Record Label: Barsuk Records
Genre: Indie
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

Menomena have the quintessential Pacific Northwest hipster sound. To get the Pacific Northwest hipster sound, take the Brooklyn hipster sound, (1) subtract the monotone vocals, pretentiousness and junkie-wannabe lameness, and (2) add some looseness, woodsiness, higher vocals, and a whole lot of facial hair.

Both musical stylings are self-conscious. The former is hyper aware of being cool; the latter is hyper aware of being uncool, and often has a forced-weirdness to them. In both cases, the music largely sucks.

Menomena, though, are more palatable. They have a fun, raw quality with a funky, jazzy backbone. It helps that they use a moog, although I fear they misuse the mighty moog to create a creepy drone rather than the Tom Sawyer-esque corny awesomeness it can provide. The percussion is shuffling and toe-tappable, and they also mix in some sax and bells and whistles and various other things to give them that forced-weirdness I mentioned above.

It is what it is. It’s not an unpleasant listen, but it’s also not memorable. In the end, why try so hard to create a sound if the songwriting ultimately doesn’t stick with the listener?

Bottom Line: Indie rock for burly men with full beards.
Notable Tracks: Air Raid, Weird
Overall Rating: