{"id":20244,"date":"2014-01-27T16:27:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T00:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=20244"},"modified":"2014-01-28T16:49:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T00:49:19","slug":"brief-review-of-of-montreals-ucsb-show-and-watch-official-video-for-she-aint-speaking-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2014-01\/brief-review-of-of-montreals-ucsb-show-and-watch-official-video-for-she-aint-speaking-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Brief Review of Of Montreal’s UCSB Show and Watch Official Video for “She Ain’t Speaking Now”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Of Montreal<\/strong> slammed into UCSB<\/strong> last Friday at The<\/strong> (dreaded) Hub<\/strong> and threw one of most enjoyable musical parties we’ve experienced in a long dang time (yes, better even than the Flaming Lips<\/strong> party at the Santa Barbara Bowl<\/strong> last fall).\u00a0 As with their discography, the sounds put out by Of Montreal<\/strong> live were all over the map, alternating between ferocious disco, Bowie<\/strong>-laced psychedelia, Prince<\/strong>-ly funk, raving rock, diva balladeering (from\u00a0 Ms. Cash<\/strong>), and Arcade Fire<\/strong> (in the process beating that band at their own Reflektor<\/strong><\/em> game).\u00a0 While the setlist was judiciously culled from their entire discography, a large number were from two of our favorite albums, the fan-favorite Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?<\/strong><\/em> and 2013’s fantastic, ever-growing Lousy With Sylvanbriar<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Leader Kevin Barnes<\/strong> is not only one of our best songwriters and lyricists (his lyrical acumen and style reminding at times of the wordy Dan Bejar<\/strong> of Destroyer<\/strong>), he is also a phenomenal showman as witnessed by Barnes’<\/strong> cajoling of the UCSB<\/strong> crowd at every turn.\u00a0 Barnes<\/strong> and his band of merrymen (and the very merry Rebecca Cash<\/strong>) tore the roof off the joint, aided and abetted by a high-energy, know-every-word-to-every-song crowd that by show’s end had come rightfully unhinged (with one crowd surfer going so far as to pull himself up into the rafters only to dive back into the crowd).\u00a0 The rest of the band provided perfect support to Barnes<\/strong> and Cash<\/strong>, with drummer Clayton Rychlik<\/strong> righteously rounding out the band’s three-part harmonization, but with bass, keys and guitar perfectly filling out the sound throughout.\u00a0 Highlights of their set included the triumphantly rocking Triumph of Disintegration<\/strong><\/em>, Fugitive Air<\/strong><\/em>,<\/strong> Gronlandic Edit<\/strong><\/em>,<\/strong> She’s A Rejecter<\/strong><\/em> and main-set closer The Past Is A Grotesque Animal<\/strong><\/em> (on which we heard for the first time\u00a0Arcade Fire<\/strong> as that band aspired to be on Reflektor<\/strong><\/em>–this song must be heard live to be believed).\u00a0 Our only regret was that Of Montreal<\/strong> didn’t perform another of our favorites, Coquette, Coquette<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The next time they come within 200 miles of you, cancel everything on the calendar and get thee to the party.\u00a0 Of Montreal<\/strong> is not to be missed on record or in concert.<\/p>\n

Speaking of great recordings and Lousy With Sylvanbriar<\/strong><\/em>, Of Montreal<\/strong> has just posted the new official video for one of that album’s best songs, She Ain’t Speaking Now<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Check it out below, followed by the band’s currently scheduled tour dates.<\/p>\n

Kevin Barnes provided this explanation of She Ain’t Speaking Now<\/strong><\/em> to Under the Radar<\/strong><\/a>: “I came back from San Francisco, and my wife Nina and my daughter were both really sick. They both had this terrible flu. Nina came out to visit me for a weekend, and she had the misfortune of sitting next to this woman that was terribly sick and had no business flying. She was coughing and sneezing and leaving dirty tissues all over the place. She was really a monster in a way. But [Nina] got really ill, and it’s always scary, with people dying of the flu and all the different mutations that happen. There’s always that fear of a flu pandemic, and you never know when someone gets sick and bedridden if this is going to be the thing that actually kills someone. It’s a serious thing. So when I wrote that song, they were both really sick. I had this sense that they weren’t going to die, but I allowed myself to go to that really dark place, like “What if they did die?” That one, the verses are really beautiful, with Bennett [Lewis]’s mandolin, and I was playing this nylon-string guitar, and JoJo [Glidewell] was playing a really beautiful piano part. I like it a lot because it feels so different from verse to chorus. The verses feel more dreamy and beautiful, and the chorus is more frantic and fuzzy and rocking. I like the way the harmonies sound with me and Rebecca [Cash] on the choruses. That one was something I was thinking could be a good single.”<\/p>\n