Menomena preview

Menomena
Metro, Chicago
Thursday, November 15, 2007

Theoretically, if bands came with instruction manuals they’d be much easier to dissect and disseminate information about. Noooo, not Menomena.

By hook or crook, allegedly, Menomena’s music emerges from so-called “Deeler sessions,” wherein computer programs and mathematical know-how breed albums. From this year’s Friend And Foe (Barsuk), the result seems logical enough: Other than vocals, harmonies are rare and every instrument (sound, what have you) operates independently, not unlike the specialized features of an assembly line.

From here, lofty comparisons to TV On The Radio and Elbow’s second album filter in, even as they apply to soul (“Weird”) and Talk Talk (“Air Aid”). Unfortunately, none of this is logical. The Deeler apparatus feeds information to create loops, which are then manipulated to create Menomena songs. Knowing this, you’re bound to spend the first few sessions with Friend looking for the goddamn loops!

Enough people have been confused or convinced of this idea to bring the band to Metro, their biggest Chicago showing yet. I, for one, will be front and center with a metronome and stopwatch, gauging starts and stops, hopefully pausing long enough to realize this is one of the greatest compositional contraptions of the new millennium. Oh, the album’s not bad, either.

Illinois and Sybris open.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download Menomena’s “Wet & Rusting.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly