There are plenty of bands out there with exactly one official member.
The neo-psychedelic project Tame Impala consists of singer/songwriter Kevin Parker. The dark acoustic folk of Iron and Wine is created by Samuel Beam. And one could even argue that Trent Reznor IS Nine Inch Nails, regardless of who else plays with him.
Of Montreal, which plays at the Charleston Pour House on July 4, is one of those projects. The Athens, Ga. indie-pop band started off in 1996 with a multi-member lineup and created a mix of deceptively bright folk-pop music, surreal, whimsical arrangements and dark, confessional lyrics.
Over the years, electronic dance music entered the band’s sound as the other members exited to other projects. Since 2004’s Satanic Panic In The Attic, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Barnes has played every note on 14 out of 17 Of Montreal albums, with a skeleton crew of musicians, often just two or three, appearing on the others.
If you’re just looking at results, Barnes had little reason to change that approach. Of Montreal is an indie band with more than 300 million streams, a “cult band” with a huge following and an eternal critics darling in hipper-than-hip publications like Pitchfork. Hell, the band’s eerie, pulsing electronic track, “Wraith Pinned To The Mist and Other Games,” even popped up in an Outback Steakhouse ad.
This time out, though, on the band’s new album aetherhead, things are different. The longtime touring members of Of Montreal, the musicians who turn these insular songs into full-blown epics onstage, joined Barnes in the studio.
“Everyone from the touring band played on this record,” Barnes said in a recent interview with the Charleston City Paper. “It was Jojo Glidewell on keyboards, Ross Brand on bass and Clayton Rychlik on drums.”
It’s the first Of Montreal album in a decade to have multiple other musicians on it, and the result is a 13-song collection that brims with different sounds and ideas.
It’s a fun listening experience when one album has the dreamily psychedelic single, “Already Dreaming,” the tight rocker “Wanting On Air,” a rich acoustic ballad like “Listen to Music and Cry,” a hilarious lounge-lizard stumble called “My Zhe Zhe” and a swaggering garage stomper like “Take The Form.”
Barnes said he knew the album was going to be stylistically diverse before he even began recording since did demos of the songs in their various styles. But the arrangements are where the full band approach really paid off.
“They have the chops, they’re versatile, they’re open-minded, they have a broad appreciation for different kinds of music and we love a lot of the same bands,” Barnes said. “It’s pretty easy to communicate an idea when you can say, ‘This is kind of like Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and the musicians understand as opposed to ‘What the hell is that?’ ”
Having said that, Barnes stopped short of calling this iteration of the band a new beginning.
“That feels kind of dramatic,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a chapter, not the beginning or the end of anything. I really see it as a continuation.”
So far, fans seem to be enjoying the full-band treatment on aetherhead, which was released on June 5 of this year.
“People seem to be really excited about it,” Barnes said. “The reaction so far has been really positive.”
In fact, it’s been streamed more than 400,000 times already on Spotify alone.
And there’s one more person who’s joined the party this time around: Barnes’ daughter Beatrice directed the surreal, nostalgic sepia-toned video for “Already Dreaming.”
Barnes said the Pour House show will feature four or five songs from aetherhead, but you might not want to get used to that full-band sound in the studio. Despite all the camaraderie, Barnes clearly wants to keep his artistic options open.
“I don’t stay in the same creative headspace for too long,” he said. “I’ve already started writing and recording in my small home studio,” he said. “That’s really where my passion is. And I don’t really know what direction the album is going to go in yet.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Doors open at 8 p.m. July 4, Pour House, 1977 Maybank Highway, Charleston. Tickets: $25-$30. charlestonpourhouse.com
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.
