Intellectual House o' Pancakes Comments Page and Grill

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2fs - 2007-02-04 19:56:11
This will sound weird coming from me, but...have you listened to the lyrics? They seem primarily to be a chronicle of Kevin Barnes' last few years battling depression...that "come on, chemicals!" line isn't just some sort of trendy recreational drug reference. Here's an interview: http://www.230publicity.com/ofmontreal.html.
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grigorss - 2007-02-04 22:15:30
I do find 'Seventh Heaven' compelling, I do... it compels me to grab the remote and change the channel as fast as I can.
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Erich K - 2007-02-05 10:06:50
The problem I have with OF MONTREAL is the vocals are the same irony-inflected adenoidal vocals that turn me off to Mercurty Rev, Flaming Lips, Architecture in Helsinki and the Polyphonic Spree and maybe even Spacement 3/Spiritualized. That style reminds me of a time and mental place of masculinity I am trying to move past, where irony is your cushion against the rusty springs of the adult world and all its symbolic castration.
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2fs - 2007-02-05 10:37:58
Erich: That's interesting - because I don't hear Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips (at least in recent years), or Polyphonic Spree as being at all "ironic." Plus I'm not sure how a singer's voice can itself be ironic: that's just the way Barnes' voice sounds. Personally I don't think Barnes' lyrics have ever been ironic - quite the opposite.
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ErichK - 2007-02-05 11:30:31
hmmmm well maybe you're right, 2fs. Maybe irony isn't the word... arch? sacrosanct? Nasal? Obsessed with Sgt. Pepper? I guess there's certain vocal styles that grate on certain people... I'm even more depressed than Barnes today, so I'll be quiet now. I'm sure he's very nice and when I sing I sound like Ice T on a bad hair day... but some people like that... my grandmom for one... sigh.
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Paula - 2007-02-05 12:04:45
Wow, I hope the P-Spree aren't being ironic.

But I am with you on wanting to hear men singing from the bottom of their hearts and top of their lungs, etc. I always felt like Jeff Mangum was doing that, and Mark Eitzel, sometimes Freedy Johnston.

Why do you equate the adult world with castration? would think it's the opposite; being an adult means living from your most powerful self.
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Paula - 2007-02-05 12:15:34
2Fs, thanks for that link--interesting! I will listen with new ears.
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Erich K - 2007-02-05 12:22:07
From a Lacanian perspective, social castration is the subservience of one's own will to the social order, i.e. everytime you set your alarm clock or wear a tuxedo to a gala you are (unless you're a masochistic freak)putting social expectations above your natural instincts which have the ultimate gratification in the mother. (the father represents the world of the "no" - language itself a form of symbolic castration, a wedge driven between the subject and direct experience of the real - etc.)
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Paula - 2007-02-05 12:49:33
what if your mother is a tuxedo? what if you enjoy the sound of your alarm clock? why is it subservience and not interdependence? I think "natural insticts" are overrated.
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grigorss - 2007-02-05 13:13:57
Are you suggesting wearing my mother to a gala event? I'm not ruling it out, but I refuse to dig her up myself -- it would kill my back.
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Tom G. - 2007-02-05 13:35:14
Are you suggesting wearing my mother to a gala event?

Ok, now stop it grigorss! My sides are hurting. (One of the funniest posts I've read in quite a while.) I agree with Paula though, it's all about perspective. So Erich K, ditch Lacan. Also, re: reactions to voices, I would think most people would say Kevin Barnes' voice is out of the ordinary and because of that they struggle to place it in an identifiable area of their brains. That's why at first listen, it may sound arch or ironic or cold but as we become more familiar with it's uniqueness or oddness it becomes more acceptable and more friendly. Just a thought...
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Erich K - 2007-02-05 16:10:20
Ditch Lacan??? That's what everybody else says too, especially David Bordwell and them cranky, needlessly obtuse post-theorists.
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Paula - 2007-02-05 16:21:37
Honey, while we support you no matter what you decide, just remember it's far better to endure loneliness than to be in a relationship with a bad po-mo philosopher who won't let you enjoy your tuxedo.
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Erich K - 2007-02-05 16:44:20
Gosh, maybe you're right... I been such a FOOL!
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Rebecca - 2007-02-06 10:55:13
So...puppies! This is the second year we've watched and loved the Puppy Bowl. It's a tradition! My favorite is the Bowl Cam (the camera upside down looking up from below the water dish). Also there was the kitten halftime show! Not as good as Prince, but cute.
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Paula - 2007-02-06 15:18:57
Bowl Cam made me laugh out loud and rewind several times!
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2fs - 2007-02-06 22:56:59
Help me out here: is the "Puppy Bowl" an event where puppies are hurled down a bowling alley to knock pins over? I certainly hope it's that and not someone hurling bowling balls at puppies. Or is the "Puppy Bowl" sort of like puppies' idea of heaven - a room full of open toilets, and no one there to tell them they can't drink from them to their hearts' content? Or is some sort of Warholian cinema, a fixed camera focused on one puppy's bowl for twenty-four hours? I am so confused.
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Paula - 2007-02-06 23:22:19
2fs, all your questions answered by clicking the magical link in the glob entry ("puppies"). You'll see highlights from Puppy Bowl--my favorite is the "music video."
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