Menomena, the acclaimed Portland, OR-based art-rock trio, begin their month-long coast-to-coast tour of North America tonight in support of their latest critically praised full-length Mines.
In anticipation, the band debuted an epic sound collage / mixtape / mp3 featurette on Pitchfork this week titled “Magichat”. The track’s creative insanity (or is it insane creativity?) casts light on an element of the band’s writing process that uses Deeler, a software program that band member Brent Knopf wrote in college. Menomena’s Danny Seim explains:
“It’s a compilation of snippets from 30 or so Deeler sessions that we’ve done over the past decade. Every time we do one, Brent takes 5 minutes to mix down the loops so that we have a reference when we go back to the files to arrange actual songs out of them. These little mixes are extremely rough and on-the-fly, but they are interesting to me because they capture our little songs at the most infantile stage possible. All the sounds are directly out of Deeler, recorded with one shitty mic and written spontaneously by one of us moments before as the mic was going around the room. Anyway, last year I spent a week or so mixing a whole bunch of these things together into one 30 minute piece… it’s fun(ny) to suddenly hear a recognizable loop jump out at you while listening.”
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Menomena, made their network television debut last night as musical guests on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The acclaimed Portland art-rock trio performed the song “Killemall” from their fourth full-length record, Mines (Barsuk Records)…and they KILLED it. Fast forward to the 36:55 mark, and watch their performance below.
Stereogum Premieres the Track “TAOS” for Free Download
“With Mines, this Portland trio continues what they started on their epic debut I Am The Fun Blame Monster! and builds upon their ingenious third album, Friend and Foe. Magical.” – Filter
Menomena, the acclaimed Portland, OR art-rock trio, will release their fourth full-length record, Mines, July 27th on Barsuk Records (and July 30th in Germany, and August 2nd in the UK and the rest of Europe, all on City Slang). The record is now streaming in its entirety as part of National Public Radio’s Exclusive First Listen series.
Listen to Menomena’s Mines [Barsuk Records] in full on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128568845
Additionally, our friends at Stereogum are offering the track “TAOS” for free download, right here:
Download and share Menomena’s “TAOS” from Mines [Barsuk Records]:
http://stereogum.com/442631/menomena-taos-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/
Menomena, the acclaimed Portland, OR, based art-rock trio, will release their fourth full-length record, Mines, July 27th on Barsuk Records (and July 30th in Germany, and August 2nd in the UK and the rest of Europe, all on City Slang.) They will be taking to the road this fall in support of the release.
Mines, the follow up to the acclaimed Friend and Foe (which Pitchfork awarded the vaunted “Best New Music” title and scored an 8.5) is a very muscular record; deeply captivating, and entirely unconventional.
Starting today, fans will be able to pre-order Mines via:
http://menomena.barsuk.com/mines
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Mines Tracklisting And Album Cover Debut on Pitchfork
Menomena, the Portland, OR, based trio, will release their fourth full-length record, Mines, July 27th on Barsuk Records (and in Europe July 26th on City Slang). Fans can now download the album track “Five Little Rooms” via www.menomena.com/mines (or, for you Twitter users, tweet #menomenaMINES).
Pitchfork debuted the album cover and tracklisting earlier today, right here: http://pitchfork.com/news/38849-new-menomena-five-little-rooms/
In keeping with the band’s tradition of engaging interactive packaging (see I Am The Fun Blame Monster’s flip book, and Friend & Foe’s intricate die-cut puzzle), what look like identical front- and back-cover images for Mines are actually slightly different stereographic photos, visible as a three-dimensional single image if the curious viewer crosses his/her/its eyes just right.
