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.
Nina: Studio Ghibli is everything Disney is not. I dislike having to see the Disney logo on the American English-translated versions; it makes me cringe. Where Disney seems to spit out tale after tale of over simplified 1950s fetishized American morality with strictly mind-numbing plots and vacuous one-dimensional characters (most of the time), Ghibli makes up for it with fantastic stories, complex characters and animation so breathtakingly beautiful that you wanna live in them. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorites, because of its anti-war sentiment and celebration of the beauty of life underneath the surface. Sophie turned 90 by a curse, but then turns more beautiful and more enlightened in her new human form. It’s a beautiful tale of love and friendship. And yes, I have a crush on Howl.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t20eI1Ir_y8
