, that is two shows from the intro music to the last goodbyes - all in HQ and from the balcony! Relive the glory of the Ninjas Prove It tour! Enjoy the more intimate setting of this year's spring tour! Guaranteed to make your ears ring and your eyes water!


Watch the full shows here!





Roseland Ballroom song by song.



New Haven, CT song by song.
I will try and rip the mp3s from this one, and I'll post them later on... Of course, mp3 and flac files for the NYC show are available at nyctaper.com in case you've missed them first time around!!

Merry Christmas to y'all and see you in the new year!


(there are two many exclamation points in this post, but hey! I'm excited!!!!!!!!!)

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.

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.

"False Priest"due out next spring.

In an interview with Under The Radar magazine, Kevin disclosed a couple of interesting facts about the new album, mainly that it's going to be a funky affair with touches of No Wave that should be released in the spring, and that he already has enough songs but wants to keep working on it anyway.

Picture by Cécilia Sroussi
(high 5 to all of you world-traveling French fans out there!)

James Husband's "A Parallax I" and oM vinyl reissues

Good news from the Polyvinyl website today! These wonderfully dedicated folks came up with a crazy offer... You can get Jamey's first official solo album plus a bonus 6-song CD and 5 classic of Montreal albums reissued on (as always) top quality vinyl (plus corresponding download coupons) for $60 (on CD versions for $45.) All this a pre-order offer, which will ship on October 16th, October 19th being the official release date for "A Parallax I."
Find out more about Jamey's long-awaited album here. It actually has a couple of songs you may not be familiar with (I'm only saying that because I'm not).
You can also get each individual of Montreal reissued LPs, but it will actually cost you more than Jamey's CD and the whole collection (but it's your money, kids, so do what you want). The Polyvinyl online store is still teeming with great offers, like Icons, Abstract Thee going for $3, Satanic Panic In The Attic on vinyl for $8 and a 6 poster package deal for an amazing 14 bucks. Just get 5 and wallpaper your whole dorm room with them. You know you want to.

Kevin in new Music Tapes video

The website that dares not speak its name posted the video for "For The Planet Pluto 3" by mi amor, the Music Tapes. Oh, I can hear you moan why the hell should I care... well, (a) it is a very good as-yet-unreleased song (I would put it up there with "Nomad Tell Us" and "Song For The Death Of Parents"), (b) the video is both silly and poignant and (c) Kevin plays the part of an anti-Pluto astronomy teacher (or something along those lines, you'll need to watch the video for it to make any sense, and even then...)

watch it there if the video isn't starting for you...

Thanks to Townhaller Abel for the link.

Pitchf**k also put The Past Is A Grotesque Animal at number 168 in their top 500 best songs of the 2000s (this is getting way worse than High Fidelity), right between "Southern Hospitality" by Ludacris and "The Other Side Of Mt. Heart Attack" by Liars. Go figure.
EDIT : Thanks to Marc for letting us know that P4K also had Disconnect the Dots on the list at number 260, between Sonic Youth's "Incinerate" and Neko Case's "I wish I was the Moon".

Bryan : "False Priest will be the summer and spring jam"

In true journo style, I'm totally taking a quote and putting it out of its contest. That's how dedicated and professional I am, kids!
Watch the interview below (which I thought I had posted a week ago, but apparently hadn't), and hear a sweaty and wingless Beeps talk about J.R. Richards, putting on a show that would impress Salvador Dali (next prop : a giant melting clock?), the size of Athens's dick (I thought it was about Oslo?), a couple of records being in the works and a Houston band you should check out called Ume ("sounds like Sonic Youth meets Blonde Redhead, with a bit of Joan Jett and Guns'n'Roses").
(August 25th edit : oops, forget about GnR - read the comments and get the real quote straight from the Man)

Girl Named Hello at YANP

I have to admit my heart went thumpety-thumpy-thump-thump when I got Matt's twit about the new of Montreal, but it turns out to be "Girl Named Hello" - as performed at Bonnaroo. Still, considering the pretty bad quality of the recording that was posted here (or should I say the really bad sound they had on that one day?), I'm sure some of you never got to the new song, or you just missed the Bonnaroo bootleg post because, well, you actually were at Bonnaroo, or you had better things to do on that one day like learning wolof, or figuring out how many times you can punch a wall before actually breaking a bone, or one of your beloved cacti had just passed away and you went into zombie mode for a couple of days... Don't sweat it, You Ain't No Picasso just posted the mp3. Head over there to seehear what you've been missing, and while you're at it, read (or read again), Matt's review (and take a look at his excellent pictures, too). Live recordings of the other two new songs can be found on the downloads page (click on the button to your left)

Picture by Matt Picasso.

Lollapalooza videos & reviews

Well, folks, another weekend, another festival, another kick-ass show... This time it was a teeny weeny bit rainy, so they had to throw in an inflatable raft, and, in keeping with Kevin's latest blog post, they (kind of) crucified some of the crew. (on oM's shopping list : two big wooden crosses, a dozen nails, more fake blood...)

Pictures by Nicole Buntsis (WindyCitizen).

This time Rolling Stone has a cool backstage/onstage video footage (including an a capella rehearsal of For Our Elegant Caste ft. Janelle & Kevin), and Illuminated (much indebted to you, girl!) captured the whole show and posted it there.


Reviewers, from Pitchfork to Spinner via VenusZine, seem pretty ecstatic, with a special mention to WindyCitizen, who either has the best memory in music writing, or managed to take pictures and notes during the show...

Photo by: Cambria Harkey

~~~---~~~---~~~ (added on August 10th) ~~~---~~~---~~~

Hear Dottie & Jamey reminisce about the e6 days and explain what kind of discussions they're having backstage before their shows...

Bryan on the e6 scene, the relationship between David & Kevin, playing the Hollywood Bowl...

~~~---~~~---~~~ (added on August 13th) ~~~---~~~---~~~


More interviews from Fuse. They are also running a Lollapalooza special this Saturday - but I don't know whether of Montreal's show will be on or not (that's in case you missed it first time around)


Hear Kevin and Bryan about music technicalities (ahem), festivals vs. clubs, and performing while trying to keep up with all the weird things happening in the background...

Lollapalooza

LP33.tv will soon start to stream live videos from Lollapalooza (along with exclusive interviews and the usual more or less boring festival stuff).
Methinks of Montreal is on at 7p.m. (central time) today, but since Andrew Bird is on at the same time, who knows who the channel will choose to broadcast? Anyway, just thought I'd give you Patrollers the heads-up, and as usual, if oM is on and you can capture the show (audio or video), please share!

UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!

Thanks to both Patroller Michael G. and Townhaller Illuminated for pointing out to me (and others) that of Montreal's set was (fo sho) going to be webcast from Lolla's blog!

(unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work outside of the US, again)

Townhall Down.

Most of you must have noticed that for the past two days, our dear Townhall has been unreachable. After investigation (an email to Sean Davidson, our fantastic administrator, that is), it turns out that the Townhall forgot to pay its bills. So don't panic, it should be back up momentarily.

If you need your e6 fix, you can always check out Optical Atlas, the new (and as of yet unfinished) Elephant 6 website, or the Townhall facebook group.

Oh, and by the way, there has been no of Montreal news to report, but Lollapalooza and the Free Summer Press Festival are looming up on the horizon. Stay tuned! Have fun!

Picture by Chloe Larson.
Oakland Fox Theater, 2009-07-24

EDIT : it was bound to happen : as soon as I posted this, the Townhall rose from its ashes...

Yellow Bird Project

The Yellow Bird Project is a rather formidable endeavor to cash in on indie bands' increasing popularity to raise funds for various charities. After Rilo Kiley, Stars, The New Pornographers (to cite but a few), of Montreal has been asked to contribute. David designed a t-shirt and you can now buy it from the YBP website. The band chose to help the child cancer ward of St. Jude's Hospital.

Supersweet interview.

British blog/magazine (who knows what things really are these days?) Supersweet managed to get a few words from Kevin. Apparently the interview took place sometime after their one-week "tour" of Europe, so it's not past its sell-by date yet. Therefore, information about the new album may prove to be true.

Hollywood Bowl Reviews

Who would have thought 2 years ago, 5 years ago or 10 years ago that of Montreal would one day play to 15.000 people at the Hollywood Bowl? I, for one, never saw it coming, and the significance of the event didn't really strike me before it was already over. (that is because I'm slow, but please bear with me) - yes, they didn't headline, and this was part of KCRW's world music festival (making the very valid point that any kind of music is world music after all), but the facts are undeniable, this is going to be of Montreal's most documented performance (knocking last October's Roseland Ballroom show off the the top spot). You wouldn't think of "predictable" as a word that applies to the band's psyche, but you'd be wrong : it was very predictable that they'd manage to turn such a possibly impersonal event into something they will always cherish : and this time, they did it with dogs, Janelle, and a marriage proposal! (this was Hollywood, after all) - on behalf of every Booty Patroller, I wish the two lovebirds (Dottie & Nick, in case you haven't heard yet) a wonderfully wild and long life together.
So before you are all treated to the Booty Patrol's own review of oM's crazy Californian weekend, here are a few of the most interesting reviews that can be found around the net :

The NME now refers to Kevin as a "frontgod," which is funny since the NME always turned a very cold shoulder on of Montreal, and hardly ever mentioned them at all until this year. The NME also posted a video of the marriage proposal.

The LA Times' special reporter was one of the few who were left unconvinced by of Montreal's set, claiming that "its circus-like hysterics and verbose lyrics didn’t seem to capture the audience." Judging by the comments section, the guy is getting chastised by angry oM fans (and people who didn't know the band beforehand, but left eager to find out more about them), so feel free to make it worse for him and send your hate mail accordingly. Save some of your scorn for LA Weekly, who called the band "[a] merely (...) capable and above-average guitar band." You've got to be kidding me.

Other notable reviews : Variety, Soundbleed, and of course Rolling Stone.

Picture by whoever wrote this review.
No white horse this time around, just two dogs...

Mingusings Video

Dottie just informed us that the new video for Mingusings is going to be premiered today on Stereogum. Here's what she said : "Made by Nick Gould, our very own video tiger, the vid features the adventures of ninja David as he travels the world. See if you recognize scenes from our Spin photo shoot!"

The Spin photo shoot (which would have been perfect without the infamous moustache!) :

Of course, you will also remember that the video comes free with of Montreal's latest single, which is not "Mingusings" (because why make sense when you can just confuse people, uh?), but "For Our Elegant Caste." Buy it from Polyvinyl if you haven't done so already.

And here is the video! The best since Heimdalsgate, don't you think? Or maybe just the Best.

(Also, for those of you who are lucky enough to go and see the band (+ Jon fucking Brion) in Oakland this very Friday and haven't heard about it yet, the plan is to turn this show into a balloon fest... Bring your own balloons, or at least save your breath to help Townhallers and Booty Patrollers blow theirs!)

Win 2 tickets for the Fox Theater Show!

Nothing to do with me, but 7x7.com just posted a competition and the prize is two tickets to see of Montreal (and Townhallers and Booty Patrollers armed with balloons!) at the Fox Theater! Hurry up and grab them : all you have to do is comment on their article and tell them what's your favorite oM song and why... Can't get any simpler than that!

(don't you love how they say that the band is almost 11 years old, and how Kevin kept their indie roots "in tact." Someone needs to go back to elementary school!)

Listen to the Oxegen show online.

I have to admit I was not entirely convinced by of Montreal's performance last night in Lyon (probably a mixture of the weather being way too hot for me, the band having (yet again) sound problems, the venue being about 5 times too big and outdoors, the security being assholes, the audience not being into them at all, and their set being amazingly short (50 minutes and they were gone!) - not to mention having seen them 19 times in a year and having unreasonable expectations now), but I have found this review of their previous show in London, and it sounds like a much more pleasurable experience. Note to self : ALWAYS choose Britain's rock venues over the allure of ancient Roman theaters in the south of France.
As you all must have heard by now, Davey broke his wrist last week and had to pull out of this tour... Heather McIntosh (of The Instruments, and a valued contributor for too many bands to mention) played bass 80% of the times, guitar tech/ninja/stage performer Ricky Walsh pitched for one song, and there were was a couple of songs which didn't have any live drums or bass at all and sounded like an empty shell as a result.
The setlist was as follows : Nonpareil of Favor, Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider, And I've Seen A Bloody Shadow, The Party's Crashing Us, Id Engager, Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse, October Is Eternal, A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger, She's A Rejector, The Past Is A Grotesque Animal.


This was not what the post was supposed to be about, I'm getting sidetracked... I actually wanted to post a link to RBMA station, which features of Montreal's entire set from the Oxegen Festival. Listen to it here!

Soma Magazine Feature

Soma magazine posted a link to their of Montreal feature. Even if it has two glaring mistakes (we could make a competition out of this : spot the mistake in of Montreal interviews, and give away stuff...), it is still well worth the read, if only for sentence like "[they] leave the stage looking like a party store crashed into Guitar Center at high speed." Which is somehow a pretty accurate description, don't you think?
It also kind of confirms that the next album will be called "False Priest." (obviously the controller spheres have disappeared, and it hurts - sorry, I couldn't resist)

I am not sure whether the online version is the whole thing, or if there is more to read if you buy the magazine, but I'd love for one of you US people to check it out and contact us if there is more.

Kevin Barnes, false priest, Liz Wheeler, false nun.
(December 9th, 2008 - The Ritz Ybor)
(picture by I Rule The School)

Kevin & David interviewed by NME.com

Nothing about the T In The Park performance has filtered yet, no reviews, no pictures, but the once-venerable NME posted this short video interview of David & Kevin, which is about, well, nothing, really.



The band's Twitter also reads "Ugh,Scottish fest=oM fail.we miss Davey!!!"

Subba Cultcha, The Quietus and Drowned in Sound interviews

Three new Kevin interviews this week...

In reverse order of awesomeness :

Subba Cultcha finds Kevin quite content about his current situation.

Drowned In Sound discusses festivals, and whether or not it's worth attending one. (hint : if oM is playing, it is, otherwise, pass)

The Quietus published a long essay on Woody Allen. Unless you're incredibly familiar with his work, you may actually learn a few things.


The band will kick off its second European "tour" of the year tomorrow, even though I'm not sure it qualifies as a tour this time since it is only three British festival appearances, a French one, and what promises to be a kick-ass show at London's Shepherd Bush Empire. Tickets for the London and Lyon shows are still available.

~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~

In not-so-trivial and not-so-happy news, The Booty Patrol send their condolences to Nina and the Grøttland family.
We also wish Davey a quick and full recovery.

~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~ -- ~~

Download the World Café session

Just realized that I hadn't posted the NPR World Café session yet. Go to the downloads page (click on the button on the left or the picture below) for the interview and the acoustic renderings of For Our Elegant Caste, Touched Something's Hollow, An Eluardian Instance, and (more importantly), Mingusings.

Picture by Monica. Visit her site!
(The Grey Eagle, January 3rd, 2009)

Jamey interview

Jamey was interviewed backstage at Sasquatch! festival (apparently by some college kid, as part of his journalism end-of-the-term exam or whatever...), and the mp3 of the interview can be found here. It is quite insightful, and a very enjoyable listen (if you can get past the very annoying beeeeps that occur every 30 seconds or so). Jamey discusses the most shocking thing they ever did on stage (and it may not be what you think), what it's like to adapt Kevin's songs to a live setting, how the guy who wrote the review of their show and who thought it was Nietzschean was completely wrong, and also his solo album and the upcoming shows (I heard the words "super group" and now I'm all excited...).
I am hoping that a transcript of this interview will eventually show up on some website, or in Boise State's college newspaper, so if any of you of Montreal fans from Idaho happens to find it, please contact us. Otherwise I might have to do it myself.

For Our Elegant Caste acoustic version

This Is Fake DIY TV (I'm not kidding) posted this video on youtube yesterday, but I can assure you that it was shot on October 14th (or 13th or 12th) last year. Anyway, it was on the same day the Bandstand Busking session was shot (scroll back down if you've forgotten), in some London park.



Thanks to Illuminated for the heads-up!

of Montreal in Rolling Stone

Here is the smallest article ever written about the band!
Good to see that they reached the level of popularity where they don't need to buy their own stuff anymore.

Listen to "For Our Elegant Caste" remixed

Prefixmag has posted a streaming mp3 of the Depressed Buttons' attack on For Our Elegant Caste. The song has been beaten into pulp and doesn't sound anything like the original version - you won't recognize the hooks, the rhythm, or even Kevin's voice for that matter.
The Depressed Buttons actually are two guys from the Faint (Todd Fink and Jacob Thiele - I am not familiar with their names but I hope one of them is the sexy guitarist with the dazzling dance moves!) and if you've ever seen them live or heard one of their records, you won't be too surprised with the result.
Anyway, you can stream it here, and decide whether you like or not.

If you can spare 5 bucks, For Our Elegant Caste is available on blue or red vinyl from the Polyvinyl Store.

of Montreal covers Prince, gets covered.

For their tribute album to Prince's Purple Rain, Spin got 9 current artists to cover each one of the original songs. of Montreal got (or chose) Computer Blue (live version downloadable from the Sasquatch! set).
The great thing about "Purplish Rain" is that it is free for Spin readers and subscribers (and people with no qualms about cheating) on the magazine's website right now.
If you want to compare it to virtually every cover the band has ever played, point your compasses to You Ain't No Picasso, where Matt has been building a comprehensive archive of oM covers. Hats off!

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The Vitamin String Quartet recorded an orchestral version of Everyday Feels Like Sunday on their new compilation. The 15-track album comprises The New Pornographers' Bleeding Heart Show, Animal Collective's Banshee Beat, among other indie favorites. The result is an ear-pleasing album that could be just the job when you're inviting the in-laws over for lunch. Buy it from Vitamin Records.

Snippets from upcoming documentary

As you probably already know (because you are very well-informed fans and you've been doing your homework), of Montreal commissioned their (my, your, everybody's) friend Spenser Simrill to follow them around and shoot them as they touring Europe earlier this year, and Spenser has started posting excerpts on his vimeo account a couple of weeks ago.

The first excerpt features the band at a karaoke bar in Glasgow, and the second one Kevin's musings (set to the incessant, poignant croaking of seagulls) on the historic beach of Brighton (would have Kevin sided with the mods or the rockers?).
The editing is, in my humble opinion, quite fantastic (live action, interview, candid camera moments, Al Pacino making a guest appearance - it's got it all!), both artsy and watchable. About a million light years from of Montreal's previous effort (the rather dull "Cause We Were Virgins To Your Kisses" DVD that came out last year)

Of Montreal: Glasgow Karaoke from Spenser Simrill, Jr. on Vimeo.

"Welcome to the psychiatric patient ward, America"

On January 25, 2009, Scotland celebrated the 250th birthday of Robert Burns, its national poet. Of Montreal had the day off in Glasgow, and so the band decided to check out the festivities, which concluded with Karaoke at a local bar. Most gracious Glaswegians, Dez and Charlie, bought round after round, as Davey, Michael, and BP belted out hit after hit. Incidentally, the night revealed a striking resemblance between Kevin Barnes and Robert Burns, two poets known for their unique mixture of mirth and melancholy.

Kevin Barnes

Robert Burns

Of Montreal: Brighton Beach Fever from Spenser Simrill, Jr. on Vimeo.

"But then I realized that I wasn't supposed to attact the Terradactyl."

More to come on Spenser's documentary as the Booty Patrol gets more information.

Bonnaroo video and audio

Hats off to MozzaC for taping his third of Montreal show this year, and once again for sharing it with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the band's set was marred by technical difficulties and poor sound quality, and the recording reflects that. You've been warned!! That being said, of Montreal premiered a new song, tentatively called "Girl Named Hello" (41 minutes into the set, if you want to jump straight to it), and even though you can't really hear half of the lyrics, or the keyboards at all, it gives you a very rough idea of what it may sound like on record. Check out Mozza's other Bonnaroo recordings!

For a better sound, there's always nemi doonam's video - it is the same one that streamed on Sunday afternoon, so it's unfortunately not the full set, but the 40 first minutes, and it doesn't include the new song nor The Past Is A Grotesque Animal.

Kevin in Paris (Oct. 15th, 2008), prancing about in an outfit (or lack of) that would have been more appropriate for summer in Tn.

Skeletal Lamping Comic Book

Those of you who have been following the Booty Patrol for a long time must remember the early days when the "fan art" section was alive and kicking. Well, maybe not kicking, but definitely still gasping for air... It is time for this section to be reactivated, as the best compliment you can ever get as an artist is that you are a source of inspiration to other budding artists... of Montreal fan Camille Wells has set her mind on drawing a comic book based on Skeletal Lamping, and has agreed to share it with the world, song by song!
So far, you can check out the 6-page-long "Nonpareil Of Favor" by clicking on the image below. Wicked Wisdom will obviously be up next, and we are hoping to make it a weekly feature for the next 15 weeks.

Bonnaroo Festival

of Montreal is set to stun the good people of Tennessee once again on Saturday, and the good news is that 45 minutes of the 75 minute-long performance will be webcast the following day at 5:45p.m. (CT). Since they make you download their own player, you may want to do that right now and avoid the usual last-minute "why isn't this £*#? thing working?"

The Booty Patrol wishes the band and all the fans a great festival (isn't the lineup fantastic this year?). Don't forget, of Montreal : This Tent : 5:15p.m. on Saturday. And online at 5:45p.m. on Sunday.

Jamey in Muso's Guide - part 2 and 3.

Part II and III of Jamey's interview with Muso's Guide have now been posted. Check out Jamey's Musings : The Sequel and Jamey's Musings : The End.

(Thanks to the lovely Monica for the picture)

And in case you're hungry for more Jamey (and frankly, who wouldn't?), here's another 3-part interview he did for Salmon of Rock back in December.

of Montreal on NPR's World Cafe

of Montreal recorded a World Café session while in Philadelphia last month. The show will be broadcast tomorrow, but what with it being NPR, it has to be very complicated otherwise it's just not fun, right? So head over to their schedule and figure out for yourself on which local station and when you will get a chance to hear it. If you are not a US resident, head to XPN's website and work your way through the maze.
Otherwise you can subscribe to their podcast and *fingers crossed* get the show straight to your iTunes in a little while.
Bless super kick-ass tour manager/bass-playing pig Michael for the heads-up. You can read his original post at the Townhall and see if his explanations make more sense than mine.

Michael (as a pig) sharing the stage with of Montreal and the Pecan Sandies. Pictures by I Rule The School.

Sasquatch! bootleg available

Many many thanks to our favorite Australian bootlegger, MozzaC, for taping of Montreal's hour-long set at Sasquatch! on May 24th, and for sharing it. The sound quality is quite not as good as Mozz's previous recordings (possibly due to the fact that it was an outdoor show?) but it is still a very enjoyable listening experience.
As we all know by now, it was the very first time the band covered Computer Blue (and the last time, too, according to Dottie), and the second time Kevin smashed his guitar. See what the fans and Bryan had to say about the show at the Townhall or on of Montreal's Twitter.

As for the picture above, it was taken by Tracalto, who kindly agreed to let us use it. Check out his photo gallery.

Setlist :
01. Nonpareil of Favor
02. Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider
03. Sink The Seine
04. Cato As A Pun
05. Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
06. Teenage Unicorn Fisting
07. For Our Elegant Caste
08. Touched Something's Hollow
09. An Eluardian Instance
10. Id Engager
11. The Party's Crashing Us
12. Computer Blue
13. October Is Eternal
14. A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger
15. She's A Rejector

Jamey interviewed in Muso's Guide

The fantastically unpredictable and always entertaining drums/bass/guitar/trumpet/keyboard player got interviewed by London's online music guide right before the first of the two sold-out shows at the Paradise. Click on the picture and read what he has to say about of Montreal's latest tour and his own solo project.

Thanks to A_B for the wonderful pictures.

Skeletal Lamping's 3rd single is...

... For Our Elegant Caste.

I think we all remember Kevin claiming he wanted it to be the first single but Polyvinyl thought it to be too racy, but apparently they've changed their minds, or no-one expects the 3rd single to get any radio play anyway.

You can pre-order the 7" from Polyvinyl. It is available on red or blue vinyl, includes a digital download (as usual) AND a bonus video... I'm guessing the cover art is Nina's. There are no bonus tracks, though, just a remix by the Depressed Buttons, whoever they are.

The Bee With Wheels artwork for sale on etsy

David Barnes now has his own Etsy shop!

Let's hope that he keeps adding his beautiful works of art on a regular basis.
The little painting below is "Defend Your Creativity From Predictability" and is on sale for 15 bucks. Don't tell me you don't have them. If you don't, steal them from your neighbors. I'm sure they'll understand, and what were they going to spend them on anyway?

The great thing is that every item on sale comes with a little explanatory note of the ideas that made David paint them.

And in case you forgot, Nina also has her Etsy shop. I'm guessing business is going well for her since all the shirts and a lot of the prints are out. Fantastic.

The Booty Patrol goes facebook!

In order to make it easier for you to keep in touch with the hustle and bustle of oM life, the Booty Patrol now has its own facebook page, and we will now be taking full advantage of the blog-importing feature.

The good thing is that the moment you become a fan of the Booty Patrol on facebook, the updates will show up on your home page, so you won't miss the oh-so important renaming of the new song, or the 10.000.000th interview about Georgie Fruit's disappearance, or, well, all these things that keep us up at night...
What isn't that great is that, well, it's facebook, so you get a blank background, and no videos or pictures or any fancy things... So basically you still have to click on the link and be transported here to get to the core of the matter.

Also, I don't know if you noticed, but we got a flag counter at the bottom of this page now, and it's no surprise to see that the USA is on top of the oM world. Thanks to all of you 472 Americans who have come in to check the blog in the past 4 days. My heart goes out to all of you lone oM fans in Uganda, Indonesia, Estonia, Venezuela, etc...

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of Montreal featured in Rolling Stone

Coming up in this month's issue of Rolling Stone (American edition), an acoustic performance, including "Teenage Unicorn Fisting" that the band performed for RS's Smoking Section blog. The link appears to be inactive as of today, so I can't really say if there are several songs, if there's going to be a video, or just an audio stream... Actually, I can't tell you anything but : bookmark the page and check back regularly!
I'm getting the feeling that Teenage Unicorn Fisting is actually Like A Tourist (previously known as Wet Butcher's Fist, if I'm not mistaken) with a new fancy name.

EDIT : The video is now up. Like A Tourist it is. And nothing else. In that case, you have to wonder why they said it "included" this song. It IS this song. I hate Rolling Stone.

EDIT #2 : OK, so I was mistaken, "Wet Butcher's Fist" is actually "Coquet Coquet" and not "Like A Tourist / Teenage Unicorn Fisting." Thanks to Matthew for clearing that up.

Review of the Ky show at YANP

Shame on me for not checking out You Ain't No Picasso in 3 weeks. Matt has posted a great review of the Covington, Ky show on his blog, and as usual, it is laden with gorgeous pictures (it probably helped that Kevin was very static that night, ha!)

Another interesting review was the one a Wake Forest student posted about the Carrboro show. He probably is over-analyzing it, but it is still pretty insightful and well-written.


This post is also a lame excuse for sharing a video of "Moonage Daydream" featuring of Montreal and Janelle Monae (+ whoever plays the guitar and drums with her) and if this doesn't give you goosebumps, you probably belong to the arthropod category.

of Montreal take over Sirius XMU!

I am always baffled at how poorly organized and publicized these things are... It turns out that some of Montreal members are hosting a show on XMU every morning from 10 to 11a.m. this week (which means we already missed two).
Thanks to Buchanan at the Townhall for the heads up...
You can register and listen to XMU here. I didn't even know this station existed, but you may want to know that (a) you have to pay for it (but get a 3-day free trial), and (b) they seem to have a partnership going on with great blogs like My Old Kentucky Blog, Aquarium Drunkard and the one-and-only Scandinavian music blog It's A Trap! Is it worth the 7.99 bucks a month they're asking for? I'll let you be the only judge.

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New Downloads Available

Just letting you ravenous fans out there know that the Booty Patrol got its hands upon a few live recordings that, as far as I am concerned, are not available anywhere anymore. Thanks to Freek for contacting us with his pretty impressive list of recordings.

I am just done uploading a show from March 2006, which features interesting early versions of tracks that wound up on Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? and a cover of the Kinks' Tired Of Waiting For You, among other goodies.

Next up in the days to come, of Montreal's set at the Golden Plains festival earlier this year and, perhaps more importantly, their set in Emmaboda back in 2001... that is the Swedish festival of The Past Is A Grotesque Animal fame! Feel free to let your mind wander and re-enact the Story of the Eye discussion that took place that day.

Just make sure you check out the downloads page regularly... I am actually adding things on there! If no-one grabs them in 3 months they get deleted and I have to do it all over again. Maybe we should start a fund - it would only take 50 people to give one buck a year to ensure the recordings stay where they are... What do you say?

I'm signing off with a cool video of Gronlandic Edit, filmed in Rothbury last year.

New songs

Now available on the downloads page, the three acoustic songs performed on WTMD, and two different live versions of "Coquet Coquet" and "Like A Tourist". Not the best audio quality I'm afraid, but for now it'll have to do.

of Montreal on Y-Rock, Alternate Site

I don't know about you, folks, but I'm getting tired of starting all my titles with "of Montreal" followed by blah blah... I really need to get more creative.
Anyway, tonight of Montreal (the whole band?) will be DJ-ing on WXPN 88.5 FM (which is apparently the NPR radio station of the University of Pennsylvania) and on YRockOnXPN.org. Apparently it'll be streaming/broadcast at 9p.m. and that is Eastern time. And it's obviously been recorded last week before the crazy Philadelphia show (you Philly kids out there are wicked insane!), since the website already tells you what they played.
Anyway, The Booty Patrol would love you to rip the audio and share it.

While in NYC, Kevin and Bryan stopped by the Alternate Site (whatever that is) and recorded two acoustic songs - Coquet Coquet and a cover of the Beatles' I'm So Tired.

Jamey & Davey on WYBC.

A three-part video interview of the bass duelists on Yale's WYBC radio station.
(part 3 to come later I suppose)

Acoustic Session at WTMD

Bryan and Kevin stopped by Baltimore radio station WTMD's studios to record a 3-song acoustic set two weeks ago. The good news is that we have videos, and that they played two new songs... and since they're acoustic, you can revel in lyrics about unicorns eating baby meat, female erections and black light constellations.











Thanks to Illuminated at the Townhall for the links.

April 15th show up at NYCtaper!

You can now download the flac or mp3 files from nyctaper.

picture by R. Griffin
(check out the amazing pictures he took that night)

New song premiered in NYC!

Here's a video from last night. The new song is tentatively called "Coquet Coquet"

NYCtaper.com tapes of Montreal again.

Something to look forward to this week : the nyctaper taped of Montreal again on Wednesday.
I don't know when the flac and mp3 files will be available, so keep checking their page regularly.

A couple of really small and innocuous interviews surfaced today : Kevin in the Courant, and Bryan in the Hartford Advocate.

I am now leaving you with two cool pictures from the Carrboro show, taken by über-oM fan Kristen Wells.

New setlist and new song

of Montreal embarked on what seems like the 52,258th leg of their tour in support of Skeletal Lamping on Monday.
Townhaller Mimi Merlot was in the audience (lucky her) and she had the great sense to take a picture of the setlist and to record the song they premiered that night.

Here is the setlist :

As for the video, the sound is, well, the kind of sound you can expect when you're standing in the front row and taping with a camera, but it still gives you an idea of what to expect. It doesn't seem to be a dramatic change from the Hissing Fauna / Skeletal Lamping material.

(I actually replaced Mimi's video by Buchanan's, which has a better sound quality)

The band also has new costumes, new theatrics, and a new stage setup which you can check out by clicking on the pictures below.

Picture by Chrissy Abbott for bmoremusicallyinformed.


Pictures by K. Wells.

And to round up our tour special, let it be know that oM's twitter has BP professing his love of home-baked cookies. Now you know how to make someone happy in NYC tonight. Go pre-heat that oven!

Zut Magazine feature

It took Strasbourg-based Zut! Magazine 3 months to eventually come up with its of Montreal feature, and it turns out it's only one page long (and half the page is a picture - the mind boggles!)

A lot of bittersweet memories about the whole experience, it was of Montreal's last night in Europe, a totally anti-climactic experience after the greatness of the Paris show the night before, some of the crew had already left the tour, I dropped my camera in the backstage johns right before the show started, goodbyes and hugs were exchanged in some creepy parking lot as the snow started to fall... Not good.

But here is the article for you - in its original French version, and translated by yours truly below.





--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

What was your favorite costume as a kid?
K : I had one that looked like the Batman outfit. I loved it back then, and I still do.

Favorite stylist?
K : Rebecca Turbow. She creates my costumes. They look futuristic, but like people imagined the future would be in the 60s.

What theme for a costume ball?
K : Football make-up and mandatory helmet.

Cowboy or antechrist?
K : Is there any difference?

Who would be if you were a cartoon character?
K : Snoopy. He looks mysterious but I'm sure his heart in his the right place.

Your next stage fantasy?
K : I would love to jump in a jell-o pool.

The 3 D's make their acting debut.

Shot backstage in Utrecht.

of Montreal on Arte!

Madame, Monsieur,
Madamen und Herren,

Remember that at 23:45 CET, an interview (and possible live footage) will be broadcast on Arte! It was shot in Paris on January 31st - I know, I was there!

Here's the mise-en-bouche.

The whole show should be streamable from the Arte+7 website from tomorrow and for 7 days, though I can't be sure how that actually works.

Watch of Montreal's Portland, OR performance on Baeble Music.

Well, some of you may remember, either because you were there that night (November 20th, 2008), or because there had been speculations at the Townhall a few months ago (and a trailer featuring Davey was posted, too), but the Portland, OR show was indeed filmed and is now streaming from the Baeble Music site. Unfortunately, it is not the whole performance, but only 6 songs... So you won't see the Centaur, you won't see the saloon, or the Cardinal and his slutty nun, or the hanging, or the shaving cream coffin & feather blowers... Still, this should tide us all over until the elusive live DVD comes out.

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com


Many thanks to I Saw You On Your Bike over at the Townhall for the link.