As if it were yesterday, I remember seeing the highly acclaimed cult-favorite indie band of Montreal take the stage at Athfest in the summer of 2015 in Athens, Georgia.
At the time, I was a student at the University of Georgia and had to scale a massive tree just to see past an ocean of fans all hitting a giant inflatable beach ball in the air while the group, which was formed in Athens in 1996 by frontman Kevin Barnes, absolutely killed, filling the streets of the quaint college town with dreamy psychedelic indie pop-rock soundscapes.
I eventually got hit with one of those beach balls and fell off that tree, but I left feeling nostalgic and a little dizzy for something I had just been a part of. I knew then that of Montreal was a big deal in the music world, and I fell in love with their community of fans and music instantly.
Of Montreal has been a fixture in the indie music scene since Kevin Barnes first formed the group in 1996, three decades ago as of this year. Their music has taken on various shapes and sounds over the years, and as of June 5, 2026, the band released their 20th studio album, Aethermead. The iconic group will be performing classic hits as well as songs from the new album this Thursday, July 2nd, at Barrelhouse Ballroom in Downtown Chattanooga.
Early on, of Montreal evolved rapidly from a more whimsical, lo-fi indie band to being groundbreaking pioneers in psychedelic indie-pop as part of the famous Elephant 6 Collective, a recording company and artistic movement that ushered in some of the great indie bands of our time, like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples in Stereo, and, of course, of Montreal.
The band’s sound continued to be more ambitious and evolving, and they found major success in 2005, with the release of The Sunlandic Twins, an album that ushered in a funkier, more electronic element to their, at times, surrealist sound.
This breakthrough introduced a major indie audience to their famous hit track, "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games," which also happens to be my second favorite song of theirs behind “A Question for Emily Foreman,” released a few years earlier in 2002.
In 2007, two years after they released "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games,” of Montreal became a part of the cultural zeitgeist of America when Outback Steakhouse licensed the catchy song for a national TV ad campaign. Over the years, some have criticized the decision; however, it introduced the band and indie-pop music to mainstream audiences all across America that had never heard it before, a bold and brilliant move.
While the band has explored a myriad of soundscapes over the decades, one thing has remained constant: founder and front person Kevin Barnes and his deeply personal, poignant, imaginative, and inventive songwriting, which tackles real-life issues like relationships, identity, and self-discovery.
I got the opportunity to speak on the phone with Kevin Barnes, who now resides in Brooklyn, New York. I could hear birds chirping in the background, and we discussed the band’s latest project, Aethermead.
“The record came like so many do, from my personal life. Me and my partner of eight years broke up, and it was a pretty big lifestyle change for me, because I was living in Vermont with her. So I moved to New York last summer. It was kind of a transitional period, so usually when I am in that destabilized state of mind, I turn to music as a way to kind of work through things.”
Aethermead is both a deeply personal album and one that seems to return to of Montreal's roots, exploring experimental psychedelic indie-pop rock while tackling a very personal break-up that Barnes experienced, which is evident on the beautifully sung, emotionally layered final track, “Dismissal Mosaics,” wherein Barnes sings, “I don’t miss a lot; I do miss this, this access to you. I miss us at our best, to hell with the rest.”
The album is a reflection on heartache, love, memory, grief, and longing, and it is one of the band’s best in recent years, feeling more sincere and almost like a creative homecoming for Barnes and the group.
When I spoke to Kevin about evolution in his songwriting on this latest record, he mentioned never settling, and that by experimenting more you tend to broaden your musical palette over time.
“I guess I don’t think of time in a linear way, so it doesn’t really feel like an evolution, although, of course, you have to work on your craft, and you either get better at it over time or you get more familiar with the magic of it, so you can kind of explore different things. You don’t settle.
The more experimenting you do, the broader the palette becomes. In that sense maybe there is an evolution, because we’ve experimented so much. We’ve found things that work and then become disgusted with them because they work. I want it to be awkward. I want to be confused by it. I don’t feel like I’ve written everything I could ever write. It’s never ending.”
In talking to Kevin about his past memories of the Scenic City, he mentioned seeing Neutral Milk Hotel perform here years ago and described Chattanooga as an oasis.
“Since you mentioned Elephant Six, I actually have a really strong memory of seeing Neutral Milk Hotel play in Chattanooga. I can’t remember what venue it was, but I remember it being a really great performance and a really great night.
We’ve also had so many incredible nights with of Montreal playing there. Chattanooga is great because it is a sister city to Athens in a lot of ways. It’s cool to play in one of those places that’s an oasis: a cultural, psychological, electrifying, emotional oasis.”
of Montreal
- Thursday, July 2. 8 p.m.
- Barrelhouse Ballroom. 1501 Long Street, Chattanooga.
- $25-$30.
- barrelhouseballroom.com
- ofmontreal.net