I was having a fairly shitty morning playing Debt Collector (my least favourite game, but being a self managed artist in an industry where nobody likes to actually pay anyone, it’s one I have to play every so often), and feeling pretty shit.

Suddenly my brain became fixated on the idea of hearing of Montreal’s party jam Misguisings. And almost instantly upon pressing play on the mp3, I felt a kind of relief.

Some people when they feel like crap like to listen to The Cure or The Smiths or some new metal crap like Disturbed, but I find Of Montreal do the trick quite nicely. They sing about depression, identity and sexxxuality over music that could be described as demented prog-disco. It’s like if someone sat the Scissor Sisters down and forced them to cover Beck’s Sea Change. The music is consistently happy and dancable but the lyrics are confused and mentally scarred - which I guess is a bit like my stuff except that I tend to let the lyrics impact the music more.

I actually had the chance to see the band twice last year, and actually played after them at Perth Festival’s Music Box, one of my all time most-braggable support slots, yet most embarrassing gigs. I wasn’t very happy with my set as I chose to play on the floor, which was a massive mistake in hindsight as nobody could see what I was doing. There were also some bogans there who thought it would be fun to pin me down and steal my belt from me, breaking the loops on my pants to do so. It was a souveneir from an early tour, so in the unlikely event that you’re reading this, I’d like it back.

But aside from the shit nature of my own show, it was a really great experience and one of those nice cases where the band you support are awesome folks to chat to. Sitting backstage with the band, who were insistent that they were going to the beach in Rockingham the next day, as they talked about ludicrous wardrobe and prop ideas for their next tour felt the way I would like a band to feel. If I had a band, I mean. Everyone was chipping in with these wierd ideas, it was like one of my costume design meetings with my Mum, except there were five or so people involved. Very cool.

This was just prior to my Birds Of Tokyo support tour last year and actually when we got to Brisbane I scammed along with a couple of the guys in the band to see them again at The Zoo. I’m pretty sure it blew their heads off; it was cool to be able to take them along to something so far outside their frame of reference, which is what both of us did for each other on that trip in general. But I guess that’s another blog and I’m getting off topic.

Back to Of Montreal: they have heaps of albums but their last two are the most essential. Skeletal Lamping is sexy and bizarre, where Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer is fun, shitzoid and bizarre. I am listening to the former at the moment and it’s elevating my mood from “grumpy old man” to “acceptable”.

This is from that:

This is from the other one: