of Montreal is an indie pop band which formed in Athens, Georgia, United St… Read Full Bio ↴of Montreal is an indie pop band which formed in Athens, Georgia, United States in 1997. The band is fronted by Kevin Barnes, who writes, composes, and plays most of the music for his albums.

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.

She Ain
of Montreal Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Like some sepulchral tableau
I sit frozen holding your hand
Though I’m trying to think only
Positive thoughts I understand

That place tomorrow
May not be there tomorrow, then
Your eviscerating, suffering will end

Oh, will you ever be yourself again?

[Chorus]
Girl with the flu, I hear the death rheum
She ain’t doin' well
Her eyes they seem cast and fatherless
Her psyche's cracked or
Anyhow, She ain't speakin' now

Nightfall, like some leaden sea
Dilates as I hold vigil by your bed
Watching the pillowcase soaking with sweat around your head

I can't repel this sneaking veil of morbidity
That's disfiguring the serif of your face
Oh, the organism's been debased

[Chorus]

You scream that the books
Are fallin' off of the shelf onto you
But I can see them
Your hallucination ravings
I'm writing them all down so
You can see read them
When your mind no longer aches
And your febrility breaks

Girl with the flu, I hear the death rheum
She ain’t doin' well
Her eyes they seem cast and fatherless

Her psyche's shattered or
Anyhow, She ain't speakin' now]

Overall Meaning

The lyrics in "She Ain't Speakin' Now" by of Montreal portray the singer's experience of watching someone they care about suffer from a severe illness, possibly the flu. The refrain "Girl with the flu, I hear the death rheum, she ain't doin' well" reveals the gravity of the situation. The first verse describes the singer sitting with the sick person, struggling to remain positive. However, the second stanza presents a more hopeless situation, as the singer considers a future without the person they're watching over. The imagery of the "soaking sweat" on the pillowcase and the "sneaking veil of morbidity" paint a grim picture.

The third and final verse of the song shifts the focus to the sick person's delirious state. They are hallucinating, seeing books fall from shelves onto them. The singer writes down the hallucinations, hoping to someday share them with the person when they're well again. The song ends where it began, with the refrain painting a picture of someone in distress but unable to communicate their pain.

Line by Line Meaning

Like some sepulchral tableau
I am seated beside you like a heavy, disturbing piece of art that portrays death.

I sit frozen holding your hand
I am holding your hand while trembling and feeling powerless to do anything else.

Though I’m trying to think only
Even though I try to keep positive thoughts and push away the negative ones, it is hard given the circumstances.

Positive thoughts I understand
I am aware that positive thoughts can help, but it seems impossible to maintain them.

That place tomorrow
The place that awaits us in the future.

May not be there tomorrow, then
It is uncertain whether we will reach that future point, as it depends on your survival and well-being.

Your eviscerating, suffering will end
I hope that your current excruciating pain and suffering will come to an end.

Oh, will you ever be yourself again?
I wonder if the person who used to be vibrant and full of life will ever return, given what they are going through.

[Chorus]
Refrain.

Girl with the flu, I hear the death rheum
The ill woman, whose illness I compare to an omen of death, is struggling to stay alive.

She ain’t doin' well
Her condition is serious and deteriorating.

Her eyes they seem cast and fatherless
Her eyes, often described as the windows to the soul, look hopeless and abandoned.

Her psyche's cracked or
Her mind is broken and fragile, or maybe shattered beyond repair.

Anyhow, She ain't speakin' now
She is too weak to communicate, or maybe she has lost the will to do so.

Nightfall, like some leaden sea
The darkness of the night feels overpowering and heavy, like an ocean of weight.

Dilates as I hold vigil by your bed
As I keep watch over you, the night seems to stretch and expand, lasting forever.

Watching the pillowcase soaking with sweat around your head
I observe how feverish you are by looking at the damp pillow under your head that you are sweating on.

I can't repel this sneaking veil of morbidity
I cannot push away this creeping sense of illness and decay that is haunting our situation.

That's disfiguring the serif of your face
It is changing the minute details of your features, making you look different and altered.

Oh, the organism's been debased
Your bodily system has been weakened and degraded by illness.

[Chorus]
Refrain.

You scream that the books
You start screaming and hallucinating that the books around you are falling on you from the shelves.

Are fallin' off of the shelf onto you
You believe that the books are attacking you, causing harm and danger.

But I can see them
However, I can clearly see that the books are not moving, and that your perception is distorted by the fever and the illness.

Your hallucination ravings
The delirious thoughts and visions in your mind that are not based on reality.

I'm writing them all down so
I keep notes of everything you say in your altered state so that you can later read them when you are back to your senses.

You can see read them
You can read the written account of your feverish ravings and try to make sense of why you felt that way.

When your mind no longer aches
When you are no longer in pain or delirious, and you can think clearly again.

And your febrility breaks
When the fever that has been tormenting you finally goes away or breaks, releasing you from its grip.

Girl with the flu, I hear the death rheum
Refrain that emphasizes the gravity of the situation once again.

She ain’t doin' well
Reiterating that her condition is precarious and uncertain.

Her eyes they seem cast and fatherless
Reiterating that her eyes look empty and hopeless.

Her psyche's shattered or
Reiterating that her mind is damaged and broken.

Anyhow, She ain't speakin' now
Reiterating that she is no longer communicating, lost in her own world of pain and illness.

Lyrics © BUG MUSIC
Written by: Kevin Barnes

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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