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Of Montreal with Grand Buffet
Thursday · Madison Theater
When last we checked in on Kevin Barnes, creative sparkplug behind Athens, Ga., Pop powerhouse Of Montreal, he’d incorporated his newly acquired love of World and AfroBeat music along with his longstanding admiration for David Bowie’s Glam work and Brian Eno’s Poptronica into his two most recent albums, 2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic and last year’s The Sunlandic Twins. While the albums retained the basic Beatles/Kinks architecture that’s characterized Of Montreal’s output since the band’s inception in 1997, the Electronica Dance atmosphere was a departure from the band’s Elephant Six collective roots.
Additionally, Barnes and his wife Nina had just become parents with the birth of daughter Alabee, but the experience had yet to make its way into Of Montreal’s music. Presumably, parenthood will have had enough of an impact to make an impression on OM’s upcoming release, Hissing Fauna: Are You the Destroyer?, an album that will apparently take the band even further down the electronic path.
This year has seen the re-release of OM’s second album, The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy, as well as the online posting of the first single from Hissing Fauna (which might not see release until next year), a track titled “A Cloud Crashes.” That recent release activity distinctly points out the glaring differences between where Of Montreal has been, where they’re headed and Barnes’ attempts to find the common ground between the disparate but related sounds.
From the sunny, psychedelically-tinged, ’60s-influenced Pop that defined Of Montreal’s early albums to the vibrant Electronic Pop with the classic chops as evidenced by the band’s last and latest recordings, the one constant has been Barnes’ impeccable storytelling skills and pure sonic craftsmanship. Wherever he decides to take Of Montreal, those qualities are sure to remain firmly intact. (Brian Baker)
Venus Hum with (in)camera
Saturday · Cincinnati Art Museum
Outside of their clear immutable passion for music, there’s no good reason electronic trio Venus Hum should exist. Just a few years ago, the band, which formed in Nashville in 1999, was living the high life.
They had a major label deal, which spawned 2002’s Big Beautiful Sky on MCA, and a dedicated and growing fanbase. Some of those die-hard fans led to higher profile jobs. Film and TV producer/director J.J. Abrams commissioned VH to write a new song for his hit show Alias. The Blue Man Group took VH on the road with them as an opening act on an international tour, and singer Annette Strean also appeared on the musical/performance art troupe’s single, “I Feel Love,” a rumbling reworking of the Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer Disco anthem.
As with many hit-less up-and-comers, the distressing trend of “label restructuring” spelled the end of their recording contract. If that wasn’t enough of a curveball, Strean developed nodes on her vocal chords, which made it painful for her to speak, let alone sing. With the band’s future up in the air, Kip Kubin pursued film work while Tony Miracle, who grew up in suburban Cincinnati, made an experimental Electronica album as Satellite City and returned to the Queen City to spend time with his young son. Strean, meanwhile, worked at getting her voice back through therapy.
Instead of seeing their problems as career-ending obstacles, the trio simply took a much-needed breather. They’ve returned with a bang, releasing the riveting new The Colors in the Wheel in late July. The band has been called ElectroPop and Trip Hop, with their gorgeous, flourishing melodies laid out on a bed of pulsating electronics, but those terms don’t fully capture the band’s deeply creative elegance. Like flowers blossoming on the dance floor, Strean uncoils beautiful, organic vocals (which bear a resemblance to Over the Rhine singer Karin Bergquist’s luxurious, expressive singing), over Kubin and Miracles glitchy, uniquely evocative dreamscapes. The group decided to abstain from synthesizers this time around, manipulating more natural instruments with computers for much of the album. On the opener, “Turn Me Around,” for example, the group made all of the music (including the drums and atmospherics) with chopped-and-sautéed guitar samples.
Venus Hum’s Cincinnati show is a part of a special edition of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s “One World” series, which turns the museum into a virtual Ibiza on Saturday. Organizers will recreate the nightlife culture of the Spanish dance-music hotspot, with different rooms made up to resemble actual clubs in Ibiza. (Mike Breen)
The Drams
Tuesday · Southgate House
For those who might still be lamenting the demise of Slobberbone, one of the truly great boozy Americana thrash outfits in recent memory, the arrival of The Drams is cause to rejoice. Consisting of former Slobberbone frontman Brent Best (vocalist/guitarist/songwriter) and ‘bonemates Jess Barr (guitar) and Tom Harper (drums), as well as ex-Budapest One bassist/vocalist Keith Killoren and keyboardist/vocalist Chad Stockslager, The Drams offer up truckloads of the same manic roots energy that made Slobberbone a cult favorite while adding in a new level of melodic subtlety and harmonic possibility. The addition of Stockslager and Killoren was the defining moment for Best as he was assembling The Drams; both are vocalists who perfectly complement his husky lead, and Stockslager’s pure musicality on the keys has given The Drams a broader range than the ‘bone, something they had compensated for through sheer volume.
The Drams’ New West debut, Jubilee Dive, has plenty of the crackle and verve that characterized the ‘bone’s more visceral work (“Truth Lies Low”), while sprinkling in liberal doses of Beatlesque Pop melodicism (“September High”), The Jayhawks’ keen sense of Rock classicism (“Hummalong”), Byrdsian psychedelic Soul (“Des Moines”) and The Band’s melancholy beauty (“Holy Moses”). Additionally, Best’s songs on Jubilee Dive comprise a cycle of sorts as he details the gritty aspects of band life and life in general, the need to stay true to one’s self and the dangers of putting too much faith in the gee-whiz technology of a mindlessly consumerist society. The thread of Best’s songs was so strong that he opted to maintain the continuity of his 14-track, 70-minute work as a whole rather than edit it down to a more manageable (but thematically incomplete) length. And there’s the most important shared trait between Slobberbone and The Drams: an uncompromising pursuit of musical quality and integrity. (BB)
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2006.