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...