They were among the second wave of groups to emerge from The Elephant 6 Recording Company and the group has a style that is typical of many Elephant 6 bands due to their interest in combining musical experimentation with the basic tenets of pop i.e. catchy melodies and sing-along choruses. The band’s style has been influenced by conventional indie pop, psychedelic music, vaudeville and music hall on their earlier releases and by afrobeat, funk, krautrock and reggae on their recent releases.
The band’s style has been known to change between albums. At first, the band embraced a more simple, quirky, lo-fi indie pop sound, which occasionally bordered on twee pop. The band was created by Kevin Barnes and named after a failed romance with a woman from Montreal, though the story changes in various interviews. Barnes was the only member of the “group” prior to his relocation to Athens, Georgia. There, he met Derek Almstead, later of Circulatory System, M Coast, Elf Power etc., and Bryan Poole, who also performs as The Late B.P. Helium.
Together, they recorded their first album, Cherry Peel, as well as The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit’s Flower and The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy.
A number of singles and a re-release of The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit’s Flower occurred before the release of the band’s third album, The Gay Parade in 1999. With contributions from several members of the Elephant Six collective at the time, it also featured artwork from Kevin’s brother David Barnes, who would continue to do artwork for future albums.
This album marked that the band had moved to a fuller sound, which is also found on its follow-up, Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse. These two albums contain more narrative lyrics, as opposed to the rather personal lyrical matter of those preceding it, and often imitating the style of old 1950s radio plays.
After production on The Gay Parade began in 1998, Poole left the band to focus on his duties with Elf Power, another Elephant Six band from Athens. Barnes also recruited Jamey Huggins and Dottie Alexander, who had been performing together as Lightning Bug vs. Firefly, to play various instruments. Derek moved from drums to bass. The band was joined soon after by Marshmallow Coast’s Andy Gonzales.
Following the release of The Gay Parade, the band signed with Kindercore Records, who would release a number of singles and compilations. It wasn’t until 2001 that Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse would be released as a new album with original material. The album again featured contributions from across the Elephant 6 spectrum.
In 2002, Aldhils Arboretum was released, with a slightly different sound than its predecessors, as the songs were more directly structured. This album marks the beginning of the change in of Montreal’s sound, with more danceable rhythms than ever before, especially on the album’s closer, “Death Dance Of The Omipapas and Sons For You”. A successful tour ensued, including of Montreal’s first trip to the UK, along with a tour-only EP.
Kindercore Records would fold shortly after the release of Arboretum, and of Montreal’s status was also threatened. Kevin got married, and Andy and Derek left the band. Barnes, being uncomfortable with the unrest, as well as some divisions within the band, took to writing and performing their 2004 album Satanic Panic in the Attic mostly by himself. Released by Polyvinyl Records, it became one of their more successful efforts to that point. The 2004 tour saw The Late B.P. Helium (Bryan Poole) rejoin the band, with some bass played by Kevin’s partner Nina Barnes. The album marked a shift to something more electronic with traditional structures, to be further advanced in later albums and new songs. In their most recent releases and concerts, the band has fully embraced a sort of techno-pop glam image, with little of their previous incarnations surfacing. This style is featured in singles such as Disconnect the Dots. The style would continue to evolve into 2005’s The Sunlandic Twins, which was even more a Barnes solo effort. Recorded in Athens, with the exception of one track recorded in Norway, it was a much more pronounced electronic album. The album became a success, mostly due to the singles “So Begins Our Alabee” and the MTV clip for “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)”.
The band released several collections of singles in early 2006. Barnes recorded most of the band’s 2007 release, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, by himself while living in Norway and Athens, Georgia. The switch to autobiographical themes of suicide, depression and isolation of the album was a direct product of his troubled personal life during that period.
of Montreal released Skeletal Lamping on October 21, 2008 followed by False Priest on September 14, 2010, Paralytic Stalks on February 7, 2012, and Lousy with Sylvianbriar on October 8, 2013. Aureate Gloom is scheduled for release by Polyvinyl Records on March 3, 2015.
Lyrically, their style has changed dramatically throughout the years. In the beginning, many songs were narratives of personal or humorous situations, such as “Tim, I Wish You Were Born A Girl”, from Cherry Peel. This style, however, changed with The Gay Parade, where many songs involve small narratives surrounding invented characters (in songs such as “Jacques Lamure”, “The Autobiographical Grandpa”, “Mimi Merlot” and “Rose Robert”). Others act as extracts from fictional conversations (“Advice From a Divorced Gentleman to His Bachelor Friend Considering Marriage” and “Good Morning Mr. Edminton” as examples). With Aldhils Arboretum came a slight return to the previous writing style, except following more poppy, classical lyrical structures (such as the use of choruses, which are generally absent in the Gay Parade/Coquelicot years). This style continued throughout Satanic Panic and The Sunlandic Twins to some extent. On the album Hissing Fauna: Are You The Destroyer? the lyrics are much more personal than previously used, with songs detailing emotions within the speaker.
Another unique quality of the band is the fusion of ostensibly gloomy lyrics with bouncy, upbeat melodies and hooks. On Aldhils Arboretum, for example, the lyrics for tracks like “Doing Nothing” and “Old People in the Cemetery” focus on apathy, loneliness or death while being contrasted with cheerful instrumentation. Another example of this tendency is shown in their choice of covers; for example, Yoko Ono’s “I Felt Like Smashing my Head Through a Clear Glass Window” from The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit’s Flower.
True to the style of most Elephant 6 recording artists, of Montreal’s members have been in a variety of side projects and other bands:
The band itself has performed as the backing band for Marshmallow Coast on record and on tour.
My First Keyboard was the pseudonym used by Dottie Alexander to release the song “The You I Created” on the Kindercore singles club. of Montreal acted as her backing band.
Enemy Gene
of Montreal Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
They're expecting so little, can't feel the miracle
The zombies licking your window
For black body radiation, oh
Love breaks the machine,
Everything's half apart what can it mean?
Knowing I have the enemy gene?
Ooh, love breaks the machine,
Everything's half a dream, how can it be?
Everything's born in shame, it's not just me,
Particle way duality
How can we ever evolve when our gods are so primitive?
They destroy the film
They want to disable my system,
Looking for traces of a clean hit
If the end of the world has ever happened this must be it
I've grown too strong, that's what they said,
To keep my animal spirit
It empties me, now I'm vacant
Love breaks the machine, everything's half apart, what can it mean?
How can I trust my fractious heart knowing I have the enemy gene?
Oh, love breaks the machine, everything's half a dream, how can it be?
Everything's born in shame, it's not just me, particle way duality
I know that we'll never survive this little victory
Love breaks the machine, everything's half apart, what can it mean?
How can I trust my fractious heart knowing I have the enemy gene?
Oh, love breaks the machine, everything's half a dream, how can it be?
Everything's born in shame, it's not just me, particle way duality
How can we ever evolve when our gods are so primitive?
They destroy our hope for peace,
Hope for love, ooh
The lyrics of "Enemy Gene" by of Montreal are a reflection on the modern world and its flaws. The opening lines suggest a weariness with the state of things but also an unwillingness to fully give up hope. The following lines add to this feeling of disillusionment - society expects so little, and even miracles go unfelt. The reference to zombies evokes a sense of apocalyptic dread, a feeling that is heightened by the allusion to black body radiation, a term used in physics to describe the energy given off by an object that absorbs radiation. The final line of this verse suggests that the destruction of hope is being done deliberately.
The chorus references the idea that love can overcome the failings of society, but also acknowledges the difficulty of trusting one's own desires in such an imperfect world. The image of being born in shame suggests a deep-seated flaw in human nature, and the line "particle way duality" may refer to the concept in physics that light can behave as both a particle and a wave, highlighting the inherent dualities of existence. The final verse suggests that humanity's attempts to progress are being undermined by our own destructive tendencies and primitive beliefs.
Line by Line Meaning
Aren't you sick of the con, not quite, hold on illuminous
Are you not yet tired of the deception? Wait, because here comes enlightenment.
They're expecting so little, can't feel the miracle
The expectations of others are so low that they cannot comprehend the amazing things happening around them.
The zombies licking your window for black body radiation, oh
People are blindly following harmful ideas like zombies, attracted by something as dangerous as black body radiation.
Love breaks the machine, everything's half apart what can it mean?
Love has the power to disrupt our preconceived notions, causing everything to come apart. What does this revelation signify?
How can I trust my fractious heart knowing I have the enemy gene?
If my heart is always in conflict and I carry the gene for destruction, how can I trust my own impulses and desires?
Ooh, love breaks the machine, everything's half a dream, how can it be?
Love disrupts our ideas of reality, making everything feel like a dream. How can this be possible?
Everything's born in shame, it's not just me, particle way duality
The flaws of the world are not just my own, but part of a larger particle-level duality that affects everything.
How can we ever evolve when our gods are so primitive?
If our fundamental beliefs and values are so crude and outdated, how can we expect to progress as a society?
They want to disable my system, looking for traces of a clean hit
Others wish to take away my autonomy, searching for evidence that justifies their actions.
If the end of the world has ever happened this must be it
If ever there were a possible reckoning for everything wrong with the world, this would be it.
I've grown too strong, that's what they said, to keep my animal spirit
Others believe I have become too powerful and need to constrain my passionate nature.
It empties me, now I'm vacant
Their attempted suppression drains the life out of me, leaving me feeling hollow.
I know that we'll never survive this little victory
Though we may win this small battle, ultimately it will lead to our downfall.
They destroy our hope for peace, hope for love, ooh
Those in power crush our aspirations for peace and love.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Kevin L Barnes
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind