It takes a sense of humor to name your band after a Muppets song, but Portland, Ore., trio Menomena mirrors Jim Henson’s creativity. On debut I Am the Fun Blame Monster (FilmGuerrero), the band reinvents indie rock. A childhood throwback in name and hardback – the album’s title is an anagram for “The first Menomena album,” cleverly packaged in a flipbook – Fun Blame Monster mixes live simplicity with automated complexity.
“A lot of people hear the computer thing and automatically assume we’re some laptop, electronic thing,” explains drummer Danny Seim. “We try to steer away from that whole computer vibe as much as possible, even though that’s where it all starts with us.”
The origin of Menomena is in a program written by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Brent Knopf. Called Deeler, it integrated short, live loops from Knopf, Seim, and string- and saxman Justin Harris, which were rearranged and added to. Instead of using those samples onstage, Menomena relearned the completed songs.
“A lot of bands from Portland play with tracks; they just hit ‘Go’ on the ol’ laptop and fill in around that as much as possible,” Seim reproves. “It became hard distinguishing between doing that and playing karaoke.”
The next step: man teaching machine teaching man. The result is phenomenal and surprising, as heard on the LP’s opening track, “Cough Coughing,” a reeling combination of drums, bass, and piano, both intelligent and danceable. That originality is reflected in the album’s packaging.
“With the advent of file-sharing – I’m definitely not against it; I probably steal more music than anybody – but I think there’s got to be some incentive to make people interested in seeing stuff in stores,” Seim admits.
With an instrumental release this summer – a soundtrack performed live with a Portland dance troupe – and a second LP in the works, Menomena’s first trip to Austin will most definitely not be their last.
This article appears in March 18 • 2005.