Menomena @ Princeton

I'm a big fan of Pitchfork Media. Go ahead and heckle if you like; depending on which side of the fence you are on you might find the site to be either too obscure and inaccessible or just fanboys of the current scene.

But to me the site's a great resource for finding out about new music. If you haven't noticed, a lot of the stuff I like has been featured on their website. Sometimes I worry that my own judgements simply just reflective of theirs, but I really do try to reevaluate things for myself. Case in point, I'm just not a huge fan of Deerhoof. As creative as they are, that singer's voice just really bothers me. But in the end, I think the creators of the site have a great understanding of music and tastes that often matche mine, even if they are a bit snooty from time to time.

One band they turned me onto a few weeks ago was Menomena. On a whim I decided to get their album partly because of this review and partly because of the neat cover art. Upon first listen I wasn't tremendously excited. The music was good, but not overwhelmingly. But over the next couple of days I realized I had all these new songs stuck in my head and I realized they were Menomena songs. On rare and special occasions bands like this crop up: on first impression you don't really know why you like the songs, but for some reason it sticks with you and then over time it just digs under your skin until you can't stop listening.

Better yet, just as I was getting into them I found out they were coming to play here at Princeton! It was a great show even if they did get irritated at the drunks. The best part was when the singer made note of the cramped Terrace venue by asking the person standing right in front of him "Isn't it awkward when we make eye contact since we're only two feet apart?"



I should also mention that the opening band, Land of Talk really rocked too. One of the best female rock singers I've heard in a long time. I picked up their CD at the show and it's great! The songs are all a little similar, but they are all well written.