Interview with Of Montreal

Of Montreal is scheduled to play at Duke Friday, Sept. 29.

recess: When people ask you what kind of band you are, what do you say to them?

Bryan Pooles of Of Montreal: We basically want to have a psychedelic dance party and make it thought-provoking, but still fun, you know? We cram a lot of melodies into our songs, and there's definitely the influence of the old psychedelic music that we were really stoked about when we first started the band. But now we've involved new, more modern influences-you know, like electro-type stuff.

r: Sunlandic Twins has been described as your "dance epic." How would you characterize your upcoming release?

BP: It's an arc. It started with Satanic Panic in the Attic, which had songs like "Rapture Rapes the Muses" and "Disconnect the Dots" that became the springboard for some of the things that happened on the Sunlandic Twins record. The new record is still on the same arc, except it's a little stranger. But it's definitely funky, and it's definitely a dance record. There's no acoustic, tender moments on the record-it's pretty much still heavily influenced by Bowie and Prince. Some of Kevin's lyrics may even be shocking or confusing, where you're asking, "Did he really say that? What does he mean by that?"

r: What kind of stuff can we expect on Friday?

BP: A very orderly show. I think we're going to give a lecture about pygmies-pygmies that migrated to central Montana, and nobody really knew about them too much. There's been some new evidence that we've uncovered, so we'll be talking about that. And I think there will be some sort of carving contest, and then after that they're releasing us some butterflies. There's some things we've got worked out-you just have to come and check it out. I'd say you might wanna bring some goggles.

r: Are you a basketball fan?