Pitchfork

Fans of Menomena's spastic, high-energy, constantly-mutating sound are just going to have to hold their horses for a little while, because the Portland, Oregon band's new record is an elegant instrumental soundtrack for a modern dance performance. That's right, they've gone all Sigur Rós on our asses.

On November 8 (this coming Tuesday, folks), FILMguerrero will release Menomena's second album, Under an Hour, the follow-up to their 2003 album I Am the Fun Blame Monster. It consists of three pieces commissioned for a 2004 performance by the Portland dance troupe the Monster Squad (Best. Dance. Troupe. Name. Ever.) and yes, the album lasts under an hour. Here's the oh-so-exciting tracklist:

01 Water
02 Flour
03 Light

"After spending almost two years composing and recording the three instrumental pieces, we decided we liked the project enough to release it as our second album," Menomena drummer Danny Seim told Pitchfork earlier this week. "It was definitely a long, drawn-out experience but we're all pretty happy with it in the long run."

The big question, though: what's up with the parental advisory sticker on the album cover, despite the fact that the disc contains no racy artwork or dirty lyrics (or any lyrics at all)? "It's to scare away the religious right," Seim said. "No, actually, we just always wanted to do an explicit album and this is about the best we can do. Back in the day, I used to buy albums just because they had that sticker on there-- like, oh, this is great, I can shock my parents! Once you become a certain age, it becomes okay to listen to this music and you won't go to Hell anymore."

He added, "It's the first instrumental album with curse words, let's put it that way." Fuckin' A!

Alas, the Monster Squad won't be coming to your town, as no tour is scheduled in support of Under an Hour. Seim said, "This instrumental thing is so grandiose that it's really hard [to play live.] Normally when we're writing music, we're trying to keep in mind what we can pull off with three people on stage. With this kind of thing, we just kind of threw it to the wind and didn't really think about ever performing it live again."

Menomena have already begun work on their third album, which they hope to have out on FILMguerrero in the spring of next year. "We actually never really stopped recording from the Fun Blame Monster stuff," Seim said. "It's just all little demos that have taken shape over the last few years. We have about twelve or fourteen that are in a pretty good state right now. We just have to add a few things to finalize the mixes." The band plans to hit the road once recording is finished.

In the meantime, the band members are keeping busy with their own side hustles. Bassist/guitarist Justin Harris is in Australia right now, where his art project Theatre for One, The Late Great Libido: Rock Opera was exhibited as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. A self-contained theatre built for an audience of one person at a time, it shows a twenty-two minute computerized performance featuring the Menomena song "The Late Great Libido" (from Fun Blame Monster) as well as four other Harris compositions. So you're both inside the artwork and watching the artwork at the same time. Whoa.

Between Menomena's touring and recording, Seim continues to make music under the moniker Lackthereof. FILMguerrero recently released his seventh record, Christian the Christian, an album "loosely based on the events surrounding a list I wrote for Pitchfork." Seim doesn't have any further Lackthereof releases planned for the moment, but he insists that the project is "definitely not over with."

Seim also runs Happy Basement, a t-shirt printing company headquartered, of course, in his basement. Happy Basement handled the shirts on the Gang of Four reunion tour. "Now that I have carpel tunnel, it's all Gang of Four's fault!" he said. Too bad! Get back to rocking ASAP!

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