Winter Arts Preview: Pop, Rock & Jazz

of Montreal Gets Weird at UCSB This January

Santa Barbara’s Psychedelic Summer may have come and gone, but that’s not stopping UCSB’s Associated Students Program Board from getting in on the action. This month, the organization brings psych rockers of Montreal to campus in support of the band’s latest, 12th album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar. Carrying on in the grand tradition of other greats from Athens, Georgia, like R.E.M. and The B-52s, of Montreal makes music that’s as bizarrely amorphous as it is unconventionally infectious. On Lousy, twangy spaghetti-western guitars bump and grind against heady synths, dreamy pop melodies, and, in one specific instance, a little nod to Nico-era The Velvet Underground. In similar fashion, frontman Kevin Barnes’s lyrics continue to fall delightfully left of center; he’s flamboyantly over-the-top one moment and hilariously tongue-in-cheek the next, calling to mind some glammed-out love child of Donovan, Dylan, and Prince. What’s best? With more than a decade of touring behind them, of Montreal’s live show has morphed into an event that’s just as colorful, outrageous, and richly textured as the source material. Prepare to trip out all over again, S.B. At UCSB’s The Hub, Friday, January 24. Call or visit aspb.as.ucsb.edu.