Click to listen to Of Montreal's thecontrollersphere

Few would argue that Of Montreal leader Kevin Barnes lost his freakiness in the feverish pursuit of soul-rock nirvana, but this five-track EP of outtakes from last year's False Priest nevertheless hedges his bets. Beginning and ending with extreme noise, it further explores that album's themes of sexuality, religion, and the manmade gap between. Chaotic opening track "Black Lion Massacre" offers a nightmarish fantasy of ritual sacrifice, then "Flunkt Sass vs the Root Plume" downshifts into psychedelic Pink Floyd-ian ooze. Wordy narration typically trumps melody here, but when Barnes steps aside to let woozy strings speak for him in "L'age D'or," he ultimately conveys more.

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“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.