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.

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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.

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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)