Exclusive Premiere: Of Montreal's New Video for "An Eluardian Instance"

If you've ever heard Of Montreal's music, seen their album covers or survived that schizophrenic rave they call a concert, you know what to expect out from the band's music video: Neo-psychedelia with the visuals of a fractured kaleidoscope. Here, we exclusively present the premiere of the band's Jesse Ewles-directed video for "An Eluardian Instance," a stand-out from the band's 2008 LP Skeletal Lamping that hits on everything we love about the Kevin Barnes-fronted band, but adds stop motion animation and kick-ass origami to the equation.

We'd venture a guess about what this video is about, but unfortunately they don't let us drop acid at work so we'll try to describe it to the best of our abilities: Girl relaxing and reading a book by some seaside cliff also somehow holds the entire papier-mache university on orbit thanks to some kite string. She's terrorized by some crazy lamb with horns, forcing her to take refuge in the cliffs, but manages to escape him after he rams his own head into the rocks. She goes back to her book, but unfortunately a passing airplane severs her kite string and the universe is set into chaos. The video — along with the poppy, multi-suite song — make for a pretty awesome audio-visual experience.

Enjoy the days of carefree Of Montreal videos while you can, as Barnes recently told Rock Daily the band's music might take a different turn on their next album. "What I want to do now is slightly noisier. It's sort of abstract in my mind, but right now what I'll create will be mesmeric and kind of physical music," Barnes said, adding that he wants to make music that makes you "feel queasy but in a totally different level." So expect less Sgt. Pepper and more Roman Polanski in the band's next batch of videos.

Related Stories:
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• Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes Talks Next Album, Live DVD, MGMT Side Project
• Album Review: Skeletal Lamping

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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