Admit One: Of Montreal + Special Rant Bonus

Last week I caught Of Montreal in...Montreal, of course! Their live show was a fun as last time I saw them and I was dancing it up the only way I know how. Even though I listen to their albums pretty often and have (obvs) noticed a stylist change between Cherry Peel and their latest release Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer?, the enormity of the change hadn't really dawned on me until seeing them live. How could the band playing "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal" at a near deafening volume be the same that wrote "Don't Ask Me To Explain" (which verges on twee) all those years ago. While I am a self professed snob I'm not crotchety - so don't think that by saying that their new material is diffrent I'm condemning it. Far from it, I think that Hissing Fauna is one of the best releases of 2007 so far (more on that later). But seeing the huge divide in their work does make you wonder how so many other bands stay together and never change their sound.

That said you have to wonder if there was an actual lightbulb over Kevin Barnes' head when he tried a casio for the first time.


Whew, with that tidbit of concert reviewing out of the way I can point out the thing that I saw at Of Montreal that absolutely drove me nuts. What the hell is it with people buying band t-shirts, then putting it on over what they have on? And why do people seem to be doing this more often? Of course as a long time show goer I've seen this happen at nearly every show I've been to...but it seems to be getting worse. I mean why would you:

a) choose to do this
b) choose to do this in the sweltering heat of La Tulipe?

Comfort aside, it just looks really really silly.

Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse (Mp3)