On Returning

Of Montreal "Tropical Iceland"

My fervent passion for Athens, Georgia's Of Montreal continues to grow as the days lead up to a set of three concerts they will be performing here in Los Angeles in November. To tide myself over, I decided to put up this fantastic cover of the Fiery Furnaces "Tropical Iceland" they recorded at a Morning Becomes Eclectic session earlier this year. Morning Becomes Eclectic seems to play some decent music, but every time I turn it on I am immediately turned off by host Nic Harcourt's pretentiousness. I mean, I get it Nic, your record collection dwarfs mine. It's really not a contest, dude. It really isn't.

Helpless In Its Clutches

Of Montreal "A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger"

Not long ago I wrote about Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?. Well that was when I first got it. Normally when I buy records that don't grab me right away. Meaning it usually takes me a while to really appreciate a record if its any good. Well Hissing Fauna did grab me right away. So much so that I had to share my thoughts about with all of you. Well since then I've been basically obsessed with it. Seriously I listen to it at least once a day every day and I never tire of it.

There's something sinister going on here I think. I've never been this infatuated with a record before. It reminds me of when I was in high school and my Led Zeppelin II cassette got stuck in my car's tape deck for about a year. Therefore I couldn't listen to the radio or any other tapes, just Led Zeppelin. Something tells me if that was an Of Montreal cassette I wouldn't have minded.

Anyway, I thought I 'd revisit this record one more time on POP ZEUS seeing how it has engulfed my very being, as well as the fact that I'll be seeing Of Montreal for my first time at next weekend's Pitchfork Fest in Chicago. Expect gushing reviews about that as well.

Of Saskatchewan Just Didn't Have The Same Zing

Of Montreal "Suffer For Fashion"

Of Montreal "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal"

[right click to download, ctrl or option click if yr a mac!]

Picking up where 2005's The Sunlandic Twins left off, Hissing Faunna Are You The Destroyer is the latest offering from the essentially one man band of Kevin Barnes, aka Of Montreal. Long ago I used to drive around in a friend's car who would constantly play records like 1997's Cherry Peel , whereas Of Montreal sounded much like a lo-fi Pet Sounds. The sound of today's Of Montreal records are that of ridiculous drum machine beats and tweaked out keyboards burying the VU needle.

Not that this is a bad thing, "The Party's Crashing Us" from the last record is possibly one of my favorite songs of all time. Although I think I may have ruined for myself by overplaying it. It currently stands at 31 plays in my iTunes which is extremely high considering the amount of songs that are currently in that library. Hissing Fauna is a winner right from the starting track, "Suffer For Fashion", which is very reminiscent of "The Party's Crashing Us". Its reference to the songs beat per minute is just the latest in a long line of clever observations used by Barnes on his record.

"The Past Is A Grotesque Animal", clocking in at 11:53 is the record's centerpiece. A hypnotic remberance of the small moments that make up life, it carries with the smallest details of the past that we all seem to remember much more vividly than the grand story. At least that's how I remember it. Wait, we're still talking about Prince's Lovesexy right?