Of Montreal's Barnes on Next Album's New Sound, Solange Cameo

Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes has revealed a few of the special guests he's recruiting for the band's upcoming follow-up to Skeletal Lamping aren't exactly the usual suspects. The singer tells Stereogum that the disc, tentatively titled False Priest or The Controller Sphere (and due in August/September 2010) will move away from the psychedelic-glam sound of the group's recent releases in favor of an aesthetic more in line with 1970s soul-funk stars like Parliament, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder. (Grab a listen to a possible track from the album on Stereogum.)

So far, Barnes has recruited Solange — yes, Beyoncé's sister — and sci-fi crooner Janelle Monae to contribute to the disc. The record may be engineered by Late Registration producer Jon Brion — no big surprise, since Barnes expressed a desire to work with Brion during a December 2008 RS interview. Solange has long been an admirer of the band, and Beyoncé even name-checked Of Montreal in recent interviews as one of the bands her hipper younger sister has got her into. Plus, Rolling Stone's cameras caught Barnes and Monae chilling backstage during this year's Bonnaroo Festival.

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• Of Montreal Debut "Teenage Unicorn Fisting" for Rolling Stone

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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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