Pitchfork

Photo by Jason Bergman

As you know, indie rockers and corporate America can make for awfully strange bedfellows. Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes seems to be more accustomed to snuggling up with commercial interests than most, what with his now-infamous Outback Steakhouse ad and at least one other foray into the world of selling stuff.

And he's done it again, with a T-Mobile advert that debuted during last night's American Music Awards. The ad features two lines of Barnes dialogue, the band all gussied up, and just a bit of "Gronlandic Edit"; it will be airing regularly throughout the next several months (Art Brut have apparently filmed a similar spot). Check out the clip over at Idolator.

Stereogum caught wind of Kevin's plans to peddle phones on the telly and asked Kevin just what the deal was. He responded with a rather lengthy thinkpiece entitled "Selling Out Isn't Possible", printed in full on stereogum.com.

The gist of Barnes' statement is simple: he may be providing these companies his goods and services in exchange for money, but in so doing, he's not actually compromising his art. That in mind, he can't really be characterized as a sellout. This isn't entirely true-- Outback Steakhouse did compromise the lyrics of your song to better move bloomin' onions or whatever-- but it's close: though the popularity of Of Montreal has ballooned of late, it's mostly due to their latest, weirdest record and most elaborate, well-conceived stage show to date.

Apropos of the article's title, Barnes then rails against the very notion of selling out itself. "The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70's created an impossible code which no one can actually live by," he writes, adding, "it's such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sellout is completely out of touch with reality."

Barnes mentions that those crying sellout are generally gainfully employed and, therefore, oughta think about zippin' that lip. And he closes with this: "Next time you see a commercial with one of your favorite band's songs in it, just tell yourself, 'Cool, a band I really like made some money and now I can probably look forward to a few more records from them.' It's as simple as that. We all have to do certain things, from time to time, that we might not be completely psyched about, in order to pay the bills. To me, the TV is the world's asshole boss and if anyone can earn some extra bucks from it and they're not Bill O'Reilly, it's a good thing." Also worth mentioning: better to have Of Montreal records on the telly than, uh, Hinder.

The full text of Barnes' statement is available here. The PLUG Award nominated Of Montreal have a couple of U.S. dates left before they head to Europe to close out 2007. Oh, and while we're all on the same page, check out Pitchfork's interview with Mr. Barnes right here.

Of Montreal:

11-19 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant *
11-20 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
12-06 London, England - ULU
12-08 Dublin, Ireland - Temple Music Bar
12-10 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Medis
12-11 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
12-12 Athens, Greece - Gagarin
12-14 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
12-15 Istanbul, Turkey - Babylon
05-09-11 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Center (ATP vs. Pitchfork) ^

* with Grand Buffet, MGMT
^ with the Hold Steady, Black Lips, Les Savy Fav, Hot Chip, Man Man, Los Campesinos!, Caribou, No Age, Glass Candy, Dirty Projectors, Sebadoh, Ween, Deerhunter, Wooden Shjips, Pissed Jeans, the Black Angels, Fuck Buttons, Shit and Shine, Apse