Friday, December 28, 2007

Blog Fresh/Bobka/ Hissing Fauna

"We Just Wanna Emote Til Were Dead"

Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? became one of my favorite albums due to its indelible irony. How can one deny something so good that seems so wrong? You can't. It's in that spirit, albeit in jest, that Kevin Barnes master work with Of Montreal came to do be. It makes sense that a record documenting Barnes "divorce from himself" and his transformation into the mythical "Georgie Peach" (as well as his schizo divorce from wife/Of Montreal bass player Nina Twin) would break from the band's sugary lysergic mold, however it seems counterintuitive that the band romps over forlorn, depress fest lyrics to reinvent itself as the funkiest white disco band in the world. And there in lies it's magic. At every corner you are faced with Barnes lyrical struggle. "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger" is a champagne bubbling synthetic pop gem which finds Barnes "on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway." Georgie Fruit is most biting during the 11 minute transformation funk of "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" and the absurdist "She's a Rejector", where he crows both "Eva I'm Sorry But You Will Never Have Me/ To Me Your Just Some Faggy Girl/ And I Need A Lover with Soul Power" and "There's the Girl that Left Me Bitter/ Want to Pay Some other Girl to Just Walk Up To Her And Hit Her." It's alot funner than it sounds, I swear.

You can hear bits of Hissing Fauna... along with a laundry list of the best albums of the year on this weeks Blog Fresh Radio, which dissects the Blog Fresh posse's favorite records of the year. Definitely worth a look and a listen.

Also be sure to peep the righteous video for "Gronlandic Edit" below, as well as Kevin Barnes Year End Top 10 list, which he composed for P4K:
1. Caribou: Andorra
2. Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity
3. M.I.A.: Kala
4. Robert Wyatt: Comicopera
5. Liars: Liars
6. MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
7. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
8. Panda Bear: Person Pitch
9. Fiery Furnaces: Widow City
10. A Hawk and a Hacksaw: A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble


Buy Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Listen to Blog Fresh Radio

"Nihilists With Good Imaginations"

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