When Is Tragedy Ever Petite?

Part II: Fueled By A Legion Of New Fans, Kevin Barnes And Of Montreal Are Leaping New Hurdles And Aiming For Evolution

originally published March 21, 2007

Editor's Note: Last week, Part I of this story covered the tumultuous creative process behind Of Montreal's new album. Missed out? No worries: it's available here.

It's not enough to make a sprawling, deeply personal dance pop album, as Kevin Barnes did with Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?. You've got to put it out in the public arena. And the only way to follow up an album like 2005's Sunlandic Twins - the album that pushed Of Montreal further into the national spotlight and sold more copies than all eight of the band's previous albums combined - is to do even better.

According to John Fernandes, the stalwart Elephant 6 multi-instrumentalist who also clerks at Wuxtry Records downtown, Hissing Fauna is selling "really, really, really well. Just as many copies as any national band," he says.

And it's not just Athens whipping out its collective pocketbook to support the home team; the album has made national waves. According to Matt Lunsford, co-president of the band's label Polyvinyl Record Co., Hissing Fauna sold more than 30,000 copies in the first six weeks of its release. When it came out in late January, the album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard independent charts - that week it sold more copies in America than any other non-major-label-affiliated album except for The Shins' Wincing the Night Away .

The album also spent three weeks on the Billboard Top 200 chart, peaking at No. 71 when placed in a national context. Sure, sales of major-label albums are down across the board, and maybe this is all a little nerdy music-industry stuff, but what's the last independent Athens band that made a ripple in terms of national sales?

"I think it just comes down to the songs, really," says Bryan Poole, a longtime Of Montreal collaborator and currently the bassist for the touring version of the band. "They're just connecting with people everywhere." The band has sold out almost every show on its current tour, and has had to add additional dates in large cities to accommodate demand.

A complete digital version of Hissing Fauna was leaked to the Internet in fall of 2006, and though it was a source of serious concern for the band, its record label and its publicity company, these strong sales seem to show there's more to a band's songs than the click of a mouse.

"I think it led to a longer 'anticipation period' for the record," says Lunsford. "People were listening to it four months early, but we don't believe that it has affected sales. It certainly got people talking about the record really early. By the time January 23 came around, everyone knew to look for it!"

Anecdotal evidence suggests that labels may have less to fear from leaked albums - at least as long as the quality of the music and its packaging are compelling enough in the first place to inspire purchases. "I love Cherry Peel , I love them all," says David Aquino, an 18-year-old fan from Tucson, AZ, who mentions Of Montreal's debut album from 1997. "It's a goal of mine to track down all the CDs in physical form. It's one of those bands you don't just wanna download off iTunes, you want the art and such, you know?" Aquino says he's only known about Of Montreal for a year - he stumbled across the Kangaroo Alliance-created video for the 2005 song "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)" - but has since then immersed himself in the band's back catalog, as have other recent fans.

Teen fans like Aquino may shed light on Of Montreal's continued and evolving success. "There's a ton of kids at our shows now," says Poole. "Used to be, like, people our age at our shows, and that's about it, but not anymore."

"I've been a fan of Of Montreal for a couple years," says Kane Graves, a 17-year-old from North Carolina who recently posted comments on Of Montreal's MySpace page. "Their music's extreme uniqueness is probably what turns me on to them the most. Hissing Fauna has been playing in my car for over a month since I found a leaked copy on the Internet. I loved the album and the band so much that I bought the record when it came out…

I was first introduced to them by a friend, but I didn't really get into them because I was skeptical of their name. It was a few months later that, in my obsession with Elephant 6 music, I picked them up again. My favorite album would have to be Coquelicot Asleep In The Poppies ."

"It is my opinion that Kevin Barnes is the new Ziggy Stardust," says Jessica Hakala, an 18-year-old Minnesotan who hoped to finish a portrait of Barnes she was working on and present it to him at the band's Mar. 16 Minnesota show. "I knew a boy in high school (who is now my boyfriend) who would play their music in Painting class every day. It was so inspiring listening to 'Oslo in the Summertime' while painting. It's arty music at its finest! I feel at once emotional and creative whenever I listen to them."

Kelsey is a 14-year-old fan from North Carolina; she was just learning to walk when Barnes was writing his first songs. "I think Of Montreal's music is very unique," she says via email. "They really have a unique sound. I've never heard another band that sounds like them."

Kevin Barnes credits his new, younger audience with helping raise the band out of the "indie ghetto" and maintains a strong appreciation for their commitment, but says that connecting nightly with a crowd, though always the ultimate goal, can be difficult.

"I have a strange relationship with an audience, because it's like, yeah, when you're performing, there is a lot of posturing and you're getting into a persona, but you don't want it to consume you," says Barnes, "so there's always going to be an aspect of your real character that's on the outside looking in as part of the audience. So you're watching yourself, and they're watching you, and depending on how drunk you are or comfortable you are, that's going to influence the kind of performance you give. Sometimes the monotony of it, you know… you play a song so many times, it's kind of weird because you look out in the crowd and all week they've gone to classes, they've gone to work, seen TV shows, but they haven't seen you perform. And so they're seeing Of Montreal perform maybe for the first time ever, maybe the first time in months, maybe the first time in years, even, or they're just checking it out, so it's special for them because it's fresh. But for us, we've done it so many times that it can't always be as exciting as it is the first couple of times.

"So you find yourself in Fayetteville, Arkansas or whatever, and there's a good crowd and the people are smiling and having fun and you feel like it's a Groundhog Day thing over and over, but, at the same time, it's new because the people are new and so you want to connect with them, but sometimes it's difficult. For example, I've been drinking too much, and I think that's probably wise, because when you drink a lot sometimes things feel fresh and exciting while you're intoxicated, at least for that moment, and then you kind of forget. And when you're sober, at least it's difficult for me to black things out and exist in the moment, y'know, I'm thinking about bills and my child and such. But performing has been so much fun and such an important part of my life for the past 10 years."

A high profile for the band and its music, however, has not come without a price. Much digital gnashing of teeth occurred when two Of Montreal tunes appeared in national television commercials last year - the melody from "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)" was used in an Outback Steakhouse commercial with steakhouse-specific lyrics, and in a less controversial turn, the song "Everyday Feels Like Sunday" (a feel-good bonus track that's almost directly contrapuntal to Morrissey's downer "Everyday Is Like Sunday) showed up in a NASDAQ spot.

"Gross and objectionable," is what one commenter posted on the E6 Townhall, a messageboard devoted to the Elephant 6 dynasty of bands. "I am fucking disgusted," wrote another. Some live performances have even found audience members chanting "Steak! Steak! Steak!" following performances of "Wraith."

There were, of course, voices of moderation, but hey, who pays attention to reasoned and well-stated arguments online? That old adolescent bugaboo of selling out seems to have slithered from the suburbs of "punk" to indie-pop. If it's any consolation to those hand-wringers with shattered souls, Barnes says he worried long and struggled hard with the decision.

"At my age, I've already gone through the whole 'sell out' thing," says Barnes. "The whole concept is foreign to me at this point, I would never call someone a sell-out unless they got boring and they were trying specifically to reach a larger audience. And I don't feel like we're getting boring, and I don't know that anyone's going to buy my records because they heard them on a commercial. I still feel like musically I'm still pushing myself to do something interesting.

"It's weird," he continues. "I'd never been approached by ad agencies for my music. It was a really difficult decision, but once I'd made it, it sort of made me feel more detached from the world… It's so difficult. I never had any money before and was struggling, like, 'Shit, how are we going to make the rent this month?' And then someone offers me enough money to not have to worry about it for like a whole year, basically. How can I say no to that? I mean, I could say no to retain indie credibility, but indie credibility doesn't pay the bills and it doesn't help my daughter eat or keep her out of a roach-infested house.

"I feel like there are certain sacrifices you have to make, and inevitably that's going to have ramifications. Some may feel betrayed or turn their back on us. We've already had that at some shows, with some people heckling us. Which I feel is not so cool. You can't be so critical of people. I have this song in my head right now that goes: 'Sure it has to be a bit of a shock, but everyone has to suck someone's cock to get by.' And it's like, I had to suck Outback's cock to get by… and then I also sucked NASDAQ's cock to keep getting by. I've been doing a lot of cock-sucking lately," he says, and laughs. He also suggests that if it'll make anyone feel better, they can consider Barnes' sale of songs to television a subversive act, taking money from supposedly "uncool" sources. In addition to the pressing benefits of an increase in income - rent, food, etc. - Barnes also says the band is using a portion of the advertising income to beef up (har har) its stage show, an ever-evolving production that has reached new heights in spectacle.

No simple touring band, Of Montreal - Barnes, Poole, Dottie Alexander, Jamey Huggins, Matt Dawson and a cadre of reliable Athensfolk to man the stage show - has grown to incorporate multiple projection screens, live psychedelic videography, giant flags, enormous lobster claws, costumes, glitter, lights… and on and on. Poole has taken recently to dressing like some sort of fantastic pink rock-and-roll angel, and Barnes has performed songs on a ladder dressed in a 10-foot-long silver dress, towering above band and crowd. (And then there's the case of a recent Las Vegas show where Barnes stripped down to almost nothing at all; photos of his very own Hissing Fauna were online within days.)

"I saw them play at the Flying Anvil in Greensboro last summer," says Kane Graves, the young North Carolina fan, "and I can honestly say that it was the best night of my life. Myself and three of my friends woke up at 8 a.m. to find a way to get money for the tickets and gas, and it paid off. The show was the greatest concert I've been to in my life, their dress and stage presence was amazing. I stayed after and met with Kevin Barnes, he was both charming and down-to-earth. The whole night, though, left a distinct imprint in my mind."

Alex Rader, another 18-year-old Minnesotan who posted on Of Montreal's MySpace page, says via email, "I'm going to see them again on this tour. Their live show is amazing, they throw [out] crazy extras for the audience. They covered 'Crazy' and it was the best thing I had every seen. Even after the concert, they stayed out and talked."

So to generalize about Youth Today for a minute, it seems safe to say that teenagers in 2007 are rarely concerned with genre boundaries. They'd just as happily listen to hip-hop as they would rock as they would pop, and perhaps that's another reason why Of Montreal is connecting so strongly with new audiences. The band has always straddled classifications, and while remaining heavily in the pop arena, Of Montreal has never been afraid to place itself in the context of international superstar rock or homegrown independent pop - and most importantly, both at once, as when at a recent Variety Playhouse show in Atlanta, the band weaved into its set brief versions of both Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" and the Olivia Tremor Control's "Green Typewriters Suite IV."

And putting on a lively show has almost always been essential to acceptance in the American popular arena. "All over the country," says Barnes, "we're definitely going to something a little more theatrical and elaborate this time, as far as the stage design goes." There's even mention online of fans coming to shows dressed like of Barnes himself. The recruitment drive for Team Of Montreal seems healthy.

The write-and-record solo approach, according to Barnes, has served him well for the past three albums, but it may be time to retire that tactic. "It's fun. I don't know how much longer we can continue like this with me writing all the parts to all the songs and giving them to the band to learn. They're just going to get bored with it," he says. "I think this is the last record that'll happen like this, because I don't think it's very satisfying for them. At first, it was exciting to be in a band that was doing well, but like everything, you're never satisfied forever. Just being in a band that's doing well is not going to be enough for them, they're going to want to feel creatively involved. I'm sure the record that follows Hissing Fauna will have to be different, or the lineup is going to change."

For his part, Poole says, "Well, that's very nice of Kevin to say, and I'm glad he's thinking of keeping us interested, but it's not really an issue for me. I mean, I have my own band with The Late B.P. Helium, and that lets me get my own songs and ideas out. So Kevin probably shouldn't worry about it."

According to Barnes, though, new material may dictate a shift in approaches, though what that is specifically remains up in the air. "I want to do something different anyways. I want to bring in some different people, and bring some people in the band into the writing and recording. I think things have become a little claustrophobic with everything coming from one mind. I run the risk of repeating myself. I already have, actually, since Hissing Fauna really isn't much of a departure from Sunlandic Twins , but if I would've brought in some extra people, it definitely would've been… something else.

"The most important thing to me is my body of work," says Barnes, whose next big milestone with the band will be to perform at California's Coachella festival in April, "and that in fift… well, I'm not going to be that old, but in 30 or 40 years from now, if I get there, if I have a really strange, varied body of work…

Cherry Peel doesn't sound anything like Hissing Fauna , which I hope doesn't sound anything like the record I make 10 years from now."

Chris Hassiotis

WHO: Of Montreal, Loney, Dear
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Saturday, March 24
HOW MUCH: $12