worth spending money on, volume tres

if you've been playing the home game (and if you're reading this blog, i'd say the likelihood of that is fairly high), then what i have to say is not going to surprise you. but just in case you've been out of the loop for the past several months, here's a real shocker: you should go out to the store right now, and fork over some paltry dollars for the incredible menomena sophomore album, friend and foe. until sometime around christmas last year, menomena was a name new to me, and it was only from a brief stereogum post that i learned their name and got a taste of the quiet excitement that surrounded their second release. the great reception it received from pitchfork (the first BNM nod of the year) only sweetened the deal, and drove me to undertake the safest option for anyone hearing about a new band - i downloaded friend and foe.

oh, the blissful ease of torrents! the typing of letters, a little hunting, a few clicks, the brief wait, and voila! an album. the problem (for me, at least), is convincing myself of the need to listen to these albums that i've just acquired for next-to-nothing. friend and foe came out just as i was getting acquainted with the blogosphere, and i hadn't been quick enough on the draw to get any menomena mp3s, and i had no idea what to expect from the album. so friend and foe lingered in my library for some months, until, struck by the dreaded i-need-something-new-to-listen-to disease, i put it on my shuffle. at first, i was unimpressed. the only song that caught my ear was "the pelican," after which i usually passed on to another album. before you call me overhasty ("the pelican" is friend and foe's second track), et me offer a few words in my defense. despite the egalitarian simplicity of torrents, they are not without their own flaws, as i discovered after my purchase of friend and foe (mr. mammoth is no hypocrite). what i must have downloaded was a pre-release version of the album, a slightly smudged precursor of the final cut. among its differences (which also included different takes of "the pelican" and "air aid," as well as a alternate title for "my my"), was a complete shakeup of the album's middle tracks. it still opened with "muscle n' flo" and ended with the "evil bee" - "ghostship" - "west" trilogy - which, ultimately, probably made the album less accessible at first, but didn't alter its overall excellence in the slightest. so, even though many of the tracks that preceded "the pelican" in my bootleg version are now among my favorites, none of them really captured my attention during initial listens. a month after friend and foe's dry run in my shuffle, i returned to the album, for the simple reason that "the pelican" was inextricably stuck in my head, and i know of no other remedy for that than to listen to the song, which i did. since then (now that i listen not only to "the pelican," but the songs that surround it), friend and foe has, basically, remained on my regular album rotation. i can't get enough of it - and if you haven't given it a chance yet, now is the time to do so. for its enduring quality, sheer brilliance, and simple audacity, i name friend and foe the third album that is worth spending money on. read on for why.

there are, by my count, four best tracks on friend and foe: "air aid," "the pelican," "running," and "evil bee." this last one is my absolute favorite, primarily because of the lyrics (and bitchin' saxophone parts). "oh to be a machine / oh to be wanted, to be useful" croons guitarist/pianist brent knopf, a declaration of such stunning simplicity and earnestness that it wins you over immediately. "evil bee," like most menomena songs, is an ADD hodgepodge of sounds, stitched together piecemeal, almost haphazardly, but striking in its forthrightness. there is nothing hidden in menomena songs: there are only surprises, like the recurring maracas and the abrupt saxophone notes, used (at first) to punctuate the end of phrases (rather than in a leading role, as it is used in songs like "boyscout'n"), before it blends seamlessly into their soundscape. menomena's work lends itself to ordinarily foolish words like "soundscapes" very well - there are few better ways to describe their delightfully arbitrary sound matching, of adding melodies for the sheer cheek of it. they recklessly bend all rules of song structure, carelessly discarding chourses when they are not needed, or creating climaxes merely from a repetition of phrases, and then pulling the carpet out from underneath them, musically speaking. one song from friend and foe has more variety than most albums, and the work's quirkiness never bogs it down - unlike some progressive bands, who try to lump too much imagination into one song, menomena's inventiveness is almost sparse, always gently, lovingly putting song pieces together, never bulldozing their creativity down our ears.

one of my favorite things about menomena is the harmonies. while knopf and bassist/ saxophonist justin harris generally front the band, often trading off song by song, all three lend their voices to the others', fleshing out the vocals to the point where it is almost impossible to tell which parts are real and which are studio-produced. this is especially true on songs like "air aid," "rotten hell" (those two are tied for "cleverest song title," because of the way they are sung), and "wet and rusting." for menomena, the voice is not merely a device for delivering lyrics (which are highly sophisticated for such a young band), it is an instrument in and of itself, to a degree that is rarely heard elsewhere. in addition to the subtlety and nuances of their vocals, menomena also has some seriously exceptional drumming. i remember being struck by danny seim's drumming when i saw menomena some weeks ago - his energy and intensity far outstripped that of his bandmates, at least in terms of sweat. seim was dripping by the end of their set, the natural result of his labor. it is rare that i notice drums (beyond the cursory acknowledgment), but his drum lines are more than just underlying reinforcement, or a rhythm keeper, or any role that drums far too frequently function as - they are, like menomena's voices, an equal part of the music, adding its own style to the overall mix, never staying static but always fluctuating with the circumstances, fluid and versatile.

menomena's trademark is unexpectedness, a trait that is obvious from the first track, "muscle 'n flo." a jagged, abrupt guitar interrupts drawn out, stately notes and delicate piano, alternating between serenity and anxiety. "muscle 'n flo" is also one of the few songs that has something like verses and a bridge - many of their songs are just laid bare, stripped of pretense and false modesty. they stand proud without bowing to conventionality, one of the album's most endearing traits. i also find menomena's lyricism to be remarkable - it goes far beyond the wistfulness of gibbard or the historicity of meloy, disdaining continuity or even sense, focusing all their energy on turning clever/endearing phrases like "if only jesus would wash my feet" or "rain is falling through the floor " or "cover your ears / cover your eyes / cover your mouth / silence / blindness / tasteless violence," putting a new twist on the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" aphorism. however, their best lyricism cannot be taken out of context - like their voices, or drumming, or any other instrument in their arsenal, menomena's lyrics are another layer of songsmithing.

on "air aid," harris sings about "people of the future," and that's exactly who the album is about. it's not a big stretch to say menomena is a little too cool for school - their rhythms, effects, and sheer bizarreness can't possibly have come from the same era as the black eyed peas, yet here it is. i don't doubt that harris, knopf, and seim are not a little startled by the immense acclaim friend and foe has received, though they shouldn't be. the word "pop" has far too many negative connotations right now, but, still, friend and foe is distinctly that: it straddles the line between the past and future of pop, and it is little wonder that people clamor to it, singing its praises. definitely WSMO, definitely awesome.

menomena - "the pelican," "wet and rusting." buy friend and foe here. live photo from nailgun.

menomena - south street seaport - 7/13/07

were i a superstitious mammoth, i might not have gone to this show tonight. but, thankfully, i do not suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia (stump your friends! amaze your enemies! define that word!). the show tonight, simply put, was AWESOME. rarely have i been to any show, free or not, that has matched their acts with such foresight and aural appreciation. i have gone, in the span of a few mere hours, from not knowing beat the devil in the slightest to cursing myself for not being in the country for their july 26 show at the cake shop - that's how good they were.

this week's show was infinitely better than last week's, on basically every level. i made sure to arrive early, as i was super psyched to see menomena live for the first time, and i was sure it would be crowded (it was. menomena themselves declared it was the largest crowd they had ever played to). though there was some jostling and repositioning from behind annoyingly tall people, by and large, it was a comfortable show, physically. when i was younger, i had the conceit that, no matter what gig i went to, i would know someone there. well, i gave that idea up ages ago, though it still sticks in my mind every time i go to a big/free show (i.e., last week's bts, any river to river gig), and, wonder of wonders, i ended up knowing a girl standing directly behind me. will wonders never cease. anyway, enough chit chat. on to beat the devil.

from the moment singer shilpa ray took the stage with a large snow shovel in her hand, i figured we were in for something good. my excitement only mounted as bassist mishka shubaly marched through the crowd with what is presumably beat the devil's mascot - a marching bass drum with beelzebub's unholy gob painted on it, beating the thing with maracas, no less. despite the song's lack of a melody, or anything besides ray's voice, her snow shovel, and mitchell key's drums, it spoke volumes about the potential for beat the devil's set - potential they lived up to and surpassed.

beat the devil's sound reminded me most of the dresden dolls (albeit with a serious blues bent), and was driven by ray, who did double duty as vocalist and harmonium player. unfamiliar with a harmonium as i was (i only learned its name from the press on beat the devil's site), i can only say that it looks like an accordion, cut in half, and lain down on a table (is lain the correct past participle of lay?). she pumped away on the harmonium throughout the show, creating a sound that seems repetitive at first - a regular drone, very similar to the sound of an accordion - that would give beat the devil an almost folky sound, were it not for the regularly scheduled breakdowns that make their live show a hit. ray's voice alternates between raw vocal chords-inducing screaming and dark bluesy suggestiveness with total unpredictability, especially for one unfamiliar with the beat the devil sound. though key and shubaly are important to the band, it is obviously ray who drives it, whether endlessly pumping the harmonium, screaming herself hoarse, or dancing around on stage. the best song came in the middle of the set, blissfully heavy, that had two kids in the audience raising the traditional metal salute in honor and rocking out. ray thrashed about, her hair a virtual halo from the movement, all while keeping her left hand pumping the harmonium's bellows and her right pressing the keys, a study in musical multitasking.

beat the devil was a perfect precursor to menomena, as both bands take great joy in their vitality and the importance of musical surprises. though beat the devil operated with far fewer instruments than menomena, they kept their sound fresh throughout the set by taking each song in a different direction. i wish i could see them again on the 26th - it will definitely be worth it. i'm going to stay tuned to beat the devil, because whatever they do next will be worth paying attention to.

ah, menomena. how i was looking forward to your set, and how was i rewarded. i'm going to list my grievances now, and get them out of the way. 1. why was there no "airaid"? what the fuck, menomena. that's like the 2nd or 3rd best song off friend and foe - how could you have overlooked it? 2. where the fuck was the encore? it wasn't river to river's fault - fujiya & miyagi went until 10 last week, and your set ended at 9.30. are you like tool, do you not play encores? cuz that's fucked up. everyone wanted to hear more songs - i would've liked "airaid" (obviously) or "running." i disapprove, especially because you mentioned how much you liked this crowd several times, and new york. new york would've liked you more, had you encored.

that being said, new york liked you pretty fucking plenty - you played a great set, menomena. i can't remember what you opened with, but your second song was "the pelican," the first song i liked off friend and foe, the song that made me think that my initial disapproval was selling you short. and, man, did you guys nail it! i had no idea all three of you were vocalists, and when danny seim started singing, while pounding on his drum kit, i was totally shocked. but it made perfect sense - i had always assumed the full, strong vocals on the record were a result of great production, when it should have been obvious that other people were singing along with you, justin harris. brent knopf's guitar was just as jarring and angular as i had hoped, and the vocals were much richer in a live setting.

menomena, you played songs from i am the fun blame monster as well as friend and foe, bringing a new depth to all of them. i was more familiar with your friend and foe material, but "strongest man in the world," with its a.d.d. instrumental beginning, captured (in a nutshell) the essence of menomena, a restlessness that clearly comes through with the spastic drums, the abrupt fade-ins and -outs, the lazy arrogance of the guitar lines, the determined and resolute piano. no two menomena songs sound the same, because you can barely hear the connections within one song - it's almost as each section of the song is cut and pasted from an arbitrary elsewhere. i know a lot of fuss has been made about your "deeler," the digital looping recorder that you yourselves invented, but i couldn't really tell which parts were looped and which weren't, except, of course, when none of you were playing. your instrumental versatility - justin, how you switched seamlessly between bass, guitar, and baritone sax, and brent, how you would play keyboards with your guitar swung around your back. your set, though not as long as some would have preferred, was jam-packed with everything that makes you my favorite band of the moment, and that has kept friend and foe on constant rotation since march. "rotten hell" was superb, "my my" was great. "the monkey's back," the set closer, was amazing. but what made me happiest was "evil bee," my standout favorite off friend and foe. how touchingly did brent sing "oh, to be a machine / oh, to be wanted, to be useful" - i taped it, and you can see the video below, along with another for "strongest man in the world." you can see all of my videos from the show here, including two from beat the devil and two others from menomena.

in short, menomena was outstanding live. danny seim especially impressed me the whole set through with his energy and enthusiasm on the drums, but the whole band was fantastic. i can't wait to see them again, and maybe with an encore this time?

buy friend and foe here.

menomena - "evil bee"



menomena - "strongest man in the world"

some brief updates.

i've had a hell of a time trying to blog this week, after last weekend's frenetic five-posts-in-three-days, even though you're owed a full detailing of the excellent tortoise show i went to, so hopefully these tidbits will tide you over. all three have been making the rounds, so you probably have seen them already, but it gives me something to do as i try to form the tortoise experience into words.

so, news item #1 - there's a free panda bear dvd coming out.

mike over at eattapes is generously putting together a dvd of live panda bear performances from his recent person pitch tour. including footage from new york, philadelphia, and baltimore shows. the dvd, entitled people party, has no present release date, but mike is obviously hard at work on it. personally, as a non-fan of animal collective, i would normally be totally uninterested in this, but person pitch is such a good album that i can't wait to get my hands on this dvd. while the dvd is free, and can be mailed anywhere, a $250 filming fee at bowery ballroom has caused mike to create a deluxe package, on a donation sliding scale (between $5 and 10). the deluxe edition contains a bonus disc with all three performances and bonus art, an interview with noah lennox (a.k.a. panda bear), and other fun stuff. rock on, mike!

2. new built to spill tracks (broken by stereogum)

like anyone with half a brain, i like built to spill (read my live review directly below this post). and i liked you in reverse, especially "mess with time." but i think the first new song goes a little too far. "they got away" is a straight-up dub song, albeit with some serious distortion, that doesn't really show promise for what bts does next. "rearrange," on the other hand, is just plain. it is always hard to hear one of your favorite bands move in a direction you don't appreciate, and i hope that if this is what built to spill chooses to sound like for the future, i can appreciate it. but listening to these two singles (especially with you in reverse as a reference point) just makes me yearn for the absurdity of a younger built to spill, that sang about brontosauruses and that would randomly insert a seriously rocking section in a song, for no other reason than it pleased them. "they got away" gets tired before the 3 minute mark, yet stretches past that for nearly another 4. and while "rearrange" does end on a distorted note (along with marimbas), it has that slow, sweeping sound of "else" that has never been as good as their heavier (relatively speaking) songs.

i just checked back at stereogum...apparently, warner music group (that bestial hegemon and built to spill's label) made a boo-boo by allowing stereogum to put the songs up for download. so, fuck warner, here are the songs:

built to spill - "they got away"
built to spill - "rearrange"

3. menomena is playing tonight at south street seaport, courtesy of citysol.

friend and foe continues to be one of my favorite albums of the year, and i'm thrilled at getting a chance to see them. a review of that album is on my perennial to-do list, and i'll crank it out sometime soon, i promise. but trust me - it's fucking awesome. opening is beat the devil, whom i've never heard of. citysol (in part sponsored by brooklyn vegan) continues all weekend, with a bitching show tomorrow that includes o'death, land of talk, and les savy fav. in addition, if you bring your con ed bill and switch to green energy, you get free brooklyn beer. and life does not get better than that.

check out brooklynvegan's schedule here.

menomena - "evil bee" (live at sxsw 2007)
beat the devil - "plea bargain"

body english

that phrase came into my head a few minutes ago, and i suddenly realized it would've been a much funner name for a blog than "mr. mammoth." regardless, here we are.

'ello 'ello etc., i'm back from three weeks in canada, where the women are strong, the men are sorta attractive, and the children all seem to be missing (seriously, i feel like i didn't see one kid the whole time). but we're not here to talk about me, we're here to talk about things i like (and dislike, which is more often the case). let me give you the lowdown on this situation here. i own an ipod shuffle. it is cute, clips to the bottom of my shirt, and leaves me free to experience music without the damn ipod interface. however, because it doesn't plug into the wall, it is hard to charge it when you're, say, in canada. however, i managed, and listened to the same 13 albums or so over and over until i rediscovered things i had loved about old releases (case in point: i listened to give up 6 times in 2 days) and find new albums that viscerally excited me. most of these albums will be posted on when i get around to it, and there are more than a handful here, but these three weeks of sloth has made it very hard for me to want to wake up, put my blogging hat on, and mercilessly wade through piles of irrelevant, unimportant, and generally boring music news to bring you what you value most: my opinion. i will get back into the swing of things, never fear, and this WONDERFUL piece of news has kick-started me.

when we were in canada, we had the most unfortunate luck. we missed every awesome concert by one day. menomena played the day before we came, matt and kim the day after (as well as CSS, but i wouldn't've seen them without bonde do role, who had some sickness problems), we missed frog eyes and immaculate machine twice...it hurt. so, i'm practically jumping out of my skin with pleasure that a new free music festival has been announced in new york: CITYSOL. now, as i don't pay my own electric bills (yet), i can't switch to green energy, but you all should. barring that, the $1 off brooklyn beer with your own mug sounds good, as does the lineup. menomena! land of talk! o'death (who i'm missing at the spiegeltent in august)! and, drumroll please, les savy fav! this lineup kicks siren's ass, thank you very much, and you will see me there on july 13 and 14. and brooklyn vegan is co-hosting or something like that, and this sounds awesome. by the way, menomena's friend and foe was one of the canada albums that i need to go out and buy so i can not be hypocritical when i tell you that it's worth spending money on, once i get around to it.

have a great day.