If I remember correctly, and I could be wrong on this, Of Montreal is one of the bands at the forefront of the idea of whoring their music away to terrible commercials with the sole purpose of taking that money and sinking it into ever-expanding albums and live shows. Of course the hipster whose Daddy pays the rent on his Williamsburg loft saw this as a disgusting travesty -- sellout! -- but even those who had no issue with it could not help but to be turned off by the final product: “Let’s go OUTBACK tonight, life will still be here tomorrow!” It seems truly awful for a seminal band of the Elephant 6 collective to have this happen to their song, until you realize that…they have to pay their rent.
But right around this same time, Of Montreal also started expanding their live shows with increasingly insane theatrics (think Ziggy Stardust for the aughts) and live animals. And all of this was seemingly made possible by the proceeds they received from Outback and other corporations. Or that’s what Kevin Barnes said, at least. And even if Barnes himself thinks it is impossible to sellout in a capitalist world we live in, the fact remains that this whole silly thing had nothing but a positive effect on their music and live shows. In short, if the final product is in no way affected negatively by these terrible ads, does it really matter? Isn’t Barnes dead-on about this?
Like Gwar, I have been wanting to see the Of Montreal live production for a long time, but I always feared that excessive amounts of real bodily fluids might makes their way onto my impeccably pressed oxford, so I passed. Unlike Gwar, this band makes some excellent and unique dance rock that has essentially carved its own niche in the music world. Nowhere is this more apparent than on Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer, one of this decade’s best records. There are a handful of fantastic songs to choose from that album, but this one was my initial favorite and so it shall remain.
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