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POSTED: Friday, November 28, 2008

Operating like a democracy, the members of the inventive indie rock band Menomena seem to amiably come to a consensus in their quest for interesting sounds.

               

     

 

 

MENOMENA         With local openers The Jump Offs and DJ Eskae         Place: The Loft Gallery Lounge, 115 N. Hotel St.         Time: 9 p.m. Saturday         Tickets: $20, 21 and over         Call: 538-3300

Made up of the triumvirate of Danny Seim, Justin Harris and Brent Knopf, Menomena's heady blend of collectively written songs—built from improvised loops arranged with custom-made software in the studio—will come to multi-instrumental life Saturday night at Honolulu's latest underground downtown venue, the Loft Gallery Lounge.

Their latest album, “;Friend and Foe,”; was equally inventive in its packaging, garnering a Grammy Award nomination this year for its die-cut booklet designed by illustrator Craig Thompson of “;Blankets”; fame.

Thompson and the band are all part and parcel of the Portland, Ore., scene, where, Seim comments, it seems “;everyone from all over the country are moving to. We roll deep, as they say.”;

Before he and his family moved there in 1991, the Seims were Oahu residents, specifically in Waipahu, where Danny's dad was the principal at Trinity Lutheran School.

“;When my father was called back to Portland, I remember being so disappointed that I was pitching a fit,”; Seim said by phone. “;But my sister still lives in Wahiawa, and my dad and myself and the band are all going to stay with her while we're there for the gig.”;

The collected songs on “;Friend and Foe”;—particularly standout tracks “;Rotten Hell,”; “;Wet and Rusting”; and “;Evil Bee,”; each with their own imaginative video—make up a seamless collage of attractive and clearly defined layers of melody and rhythm.

For Seim, this eclectic approach dates back to his memories of listening to Radio Free Hawaii. “;That station was so revolutionary, all ballot-run,”; he said. “;It exposed me to the music I would come to love. Radio Free was so diverse. It would play the Pixies, Fugazi, A Tribe Called Quest, Bob Marley ... it was like an iPod on shuffle, but at least a decade before its invention.”;

                       

Menomena www.menomena.com

Menomena would find favor with the advent of another technological development: the Internet. The band's earliest release, “;I Am the Fun Blame Monster,”; got a very positive review from the Web-based music tastemaker Pitchfork, which led to a business deal with the Seattle indie label Barsuk.

“;Our art is precious to us, and after much back-and-forth, we were able to work out something good with Barsuk,”; Seim said.

While it's not economically feasible for Menomena to lug its many instruments with them on the road, there's some amount of switcheroo on stage as the band members put down and pick up various soundmakers during their performances, with the exception of Seim, who pretty much stays behind his drum kit and sings. It's Harris and Knopf who multitask between guitar, bass, keyboard (filled with MIDI samples compiled on a laptop) and saxophone.

It's all about musical fluidity—speaking of which, the band has been practicing one of its earliest songs that has a laconic and watery sound.

With a repeated phrase of “;lurking in the deep,”; Seim said the song was partly influenced by his time in the islands. The name of the song? “;Oahu.”;