Menomena
Menomena /mɪˈnɒmɪnə/ is an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, made up of Justin Harris and Danny Seim. Both members of the band share singing duties and frequently swap instruments while recording. In concert, Seim plays drums, while Harris swaps between a number of instruments.
Menomena
Portland, Oregon, United States
2000–present
Barsuk, FILMguerrero
Danny Seim
Justin Harris
Brent Knopf
Live performance[edit]
In a performance setting, Menomena attempts to replicate the often dense instrumentation found on their recordings without the use of backing tracks.[34]
Throughout the course of a typical concert, Harris plays electric guitar(s), baritone guitar, electric bass, Moog Taurus foot synthesizer (or a Roland Pk-5 when touring Europe), baritone saxophone, and alto saxophone; Seim plays drums and other percussion. Both members contribute vocal harmonies and sing lead on different songs.[35]
In 2007 they did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. Later on that year, Craig Thompson appeared on stage with Menomena at several concerts over the course of a European tour. Throughout these performances, Thompson painted along with the music using a brush and ink on a large sheet of butcher paper. At the end of each show, the pieces were ripped into shreds and thrown into the audience.[36]
Menomena added multi-instrumentalist Joe Haege of 31Knots as a touring member in 2010.[37] On August 9, the band made their national television debut as a four-piece with Haege on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.[38]
Creative process[edit]
The band's songwriting process involves a computer program called the Digital Looping Recorder, or Deeler for short. It was programmed by Knopf using the language Max.[9] Seim explains the process: "First, we set the tempo of the click, which is played through a pair of headphones. We then take turns passing a single mic around the room. One of us will hold the mic in front of an instrument, while another one of us will lay down a short improvised riff over the click track. We usually start with the drums. Once the drums begin looping, we throw on some bass, piano, guitar, bells, sax, or whatever other sort of noisemaker happens to be in the room. Deeler keeps the process democratic, which is the only way we can operate."[39]
The use of Deeler as a compositional tool was discussed extensively by the band in an interview published in the May/June 2005 issue (#47) of Tape Op magazine.[40]
Menomena is a band with no primary songwriter, and their albums develop through a slow exchange of song ideas - usually via email. "I'm not aware of a single instance when we were together [recording]," said Brent Knopf of the album Mines. The Portland Mercury described this as a "painstaking cut-and-paste method of song assembly ... as each member contributes, then vanishes, only to return later to add more."[41]