The Tape

Skeletal Fucking: An Adventure of Phallic Proportions with of Montreal’s Newest Album

Written by ashkap on Thursday, 11 of September , 2008 at 7:06 pm

Kevin Barnes, June 10, 2008:

I am so bored with art that makes sense and ‘works.’ I wanted to do somethings that didn’t ‘work’.”

i am very happy with it. [i] worry that some people are going to misunderstand it. there’s nothing i can do about that though, now, it is done. anyways, i didn’t create it to give people something to like. i created it because i was compelled to.

Harnessing his compulsion, Kevin Barnes, singer and songwriter for the psychedelic indie pop giant of Montreal has created possibly his greatest work in Skeletal Lamping; a lyrical undressing of a man that continues the musical brilliance of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? while recalling the breakthrough Satanic Panic in the Attic.

Like all the surreal aspects of of Montreal, the title of the band’s ninth studio album is grounded in reality. “Lamping is the name of a rather dreadful hunting technique where, hunters go into the forest at night, flood an area in light, then shoot, or capture, the animals as they panic and run from their hiding places.” Skeletal Lamping, then, is a purge of the mind of Kevin Barnes and features the most bizarre, entertaining, and disturbing lyrics recorded as they panicked and ran from his brain.

Kevin has assumed the fictional identity of Georgie Fruit for stage performances of Skeletal Lamping; “He’s in his late forties, a black man who has been through multiple sex changes. He’s been a man and a woman, and then back to a man. He’s been to prison a couple of times.” This alter-ego could be a way for Barnes to be as honest as possible without letting the most exotic parts of his personality take over. Either way, Fruit/Barnes sings about flamboyant and outlandish sexuality in a realistic, objective style. To be concise, the words of Skeletal Lamping are crazy, disgusting, and wonderful.

The stories are all placed in a first-person perspective and the narratorship is early on attributed to Georgie Fruit.

I’m just a black she-male
And I don’t know what you people are all about

-”Wicked Wisdom”

His blurred sexuality is also addressed, but here also we see a moment of desire for something more than the endless fucking the album chronicles.

We can do it softcore if you want

But you should know I take it both ways

- “For Our Elegant Caste”

Georgie Fruit is a freaky sex man and Kevin wants to stress this point as far as he can.

It was too cold to swim
So we climbed up on the rocky shore
And freaked out on the mountain goats

- “An Eluardian Instance”

But just like everyone else, Georgie wants love. He just wants a strong man or woman or something to hold him and fill the emotional hole he tries to plug with sex and drugs. For him, sex is an act of love and since he has so thoroughly experienced sex in every way imaginable, to make love really count with a true lover he has to take sex to an almost (?) impossible level; make your own decision about plausibility.

I want to be your love

I want to make you cry

And sweep you off your feet
I want to steal your things
I want to show you off
I want to tell you lies
I want to write you books
I want to turn you on
I want to make you cum
200 times a day

-”Gallery Piece”

A man tired of his life and the emptiness it brings him, Georgie attempts to bring radical change, including multiple sex changes, but finds that he still ends up in the same place.

I’m so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel, cruel city. I’ve gotten what it takes to please a woman, but that’s all gonna change. (Ooohh all gonna change) Yeah that’s all gonna change. Now the freaks wanna take me home to see if the rumors are true…

-”St. Exquisite’s Confessions”

Tracks on the album tend to rock back and forth between glorified erotic escapes to deeper songs revealing Georgie as a young man trying to make his way to love.

Turning tricks on the hood of Jasmine’s car
That whole summer was really just too peculiar
You know I would have given it up to almost anybody
Who had a little money and was sweet to me
Yes, I was down to give it up to almost anyone
Who was sweet to me

-”And I’ve Seen A Bloody Shadow”

OR

I want you to be my pleasure puss
I want to know what it’s like to be inside you
I want you to be my pleasure puss
I want to know how it feels
Want to give you that ooh ooh la la ooh la la

Love her face, how your ass is pumping
Sweet licentious songs. Love her face
You’re a scandal, your body is so wrong, wrong

-”Plastis Wafters”

“Death is Not a Parallel Move” is an important song on the album. Though it is weaker musically, lyrically it is the most revealing. It features a rare appearance from Barnes, who comes through as scared of Georgie and the power of lust that has taken over both of them. He realizes that “Georgie” has gone too far and become a powerful compulsion in his mind. What was once created as an outlet for the freaky funk fucking that itched in the back of Barnes’ skull becomes an overbearing monster.

All of my thoughts are from a foreign host
Now I feel just like a ghost

This far too much like a noise
It happens to be not so nice
I must nod
I must shatter
I must diffuse

This fractured consciousness

This soft abuse
The identity I composed out of terror has become oppressive now
I must defy (defeat) this dark assignment
I’m over it now
I’m so over it now

-”Death Is Not a Parallel Move”

Why am I so damaged, girl?
Why am I such poison, girl?
I don’t know how long I can hold on
If it’s going to be like this forever

-”Touched Something’s Hollow”

Because of the brilliant storytelling and prose, the musical genius of Skeletal Lamping may be overlooked. In Hissing Fauna a fundamental change took place during “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” in which funk replaced pop and songs like “Faberge Falls For Shuggie” and “Labyrinthian Pomp” headed in an entirely new direction. Skeletal Lamping continues right along, adding fuck to funk and creating a unique musial style.

“Musically, it is sort of all over the place, too. There really isn’t necessarily a sense of continuity there.”

The songs recall a range of of Montreal’s history which contrary to most groups improves greatly with almost every album. Each song has its own inavoidable smile-inducing moments, and whether they be from lyrical or musical each song feels like an inside joke between Georgie, Kevin, and the listener. These boys are bringing you into their world of sex and ultimately, of love. Kevin must know something about true love; through all of his musical/sexual meanderings, he has stayed with his wife and four year old daughter. To keep his mind, Kevin was able to perform his insanity away through Georgie and purge it in this crowning achievement.

If you’ve already scoured the underbelly of the internets and added this gem to your collection; you didn’t need to read this to understand what I’m talking about. To those who haven’t: you have something quite special to look forward to.

An Eluardian Instance - of Montreal (omg)

Skeletal Lamping Pre-Order

of Montreal myspace (streaming single “Id Engager” and opening track “Nonpareil of Favor”)

Full illegal download of Skeletal Lamping

Category: Miscellaneous

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