Riding upon a massive wave of Internet notoriety and a new deal with Barsuk Records, Menomena, the experimental rock troupe from Portland, has made a heavy push toward becoming one of the premier bands of a region full of premier bands. Its late January 2007 release, “Friend and Foe,” received unanimous critical acclaim from the Internet’s most prestigious music rags, paving the way for a high profile, 18-date U.S. spring tour featuring four gigs in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest and the Pitchfork Music Festival. The northwest trio is ready once again to pack the van full of a vast artillery of eclectic instruments and electronics for the second leg of its 2007 U.S. tour, kicking off at the WOW Hall next Wednesday, June 6th.
The progressively structured layering of sounds and instruments that add bulk and intricacy to the simplicity of Menomena’s pop melodies can be attributed to the use of what they refer to as “The Deeler.” The DLR digital looping program was developed by band keyboardist/guitarist extraordinaire Brent Knopf as a means of more effectively utilizing those momentary instances of genius amidst daily jam sessions. Each member records a small snippet of sound before passing it over to the next person who then provides another layer with a different instrument to loop over it.
“All it is pretty much is a glorified guitar loop pedal,” Brent explained. Menomena is widely known in both sound engineering and software development circles for its unique approach to making music. “It just lets you record ideas on the fly and loops them back for you, and then that way you’re freed up to start adding other layers on top of those. The point is that it lets you kind of focus on adding new ideas on top of other new ideas. We use it to come up with the ideas for the majority of the songs.”
These 21st-century jam sessions developed a prodigious labyrinth of music and style that make up Menomena’s 2007 release “Friend and Foe,” amassing a profusion of percussions, guitars, keyboards, horns and ambiance that seamlessly enter and exit, reprise, and pile on top of each other as the syncopated and distinctly timed drums act as the centrifugal force steering the record. Always placed in the forefront of the mix, the drums play a vital role in Menomena’s sound. The snapping, crisp snares and the booming toms constantly command your attention. Standing at a staggering 6 feet 9 inches, drummer Danny Seim demands to be heard on the album, sounding like a monstrous drum machine, beating with mechanical power. The technically precise and creatively constructed patterns pound and rearrange, dictating the deviating and evolving song structures that don’t bother to hold form for any extended period of time.
Never quick to be defined or categorized, often straddling between, if not balking genre altogether, the sound Menomena prescribes is the beneficiary of its varied and encompassing musical knowledge and influences. Brent, Danny and bassist/instrumentalist Justin Harris each contribute their unique tastes to form Menomena’s well-rounded musical formula. From the brooding, darker tones of the Smashing Pumpkins, Tool and PJ Harvey, the glamorously excessive rock ‘n’ roll of T. Rex and Led Zeppelin, and to the more modern experimentations of Deerhoof and Animal Collective, Menomena leaves no bases of popular music uncovered.
“Probably my biggest influence is actually Weird Al Yankovic,” Brent says. “I wasn’t really allowed to buy records seen as sort of offensive when I was a kid. Instead I got Weird Al albums that were pretty harmless and pretty funny, and I got to really get into a lot of pop songs through him. So ever since then I’ve been really interested in pop music.” This pop influence poises the simplistically effective and reverently catchy melodies that ground all the layers of abstractions and musical irregularities, making the band’s esoterically artistic aesthetic instantly accessible for a large audience.
Menomena upholds a strong group ethic: The members work as one cohesive whole in crafting Menomena’s music. “We’re all equal partners, but it’s not like we set out to say ‘hey, everything has to exactly equal.’ It just kind of emerged somehow that all of us pretty much end up contributing almost precisely equally in terms of songwriting, in terms of singing and in terms of performance. It’s a total democracy in that way.” All three members share singing duties on the records and they each compose and arrange the songs that transpire from the Deeler sessions. “It’s not like most bands where there’s just one songwriter and everyone just follows along. It’s definitely a pure collaboration. The problem is usually not a shortage of ideas; the problems arise when there are too many ideas and kind of different opinions on which ideas should take the forefront.”
The benefits of spawning from a musician-friendly, artistically enriched and enlightened city like Portland are the limitless potentials for collaboration and networking amidst a community of like-minded, forward-thinking individuals. With both of the band’s studio albums, “Friend and Foe” and its 2003 debut “We Are the Fun Blame Monster,” as well as its musical score, “Under an Hour,” the band has transcended music to incorporate other artistic mediums, developing, both literally and figuratively, a full package of creativity. When the experimental dance collective Monster Squad approached the band about creating the musical accompaniment for its latest dance routine, the guys responded with three instrumental tracks all timing in at roughly twenty minutes. They performed along with the dance at a 2004 time-based art festival in Portland before recording the songs and turning it into 2005’s “Under an Hour.” The physical artistry and packaging of Menomena’s albums have always been second-to-none, working as perfect visual compliments for listening to the records. “I Am the Fun Blame Monster” featured a handcrafted flip book to go along with the album insert. For “Friend and Foe,” Menomena recruited graphic novelist and surfing buddy Craig Thompson, famed creator of the wildly popular “Blankets,” to create the fold-out cover art so intricately filled with depth and meaning that you could listen through the entire album and still be immersed in the art. The band has also been in cohorts with renowned local acts including the Helio Sequence and The Thermals.
Menomena will hit up Eugene as part of the west coast tour that directly precedes its upcoming European dates. “Of all the venues we’ve played, the WOW Hall is actually one of my favorite places to play. The people there have always treated us so professionally, and I just love the stage and the crowd has been great. We’ve played to obviously pretty small audiences there, after all Eugene is a little bit smaller than New York City, so I have no idea what to expect this time around.” While Menomena may not know what to expect from a Wednesday night college crowd, the Wednesday night college crowd can expect a wall of guitars, multiple keyboards, multiple samplers, Moog foot synthesizers, two baritone saxophones, an alto sax, and two glockenspiels. All of that, plus three zany dudes drinking beer. “All of my sexual advances toward bandmates onstage have so far been rejected. It’s hard to take that risk. And Danny keeps threatening to become a shirtless drummer.”

Menomena

What: A Portland-based indie band, will perform at WOW Hall next Wednesday, June 6.
Why: The show will kick off Menomena’s international tour and showcase Menomena’s mix of old sound with new technology.
The show starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are $10 advance, $12 at the door.