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.
There is Nothing Wrong With Hating Rock Critics
of Montreal Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You're falling from your tree
There's something wrong with you
There's something wrong with me
There's nothing wrong with me
I'm not impressed by you maggots
Falling on the sea
There's nothing wrong with me
But there is something definitely wrong with you
And the way that you view
Your place in the world
You are wrong
You can say what you want
But the truth is so clear
How can you think you are better than anyone?
The thought of it is really just absurd
Your cynical opinions have no depth
You're uninsightful and irrelevant, haven't you heard?
It's time that you heard
I'm not confused like you, twit
You Lester Bangs wannabe
There's something wrong with you
There's nothing wrong with me
There's nothing wrong with me
I'm not impressed by your rank
And tried adolescent ennui
There's something wrong with you
There's nothing wrong with me
But there is something definitely wrong with you
And the way that you view
Your place in the world
You are wrong
You can say what you want
But the truth is so clear
How can you think you are better than anyone?
You don't even create, you just critique
It's so obscene the way that you derive the words of artists
About whom you're not even worthy to speak
Not worthy to speak
We think that you doubt having truth, truly prophetic
It's creepy how you act as if everything is copacetic
Your venomous wit is your crutch
And your heart is so corrupt
You degrade everything you touch
Because you're the champion of the dismissive review, yeah
In your signature style, we compose this review of you
The first verse of "There is Nothing Wrong With Hating Rock Critics" by of Montreal acknowledges that the singer and the rock critic are different. The rock critic is likened to a pig who is falling from a tree, while the singer is not confused like the critic. The chorus repeats the phrase "there's something wrong with you, and there's nothing wrong with me," highlighting the conflict between the two. The second verse addresses the rock critic directly, calling them "maggots" and a "Lester Bangs wannabe." The singer asserts that the critic's opinions are cynical, uninsightful, and irrelevant. The song ends with a scathing critique of the critic's dismissive review style and heartless nature.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm not confused like you, pig
I am not confused like you, and I believe you are inferior to me
You're falling from your tree
You are losing your status and influence
There's something wrong with you
You have flaws within you
There's something wrong with me
I also have flaws
There's nothing wrong with me
But those flaws don't change the fact that I am still great
I'm not impressed by you maggots
I am not impressed by you, who I consider despicable and lowly
Falling on the sea
You are lost and drifting aimlessly
But there is something definitely wrong with you
There is a major problem with the way you see things
And the way that you view
Your perspective is flawed
Your place in the world
You have an inaccurate perception of your role in society
You are wrong
Your opinions and beliefs are incorrect
You can say what you want
You have freedom of speech
But the truth is so clear
However, it is clear that your opinion is wrong
How can you think you are better than anyone?
Why do you believe you are superior to others?
The thought of it is really just absurd
That idea is ridiculous and illogical
Your cynical opinions have no depth
Your negative views lack substance and insight
You're uninsightful and irrelevant, haven't you heard?
You are unenlightened and your views have no value
I'm not confused like you, twit
I am not confused like you, and I view you as foolish
You Lester Bangs wannabe
You aspire to be like Lester Bangs, a famous critic
And tried adolescent ennui
But your attempts at creating a sense of boredom and dissatisfaction come across as insincere
You don't even create, you just critique
You do not produce anything creative, you only criticize
It's so obscene the way that you derive the words of artists
It is offensive how you interpret and analyze an artist's work
About whom you're not even worthy to speak
You are not qualified to talk about that artist
We think that you doubt having truth, truly prophetic
We suspect that you do not actually possess any prophetic truths
It's creepy how you act as if everything is copacetic
It is unsettling how you pretend everything is fine and perfect
Your venomous wit is your crutch
Your sarcastic and bitter humor is your only defense mechanism
And your heart is so corrupt
Your soul is rotten and morally bankrupt
You degrade everything you touch
You ruin everything you interact with
Because you're the champion of the dismissive review, yeah
You pride yourself on writing negative reviews
In your signature style, we compose this review of you
In your preferred manner of criticism, we are critiquing you
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: KEVIN BARNES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind