When Kevin Barnes started Of Montreal in the mid-1990s, he was a bit late to the Athens, GA, scene's retro pop-rock party. At that time, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Olivia Tremor Control ruled the roost of the ripening Elephant 6 Collective, beguiling indie-rock audiences and tastemakers by cannily recontextualizing Nixon-era psych, Beatlemania's lighter side, and tape splicing/manipulation for the Nirvana generation. Today, with Elephant 6 only nominally a movement and its most revered flagships in (or just emerging from) indefinite hibernation, Of Montreal's relative stock has risen. It doesn't hurt that Barnes — who at this point writes, performs, and records all of the group's music himself — is a changeling-cum-workhorse whose never-ebbing, frustratingly catchy flood of singles, albums and EPs has increasingly strayed from the standard-issue Anglo E6 M.O. to seamlessly and tantalizingly incorporate African polyrhythms, funk, disco, and... More >>>