Mew-Live at Venue

Category:

Music

When:

Friday, December 11, 2009 7:00 pm -
10:00 pm
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Where:

Venue Nightclub

based on 21 reviews

881 Granville St
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1K7
(604) 681-2114

How:

Official Website
Tickets

Cost:

CA$18.00

Submitted by:

Crystal H.   See all events submitted by Crystal H. »

What/Why:

Danish experimental dream-pop trio Mew return August 25, 2009 with the triumphant No More Stories..., a towering, masterpiecey follow-up to their critically acclaimed breakthrough And The Glass Handed Kites.

On their fifth album, Mew pushes their artfully weird and epic sound-labyrinthine arrangements of overlapping, unexpected harmonies and sugary heaven-bound vocals-into a warm, accessible collection of songs with more stick-in-your-head hooks than words in it's extensive album title. The complete 23-word name comes from the lyrics of the middle-record track "Hawaii Dream."

Mew's fifteen years of making music started in Hellerup, a northern suburb of Copenhagen. Bjerre and Madsen met when they were six years old, but it wasn't until they were assigned a film project in the seventh grade that they became friends. "We were extremely different but we discovered a common interest in art house cinema and alternative music," Bjerre remembers. "Eventually, when you are hanging out all the time," adds Madsen, "you need something to do, so we started playing music." They met Silas Utke Graae Jrgensen through a classmate of Madsen's and quickly bonded over Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine, and Pixies records. "We had a hard time finding a drummer with the same sensibilities as ours, and then Silas came along and his drumming was unlike anything we had heard, and it just immediately clicked."

But no one wanted to be the singer. Bjerre reluctantly accepted the task and much screaming in the microphone ensued. "I was a really shy kid. And I never sang before, so it was very awkward," he says. "But I must have had a secret wish to do it, just like people dream of parachuting even if they are scared of it."

To compensate for his shyness on stage, Bjerre made original animations to go along with the set. "I thought, that even if I was not so communicative, I could still show people something from inside of me," he says. Soon cats playing fiddles and sea aliens with nipples and other trippy interpretations of the songs were projected behind them, becoming an integral and exciting part of the show. (For their upcoming tour, they approached some artists they know and admire to collaborate on the projections.)

Their debut A Triumph For Man was released in 1997 and produced by Damon Tutunjian of the indie band the Swirlies. In 2000, Mew released Half The World Is Watching Me, which they produced themselves with the help of Flemming Rasmussen, who, quite possibly has the coolest name ever, and is most known for his work with Metallica in the 1980s. Excitement over their live performances finally reached outside Denmark and caught the attention of Epic Sony who signed them in 2001 to produce the band's first international release. Collecting the best songs off their first two albums, plus writing a number of new compositions, the band went into the studio to record with Costey 2003's Frengers. Two years later, critics around the world endorsed And the Glass Handed Kites. The songs "Zookeeper's Boy," "Special" and "Why Are You Looking Grave" (with J Mascis) became international radio hits and led the band to sweep the 2006 Danish Music Awards in four categories, including Best Band and Best Album.

Advance tickets at Zulu, Scratch, Red Cat, Highlife, Ditch (Victoria) & http://www.ticketweb.ca

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