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From The Desk Of Of Montreal: Luis Buñuel

of Montreal’s music is hard to define, given it changes more often than frontman Kevin Barnes’ sequined and feathered outfits during a live show. One album might be heavy on the drum machine and synthesizer, while another showcases Barnes’ best high-pitched Prince wail with more traditional strings and percussion. The Atlanta band boasts a prodigious body of work; in a decade and a half, Barnes and Co. have churned out 10 albums, eight collections and 29 singles and EPs, including their most recent effort, thecontrollersphere (Polyvinyl). Barnes and of Montreal’s two art directors—wife Nina Barnes (a.k.a. geminitactics) and brother David Barnes—will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Kevin: Few artists seem to actually get better with age. Luis Buñuel is the rare example of someone who continued to mature and develop his craft well into his middle/old age. He was 74 years old when he made The Phantom Of Liberty—74!—and that wasn’t even his last film! He is a great inspiration for all artists who simply want to follow the path of illogical possibilities. Logic is the vampire of art; it sucks the blood and essence from it. Buñuel is the embodiment of the surrealist spirit, the spirit that is at the core of our human condition. Whether the Tea Party knows it, they are fulfilling the promise of Buñuel’s presentment of absolute absurdity in The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie. They are the unsuspecting dinner party that discovers themselves, with terror, in front of the applauding expectant audience, waiting for the punch lines that never come. I suppose the punch line is that the Tea Party is far too stupid to realize that they are slapstick comedians. That is one thing that, if he was still alive, Buñuel surely would not have missed.

Video after the jump.

One reply on “From The Desk Of Of Montreal: Luis Buñuel”

You people continue to not disappoint as editors here. Of course musicians making a music that lends itself to comparisons to surrealism will have an appreciation of Bunuel. Though, yes, I can agree that he is as relevant as ever in this day and age. There is also this horrible filter that has emerged in today’s society called political correctness that has dampened any impact by someone like Bunuel.

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