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Pitchfork is reporting that there are two of Montreal releases scheduled for October. First up, on October 2nd, is a digital-only release of an acoustic performance from January featuring Kevin Barnes and B.P. Helium. They cover “Harvest Moon,” plus perform two Hissing Fauna tracks and a Love Is All cover, “Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up.” You’ll be able to download this from Sony Connect (eh? whassat?) next Tuesday, although you can stream that last track right now thanks to Pitchfork.

Then it’s a re-release of the band’s second rarities collection, If He is Protecting Our Nation Then Who Will Protect Big Oil, Our Children? Originally released in April 2002 as a tour-only CD, the track listing was changed around slightly–a few songs dropped, a few added–when it was issued a year later from Track & Field in the U.K. This is the version that Polyvinyl will be releasing. (Pitchfork, in 2003, gave the album a 5.3. It should be interesting to see their new rating.) You can pick this one up from Polyvinyl Records beginning October 23 for a very reasonable price of $10. I was hoping for a new rarities compilation, given the wealth of B-sides and MySpace exclusives that have popped up in the last couple of years – Kevin told Optical Atlas early last year that such a compilation was in the works – but I guess we’ll have to keep waiting.

Thanks to Adam and Harnk for mentioning the announcement.