OF MONTREAL ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM
SHARES NEW SINGLE "FUGITIVE AIR" VIA PITCHFORK
LOUSY WITH SYLVIANBRIAR OUT OCTOBER 8TH VIA POLYVINYL
Photograph courtesy of Nina Barnes
STREAM: "fugitive air" -
Defining
of Montreal is impossible. There are too many perspectives to consider,
angles to explore and layers to uncover. Just when you think you have a
concept of what kind of creature they are they transform into something
unexpected and new. As a result, each album holds the opportunity for re-discovery, re-immersion, re-appreciation.
On lousy with sylvianbriar,
this paradigm holds true once more. The record was created with a new
songwriting approach, a different recording method, and a fresh group
of musicians. Seeking creative
inspiration, Kevin Barnes re-located to San Francisco where he spent
days soaking in the strange surroundings and channeling the city's
energy into his writing. After a very prolific period there, he
returned to Athens, GA and assembled the cast of musicians to begin the
sessions.
Barnes
eschewed computer recording, with its pitch correction, limitless
effects plug ins and editing possibilities. Instead, with the help of
engineer Drew Vandenberg (Deerhunter, Toro y Moi), he recorded lousy with sylvianbriar in
his home studio on a 24 track tape machine. With no computer tricks to
fall back on, the band - Kevin Barnes (guitars, bass, vocals),
"I
knew I wanted the process to be more in line with the way people used
to make albums in the late 60s and early 70s," reveals Barnes. "I
wanted to work fast and to maintain a high level of spontaneity and
immediacy. I wanted the songs to be more lyric driven, and for the
instrumental arrangements to be understated and uncluttered".
Opening
track and lead single "fugitive air" feels like a Stones-y anthem, with
sparks of Philip K Dick's psychedelic prose, Ralph Bakshi's cartoon
violence and William S Burroughs' hyper-paranoia. "belle glade missionaries" finds Barnes lyrically at his most political, backed by a soundtrack that is pure Dylan circa Highway 61 Revisited.
Female
vocalist Rebecca Cash makes several appearances on the album, taking
the lead on the plaintive "raindrop in my skull," where her and Barnes
share a Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris-inspired duet.
"she
ain't speakin' now" ranks among of Montreal's all-time great songs,
transforming its brooding acoustic guitar intro into a visceral
angst-ridden rocker that sounds like the best moments of Neil Young
& Crazy Horse. The album's closer
"imbecile rages", a caustic and doleful epitaph for a crumbling
relationship, is one of Barnes' most raw and personal statements.
Like
the classic albums that inspired it, this is an album to be explored,
to be lived with, to be listened to in happiness and in darkness, to be
dissolved into. To be played very loudly at parties and with eyes
closed, in headphones, alone. It should become dog-eared and dirty with
use and it should lessen the blow of our enemies, in all of their forms.
The
album will be available digitally, on tape, CD and 180-gram vinyl. 1500
copies of vinyl will be clear green vinyl and available through
Polyvinyl's E-store exclusively, while the other retail copies will be
pink vinyl. Cassette edition limited to 250 hand-numbered copies on green cassettes, courtesy of Joyful Noise Recordings.
of Montreal
lousy with sylvianbriar
(Polyvinyl)
Oct 8, 2013
1. fugitive air
2. obsidian currents
3. belle glade missionaries
4. sirens of your toxic spirit
5. colossus
6. triumph of disintegration
7. amphibian days
8. she ain't speakin' now
9. hegira émigré
10. raindrop in my skull
11. imbecile rages
