Menomena- by L. Jeanette Strole

Menomena's official website has garnered votes as one of the worst websites in existence. Indeed, it is a sight/site that induces sore eyes. Aside from sickening color schemes of gaudy neon greens, and clashing reds, animated cursors, and flashing doodads, the text employs a peculiarly fractured sentence structure, as if foreign language translation software was used in reverse, to derive their own "Engrish." What this facade fronts, if not masks, is seriously one of the most innovative bands to recently sprout from the luscious greenery of the Pacific Northwest.

Danny Seim, Menomena's drummer, expounds on what they intend to convey. "I've always enjoyed the tension caused by combining elegantly serious artistic elements with abrasive or unattractive ones. The result is humorous, offensive, or nauseating. Either way, it usually makes for a more intense reaction than say, two serious elements paired together. The latter is extremely prevalent in the way most bands brand themselves. For instance, I have never been to the band Staind's website, but based on their music, I'd expect to see pictures of the [band members] dressed in black, either scowling at the camera or staring toward the floor with a detached, self-loathing look in their eye. The background is probably black as well, and the typography is probably either the popular edgy look with distressed fonts, possibly all lowercase. A theme of angst, alienation, and fear is most likely consistent throughout the layout of the site. Now wouldn't it be refreshingly wonderful if I logged on to www.staind.com and found myself instead greeted with pictures of Teletubbies, Richard Simmons, and Ronald McDonald holding hands in a hot air balloon? I'd instantly respect the band for their sense of humor, if not for their awful music. As for the bad reviews of Menomena's website, I love them! I value the haters as much as I value the lovers. Both are expressing an extreme reaction. I'd be most bothered by someone saying, "I went to your website . . . It was OK.'"

Menomena is not exactly a band that attempts to fit a genre, and it=s equally difficult for anyone else to pigeonhole them. The trio of Portland natives, first began in 1995, when Justin Harris and Danny Seim began collaborating on music. Brent Knopf came on board later, but Menomena was not officially incarnated until the year 2000. A few years ago, Danny along with Viva Voce's Kevin Robinson, also began a small record label called The Cut & Paste Collective. One of the collaborative projects that C&P endeavored was a series of split-EP's with Velvet Blue Music. Menomena released a joint EP with Societa Anonima. Those who heard it were privy to the freshly birthed indication of Menomena's talent. Still, the band feels awkward about the EP not being adequately representative of their music. Quite literally recorded in the eleventh hour, with Brent having little to do with it, the EP nevertheless allowed Menomena a bit more exposure among independent music fans.

The summer of 2003 saw the self-released "I Am the Fun Blame Monster" (anagrammed, the letters spell out "The First Menomena Album") a deliciously orchestrated nine-track album, with a front cover depicting a crudely doodled dragon, (undeniably the aforementioned "Fun Blame Monster") and the flip-book of animated sequences further demonstrates their ability to combine their erudite music with strangely silly imagery. But let's just move beyond the nonsensical visuals, and talk about the amazing song writing. A hybrid of jazz, classical, post-modern, post-punk, math-rock, electronica and pop, (think Tortoise, Sea & Cake, Herbie Hancock, and later-day Radiohead) the threesome deftly handles a multitude of gadgetry, keyed instruments, bass guitar, guitars, saxophone, manic drums, and shared vocals. "There are a ton of bands that I personally couldn't live happily without. It would actually be hard to compile them into a set 'List of Biggest Influences' without leaving one out."

Brent Knopf even invented his own looping software which was unlike anything else on the market. Danny describes the use of this software in creating their music. "Deeler allows us to write and record spontaneously in short loops that can be extracted and orchestrated into complete songs at a later date. I've heard there are other programs now that can do similar things, but Deeler has the distinct advantage of being free." While this sort of approach is nothing new in and of itself, Menomena finds that they've fine-tuned it to their own needs. "We utilize Deeler to write the loops collaboratively, but so far, the task of arranging the puzzle pieces into a full-fleshed-out song is done individually."

In essence, their music is often built around recorded snippets from rehearsals, which allows them to find a song structure that they play back live. Each song breaks into separate movements, with recurring themes, counter-melodies, elaborate piano arrangements, looped guitars, and the interplay of their three evocative harmonies, and vocals. "It's kind of funny because after we do a handful of Deeler sessions at rehearsal and then return back to them a week or so later to listen, we sometimes find that we've completely forgotten who actually played some of the instrumental parts."

Recreating this kind of structure during a live set is no small task. "We do as much as we can on stage with three mouths and six limbs, but there inevitably are a few parts that have to be dropped from certain songs. Sometimes this sparseness works to our advantage throughout our set. When I go to shows, I always like to be reminded of the human element involved in a live setting - that the band isn't just up there singing karaoke to their own prerecorded music."

He continues, "The live version of Menomena is as important - if not more [important] - than the recorded version of us. I've heard before that we occasionally sound like a remix version of ourselves when heard in a live setting. As long as it's not a crappy remix, like the techno version of "Where the Streets Have No Name" or something, I'll be happy with that comment."

Even though one might probe deeper into the meanings of the songs, the band is adamant about not revealing any lyrical significance of the songs. "[We] usually don't even discuss the meanings of our songs amongst ourselves. We all trust each other enough to assume that whatever we may be writing about is important enough to accept at face value. Brent once offered a sincere explanation of a song he had written ("Rose") to Justin's mother upon her repeated requests. It sounded so awkward to hear him stumble to explain himself that I think the three of us silently vowed that day to never force ourselves to place concrete meaning on what could be merely abstract thought. Oh and by the way, Rose is about dislocation." Danny chuckles at his own sly joke.

With side projects like Justin's art-school thesis rock-opera, and Brent's contributions to independent film, and performance art, as well as Danny's own endeavors under the name, Lackthereof, their past and current individual projects are not always easy to congeal. However, the challenge is part of the fun of being Menomena. 'If anything, our respective pasts have given us a clearer sense of what we want ourselves to sound like, individually at least."

Currently, Menomena is strictly DIY, and has no intentions of pursuing a record label deal. "Until we find a perfect fit - an honest relationship that benefits everyone involved - we're more than happy running things ourselves. That's one of the things I think is unique about Menomena. We started this because we love playing music together, not because we wanted to see our name on Record Label X's roster. We don't have enough fingers and toes to count the bands we know personally or have heard horror stories about being completely crippled - artistically, financially, and emotionally - by an immediately attractive but ultimately unreasonable record contract. We're huge skeptics because of this."

So is the world ready for Menomena? Can we handle an absolutely talented and inventive band with a sense of humor and deeply rooted integrity to boot? To this question, our fearless interviewee answers again, with razor-sharp wit and direction. "The world is ready to see Michael Jackson receive some bullshit 'Humanitarian Award' and then thank Clear Channel and God on national television. I don't see Menomena fitting into the picture here. We'd just like to reward the seekers who read little publications such as this one, take part in music file sharing, and then make a purchase from an obscure online CD distribution company. These types of people are fed up with being a target-marketed cliche, and should be able to discover something worthwhile without feeling ethically manipulated in the process. Anyone that agrees with this is paving their own way and we'd like to join them, if they'll let us."