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.
Excorsismic Breeding Knife
of Montreal Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't let this be how I'll be remembered
The truest humanity seems to be in dialogue
Torn to paper shredded cowboy menace
True love never hated
The two donkey childs that will be remembered for our hearing
Is there a psychosis?
Is there a comedy outside?
How can you perform, how can you operate?
Is there a solution then?
Why is there an apocalyse?
There's no such thing
How can you operate, how can you perform, how can you exploit?
How can you operate, how can you operate, how can you perform?
How can you operate, how can you perform?
How can you operate, how can you perform?
How...
The opening lines of "Exorcismic Breeding Knife" by of Montreal creates a sense of despair and hopelessness. The lyrics "There's flash of dead eyed in these horse faced hours of ours" suggests a state of being trapped or stuck in a situation that feels inescapable. The next line "Don't let this be how I'll be remembered" indicates a struggle to break free from this state and to be remembered for something more meaningful. The following lines "The truest humanity seems to be in dialogue, torn to paper shredded cowboy menace, true love never hated, the two donkey childs that will be remembered for our hearing" can be interpreted as a critique of modern society's focus on materialism and superficiality at the expense of genuine human connections.
The chorus of the song contains a series of questions that seem to be directed at society at large. The lines "Is there a therapist? Is there a psychosis? Is there a comedy outside? How can you perform, how can you operate? Is there a solution then? Why is there an apocalypse? There's no such thing" suggest a search for answers to deeper questions about the human condition. The repetition of the lines "How can you operate, how can you perform?" creates a sense of urgency and frustration, as though the singer is struggling to find meaning in a world that seems to value performance and productivity above all else.
Line by Line Meaning
There's flash of dead eyed in these horse faced hours of ours
There's a sense of emptiness and exhaustion in our current state of being
Don't let this be how I'll be remembered
I don't want to be remembered as someone who is tired and lifeless
The truest humanity seems to be in dialogue
Having genuine conversations is what makes us truly human
Torn to paper shredded cowboy menace
Feeling vulnerable and exposed like a cowboy in a torn up outfit
True love never hated
Real love is never accompanied by hate
The two donkey childs that will be remembered for our hearing
Our memories will be dominated by childish moments that involved two donkeys
Is there a therapist?
Do I need to speak to a therapist?
Is there a psychosis?
Am I experiencing a mental disorder?
Is there a comedy outside?
Is there anything in the outside world that can make me laugh?
How can you perform, how can you operate?
How can I keep going? How can I keep functioning?
Is there a solution then?
Is there a solution to all of this?
Why is there an apocalypse?
Why does it feel like everything is falling apart?
There's no such thing
Perhaps the apocalypse is a figment of my imagination, and there's no such thing
How can you operate, how can you perform, how can you exploit?
How can I keep going? How can I keep functioning? How can I use this situation to my advantage?
How can you operate, how can you operate, how can you perform?
How can I continue to function in the face of such difficulties?
How can you operate, how can you perform?
How can I keep going? How can I keep functioning?
How can you operate, how can you perform?
How can I keep going? How can I keep functioning?
How...
And so the questioning and confusion continues...
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: KEVIN BARNES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind