Surreal, avandte garde, art rock, prog rock, psychedelic, space rock, and dream pop where names I thought of to describe the sound of Mew who played Portland last Weds night. Mew is the most unique sounding band I heard since Sigur Ros. Their live show was what I expected--dream like images (such as cats playing fiddles, foxes on guitars, and flicking angels). Weird things. Lead singer Jonas Bjerres (from Denmark) says that his music and imagines comes from his frequent nightmares. Listen to the "Zookeeper's boy" on the band's myspace page and you'll wonder how he comes up with such a bizarre yet poppy songs. Also check out "Snow Brigade" and you'll be hooked on the catchy and haunting beautiful chorus.
Most of the concert leaned heavy on the band's debut album "Frengers" but they did play some on their gems from their newest album "And the glass kites." I've been wanting to post that album on my blog, but I find the album cover rather disturbing (it has the band member's heads cracking open with another head inside it). Frankly, the album cover kept me away from discovering this band a while ago, but it just goes to show you, you can't judge an album by it's cover.
Anyway, Portland continues to amaze me with all the shows that come to town. Already I've seen Keane, Violet Burning, Joy Electric, Snow Patrol, and Mew in the 5 months I've been here. We've got Laura Veirs and Placebo coming soon and David Bazon (Pedro the Lion) in May.
3 comments:
Yeah, I like "Zookeeper's Boy" the best of the songs on their MySpace site.
That's a lot of concerts in just a few months. Sounds like it's been a fun and busy time.
I like some of their music, but I am not sure about his voice. Like you their albums covers kept me from checking them out further. The look more like a deathmetal band.
There are a lot of good shows in our area too and I am trying to decide if I should go or not. I just missed Explosions in the Sky and Neko Case. Coming up we've got David Bazon, Junior Boys, and Damien Rice to name a few. I need to find someone who likes to got to shows.
So do you have to split the music budget into live shows and cd purchases? Seems like northern Europeans produce some eccentric stuff, not that I keep up a lot with music stuff.
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