Of Montreal / The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy by Wendy Korwin Kindercore There's not much to liking Of Montreal, really. It just happens. Three boys. Athens, Georgia. Queer pop (I think). Songs about love. They're The Beatles and Daniel Johnson and Pavement in one, with a little extra. They have kazoos. Yes baby, ka-friggin-zoos Don't think I'm gonna let the kazoos slide. I'm sitting here with the album in front of me, scanning to all the songs with kazoo solos. Track #1 has a kazoo passage about 30 seconds in. The song is about a minute long. This is ecstasy, plus or minus a waffle fry. Track #3 ends with a kazooed uproar of humor and TV-for-preschoolers goodwill. Waffle fries all over the floor, I'm in heaven. Or a six foot-long bathtub, whichever is harder to find these days. Of Montreal are silly. They're also sweet. They're one of the few bands who can get away with song titles as long as, "Sadness creeping up and scaring away the couple's happiness" and "It's easy to sleep when you're dead." The title of their new(ish) album reflects that bubbled-over childish instinct, as does the cover artwork, a pastel park scene straight from Candyland. But enough about the outside. This is Of Montreal's third CD release, and the second on Kindercore Records. They have one more full length CD, Cherry Peel, which was put out on Bar/None Records in 1997 and a five-song EP from Kindercore. This CD's different though, and it's not just because of the kazoos. OK. Maybe it's because of the kazoos. Kazoos in a larger sense. Kazoos as more than a 20-cent plastic toy and instead as a economical wax-papered social force. It isn't the kazoos that make this record so sweet and beautiful, but it's the kids behind the kazoos who do. Of Montreal used to be a guitar-bass-drums trio with some awesome/terrible wailing about boys in love and pansies in the summer. If you keep that much and throw in a loopy violin, keyboard, and a hearty tuba, a great CD is sitting in front of you. Only one more thing is really needed, and once there's a kazoo or two, The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy lives in your heart for a long, long time. Besides the first and third tracks, the album takes advantage of every single one of Of Montreal's talents, and some of their very obvious non-talents, too. Tracks #4 and #5 keep up the cheery high-pitched melodies of the opening songs as the story of this album unfolds. It's about love, kids. It's all about love, and what better an instrument to demonstrate love on than a kazoo? It's about starting love, and ending love, and the album itself reminds you of everything that comes in between. The middle tracks on the album quiet off and the kazoos apparently are put in the drawers. Track #7 has no words because love falls asleep for a minute. Love gets lazy and eventually leaves, but the CD doesn't. It wakes up and ends dignified, if broken-hearted. Of Montreal can live longer than love can, I'm sure. And you know why? Because the song with no words is called "The couple in bed together under a warm blanket wrapped up in each other's arms asleep." Who needs lyrics when you have that?

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