Kevin Barnes Meet & Greet Signing

Come hang with of Montreal's Kevin Barnes before their show at Walter's Downtown later that night. The band is on tour for support of their new album "Aureate Gloom" out 3/3 on Polyvinyl Record Company. “A golden despondency” is how Kevin Barnes translates the meaning behind Aureate Gloom, the title he gave of Montreal’s thirteenth full-length album. The oxymoron is one Barnes says best describes the overall state of his life and mental outlook while working on the record: first on a writing retreat in New York City, then while demoing tracks in Athens, before finally recording at Sonic Ranch, just across the border from Juarez, Mexico in the Texan desert. If you’re wondering what exactly would lead Barnes to use this epithet to describe his reality at the time, look no further than the songs themselves. While many bands rely on vague platitudes as an attempt to make their songs universally applicable, Barnes chooses to take the opposite tact — penning lyrics so personal they sound like entries ripped from a journal that should be permanently kept under lock and key. “I was going through a very stormy period in my life and felt like I was just completely trashed,” reveals Barnes. “I might be guilty of sharing or exposing too much of my private life, but to me the best albums are those that help people connect with an artist on a deep, human level and that do so without too much artifice or evasiveness.”