The Late B.P. Helium was late. But he was the first off the bus and systematically freaking the **** out. Where was the studio? This way or that way? Could they get some white coffees? Is there any food? Not Chinese. Thai? Maybe. Is there a menu? We’ve got 45 minutes. It continued on much like that as Kevin Barnes sloped down and off the bus steps in a hooded sweatshirt and with a knapsack draped over his shoulder, oblivious to the swirling people all around him. He was the polar opposite. Quiet and collected, strolling and getting where he needed to be, without a major care to speak of. A late start out of Madison, Wisc., got the band to Rock Island almost an hour and a half after the scheduled session time and the window of opportunity began closing. There wasn’t enough time for a full band set as planned so Barnes and Mr. Helium prepared the acoustics to streamline the available amount of crunch time. You make lemonade, kids. That’s what you do. Minutes before, even knowing the constraints, Barnes asked if the whole band could come in and “rock out.” That’s what we wanted. We were anxiously awaiting a full-on sneak preview of Hissing Fauna: Are You The Destroyer?, but what we got turned out to be a trip back into time, or at least a version of what odd, frenzied time travel would be like were the secret combination for powering it just removing members of the Athens, Ga., band and leaving only the bare wings and life cage of the band to fend for themselves. With only mastermind Barnes and longtime bro B.P. running the show, they were forced into playing a way that no Of Montreal album has sounded in years. We’re taken back to Barnes’ Cherry Peel days on this session, to where the electro-funk varnish and the party machine mania were just glimmers in his eyes. They were told to take rain checks. They had the afternoon off. Those were the salad and slaw days for Barnes, who was flooded with ideas that quadrupled on themselves through the course of songs, often getting all busy on themselves. That’s not what’s being talked about here. He’s gotten more concise with his cleverness and inventive spirit, but for 45 minutes, it was Barnes and Helium with acoustic guitars and no residual of the strides that have been made in tightening the screws from the inside. For 45 minutes, we raised a matchstick to the Elephant 6 Collective. Boy, if it were still alive and capable of emotion, it would it have been excited. – Sean Moeller