The origin story for Athens, Georgia’s indie-pop heroes of Montreal starts with a teen-aged Kevin Barnes writing and recording music on a four-track cassette machine in his bedroom here in Palm Beach Gardens. Barnes, a native Midwesterner, lived only a few years in South Florida beginning in the late 1980s, but they were defining years. When Barnes wasn’t holed up in his bedroom studio, he was going to shows — or trying to — at local venues including downtown West Palm Beach’s Respectable Street.

“I wasn’t old enough to get into ‘Respect’s’ so I just sort of hung outside,” Barnes tells PureHoney. Some of the first concerts he attended were nearby at the WormHole, a short-lived record shop, thrift store, art gallery and performance space opened by PureHoney founder Steev Rullman and three partners.

Respectable’s, as it’s also nicknamed, was by then already drawing buzzy bands to a corner of the country routinely neglected by tour bookers. Thanks to the labors of founder-owner Rodney Mayo, who opened Respectable Street in June of 1987 inside a former Salvation Army outpost, South Florida was soon welcoming alternative rock acts including Red Hot Chili Peppers, They Might Be Giants and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.

And Barnes eventually got through the door — with his own band. of Montreal are repeat visitors to Respectable Street over a span that saw Mayo spark a downtown nightlife transformation by providing an outlet for young, music- and culture-hungry South Floridians. of Montreal return to headline Respectable Street’s birthday celebration of “38 Years of Oblivion,” joined by fellow Georgians Psychic Death and 36 more bands.

Barnes doesn’t tip his entire plan but does allow that he’s bringing the traditional of Montreal circus-style spectacle, with costumes to match an occasion at a club that holds a special place for him.

Barnes says that of Montreal’s base is, in his words, people who are “pretty much down,” and those who have stayed with the band through all its phases. The music has evolved since he formed of Montreal in Athens and aligned it with the Beatles-influenced Elephant 6 band collective. Barnes says every new life experience still brings new inspiration. “It’s the thing that I find the most exciting and fulfilling and challenging,” he says, “and that energy hasn’t really dissipated over the years.”

of Montreal starts with Cherry Peel, a debut album that flashes its Beatles influences with a crooked smile. Most of the songs are tethered by acoustic guitar and shimmering harmonies. The heartfelt “Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl” feels like the long-lost sibling of The Flaming Lips’ “She Don’t Use Jelly,” while “Don’t Ask Me to Explain” is a playful, hooky sprint a la Plumtree or Le Tigre. Pick any track, really — it could be “In Dreams I Dance With You” or “Springtime Is the Season” — and it’s going to be something fun, and weird, and exciting.

This weirdness remains a feature of Barnes’ writing. “I like existing in awkward, confusing spaces,” he says. “To me that’s more exciting than doing something that feels more linear or has a history behind it. It feels more exciting to have no rules.”

The 2000’s saw the rise of some of of Montreal’s most popular tracks. “Gronlantic Edit,” from 2007, tops their Spotify playlist at this moment, and for good reason. It’s almost a Scissor Sisters one-up, balanced between electroclash and disco, with Barnes’ own peculiar spin on everything. Not far down the list, 2004’s “Lysergic Bliss,” is a veritable theatre production with ever-changing backdrops, physics-defying energy and an a capella section joined by the drums kicking back in with perfect timing.

That decade also saw Barnes cashing in some of his indie-cool points. There was the Outback Steakhouse jingle adapted from the band’s 2005 track, “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games,” (from the band’s breakthrough 2005 album, The Sunlandic Twins), plus a T-Mobile ad and music on Fox Television’s hit teen drama, The O.C. Barnes recalls that these forays into the commercial mainstream went against Elephant 6’s anti-corporate, anti-stardom ethos. He has since forgiven himself, seeing it as a sign that the universe was providing in times of need. 

The most recent product of Barnes’ perpetual music motion machine is of Montreal’s 2024 album, Lady on the Cusp, made in a blur of songwriting sessions. Compared to most of his other work, a lot of Lady on the Cusp was written spontaneously. “I find it more exciting and fulfilling to make different sections, and not have anything repeat,” Barnes says, “and have it just be a little bit more open as far as structure and the way the song ends has nothing to do with the way the songs started.”

The first two tracks recall the extreme assemblage of Japan’s Satanicpornocultshop, glitchy and overwhelming. Up next, “Rude Girl on Rotation” is nostalgic music perfect for gazing out a car window. Songs like “I Can Read Smoke” fall closer to meditative bossa nova at times. “Soporific Cell” feels like Barnes holding hands with Elton John and Tame Impala. of Montreal are planning on entering the studio again soon and promising to release new music in 2026.

Another return visitor to Respectable Street for the 38th will be Atlanta-based synth-and-noise punks Psychic Death. This energetically dark band played last year’s Bumblefest and has, since settling in with drummer James Cramer in 2021, found themselves trying to squeeze in writing and recording time amid an onslaught of tours and shows.

Cramer, singer-guitarist Blake Lumry, bassist Zach Estess and keyboardist Ryan Stark did knock out an EP in 2024, No Sounds, whose title track traps a banshee wail inside a droning screech, much like Nirvana’s “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” intro. They’ve returned in 2025 with the single, “Wait For Me,” its dismal power blending in nicely with the likes of Madrid’s [VVV] Trippin’you and New York’s A Place To Bury Strangers. Their 2023 EP, Ghostface Cowboy, evokes the deathrock pall of Rozz Williams’ Christian Death and the under-appreciated Altar De Fey.

To no one’s surprise, Respectable Street is still here and still presenting music that’s respectful, indeed, of people’s desire to hear something different, challenging and new.

Respectable Street’s 38th anniversary party featuring of Montreal, Psychic Death and 36 more bands takes place Saturday, November 1 in downtown West Palm Beach. ofmontreal.net, psychicdeath666.bandcamp.com, sub-culture.org/respectable-street ~ Erik Kvarnberg