W♥M

of Montreal at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (05/15/13)

Read More of Montreal Have you heard of NPR Tiny Desk Concert? This is basically a live performance in an office/desk area. Check out of Montreal's live performance at npr.org as they play three songs: "Feminine Effects", "Imbecile Rages", and "Amphibian Days".… Of Montreal put on a wildly inventive show at the Cedar Cultural Center last night, May 15, with Houston quintet Wild Moccasins opening. Fans in-the-know told me that this would be a toned down show, so I tried to manage my expectations waiting for Of Montreal to take the stage. Within the first handful of songs, balloons had been sent into the crowd, topless gremlins had taken the stage, and frontman Kevin Barnes had ridden a horse-like contraption through the audience. “And this isn’t even the encore!” exclaimed the Cedar volunteer next to me as we watched feathers being shot out into the crowd. The gimmicks might have been distracting from what was—without question—really great music if it weren’t for the fact that the entire band was having a really, really good time. You couldn’t miss the amusement on keyboardist Dottie Alexander’s face as two giant figures covered in stuffed animals took the stage. What it all meant? I’m not too entirely sure, but that didn’t seem to be the point. The point, it seems, was just to have a good time. As Kevin Barnes told the crowd as he left the stage, “I hope you all had a good time. I had a f*cking awesome time.” 05/16/13 - Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theatre 05/17/13 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 05/18/13 - Covington, KY @ Madison Theater 05/19/13 - Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom 05/20/13 - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom 05/21/13 - Boston, MA @ Paradise 05/22/13 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall 05/24/13 - Greensboro, NC @ Blind Tiger 05/25/13 - Frederick, MD @ Flying Dog Brewery 05/28/13 - Honolulu, HI @ Republik 06/01/13 - Nagano, Japan @ Taico Club Festival jamie ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ www.ofmontreal.net

Moi, le voisin

Moi, le voisin ("me, the neighbor") is a sweet little acoustic 3-piece from Utrecht, Netherlands. It is composed of two boys and a girl. The boy Benjamin van Vliet sings with his guitar, the other boy Laurens Ham plays acoustic bass and a little casio (but not casio-pop :) and the girl Lot Broos (don't Scandinavians have such neat names?? god!) she plays the cello. They are an acoustic folk-ish group in the line of Palace, Devendra Banhart, Damien Jurado, all those guys.

The band has just hand-released (literally, all the cds were put together by hand, printing, folding, pasteing) their debut album, "Viola". Their songs sound well produced and clean, with the guitar and cello coming through clear and crisp, that's the best way for acoustic music to sound. I am impressed with the recording, probably because I'm used to hearing so many lo-fi indie bands recording in their parents' basement :) Considering they are a small indie band and this is their debut recording.

Please see Moi, le voisin for yourself in the following video, courtesy of Zomp online magazine. It is a Dutch publication., and in fact on the video they are all speaking Dutch (but sing in English) and it sounds so neat, like German but cuter! Watch on the video as they play with bathtub animals and then play a few songs. On this video his voice sounds nasal like Damien Jurado. It sounds nice, however, and meanwhile the other boy is playing another guitar and the girl looks lovely with a cello. His voice is much better on the recording. It sounds strong and somewhat folky. They are playing in a small bathroom.

Please follow this link, as I have no idea what else to do :)

Moi, le voisin on Zomp Tv

Moi, le voisin on Zomp Tv

They also have a Myspace page, where I highly recommend you listen to the song "Return to Monster" because it is cascading and lovely. As far as I know they do not have a web page, or any place to download songs. But you can look at more pictures of them and listen to 4 songs at Myspace.

Moi le voisin on Myspace

update 3/2/2007: Official website went online today: www.moilevoisin.nl

Love,

Jamie, Vu's friend.
www.myspace.com/pas_non