I was walking by a gallery the other day in the merry old Burg o' Williams, when what did I hear but the jangly, melodic strains of a band I positively identified as Meneguar. I had to stop and listen, and pretty soon I was crammed into the small steamy space dancing my pants off along with (far too) many other people. It was kind of amazing (the dancing, that is)...for those who've never been here, New Yorkers tend to greet even the most awesome of musical performances with an arms-crossed, head-tilty stance that says, "I may or may not be mildly enjoying this." And that goes double for Brooklyn. So when people dance, it means the band is good.

Why is this band good? Let me start off by saying that Meneguar is not for those avant-snobs who will only listen to "difficult" music and recordings of frog-song from Madagascar. They play good old '90s-flavored indie rock. However, they have an interesting variety of influences, and they mix them up enough to keep from sounding like they're doing that "retro" thing. Although jaded music fans are constantly looking back to a golden mythical past when say, punk, was fresh and exciting and you could actually do fun/fucked up shit in clubs, the advantage of making music now is that you have so much good stuff to draw on. Meneguar's debut EP, I Was Born at Night, is equal measure punk, post punk, and garage rock. Singer Jarvis Taveniere sounds a little like Isaac Brock from (old school) Modest Mouse as he spits out poetic, wordy lines like:

I'm sorry just sounds empty but the thought should suffice/
Bloody knuckles scraping concrete and it's night after night.

Angsty, but not too ridiculous to relate to.

He also employs some of the nerdy over-pronunciation that marked '90s uber-dorks They Might Be Giants. Who here is too cool to enjoy being able to understand what the nice fellow in the rock band is saying? Not me and not you. And the punchy post-punk guitar lines and bass grooves provide a cool counterpoint to all the dorky vocals. What's cooler than sounding like New Order? Nothing.

I'm also reminded of that episode of Beavis and Butthead when they're watching a Pavement video, and they're all like "hey (huh huh), that band would be really good if they, like, tried a little harder (huh huh huh)." This band's garage-y elements sound a lot like a less laid back version of Pavement. Their earnest effort comes through especially in the choruses; when Taveniere (often joined by his bandmates) shout-sings a line over and over, it sticks anthemically in your head even if you're not quite sure what it means. "All lips turn off and on"...yeah! Damn right they do!

But enough name-dropping: go see them and decide for yourself. They are currently on a mega-tour to most of Europe and the US, and they have a new album coming out later this month. You can thank me later.

Flawedhero

Suwanee, GA

October 2006

SEP 14, 2007 12:11 AM

Slow news day, huh?

Good to see there are bands out there keeping the quarter note alive.

Gerry_D

Los Angeles, CA

May 2003

SEP 14, 2007 12:53 AM

I'm in - just spent a few minutes listening to the youtubes.

good find.

I need to be lead to music and my ears punched by it. gonna see when they play LA

Gerry_D

Los Angeles, CA

May 2003

SEP 14, 2007 01:08 AM

Flawedhero said:
Slow news day, huh?
/QUOTE]

Really? Still getting all your news from the booby site, huh?

No, seriously though, you read the music piece, which was weirdly in the music tab and then decided it was a slow news day because the piece you read wasn't about the sheik that met Bush last week and was blown up to death today. Keep up the good work.

Maat

Jamaica Plain, MA

January 2004

SEP 14, 2007 05:13 AM

Gerry_D said:
Really? Still getting all your news from the booby site, huh?

Sadly, the SG newswire is one of the better news sources around. I don't know why I need to go to a porn site or a comedy channel to see news that isn't a stream of unquestioned press realeases, but I feel way better about SG News than CNN. At least the $4 a month here is way cheaper than cable. :/

_Elichrusos

Australia

November 2004

SEP 14, 2007 05:18 AM

Maat said:

Gerry_D said:
Really? Still getting all your news from the booby site, huh?

Why is indie news being better than FOX a sad thing?

Sambaloco

Brooklyn, NY

OLD SKOOL

SEP 14, 2007 08:56 AM

i might also recommend the group "the woods" which i believe is a side project of theirs.

ericwine

Charlotte Hall, MD

January 2007

SEP 14, 2007 01:36 PM

_Elichrusos said:

Maat said:

Gerry_D said:
Really? Still getting all your news from the booby site, huh?

Why is indie news being better than FOX a sad thing?

Because actual "news" broadcasters should give us, you know, news, including all the facts without the ideological blinders of right or left, with commentary and analysis clearly labeled as such. That's a novel concept, considering FOX and the rest of the corporate "news" media doesn't actually do that.

ericwine

Charlotte Hall, MD

January 2007

SEP 14, 2007 01:50 PM

Pretty good band - they actually sound a little like Genesis - meaning really old school Genesis, from the early '70s when they were alt-rock and Peter Gabriel was their singer. Taveniere even sounds like the young Gabriel.
Kudos, Hunter.

RileyStClair

Los Angeles, CA

September 2006

SEP 14, 2007 02:11 PM

i'll check them out, thanks for the recommendation!

nonbillable

Brooklyn, NY

September 2004

SEP 14, 2007 02:40 PM

Yep, I caught these guys at one Todd P shindig or another and I think I like, I think I like a lot

Duramater

Australia

May 2007

SEP 14, 2007 08:46 PM

If we are going to talk about new bands that you must check out. Go to www.cog.com.au. Yes, they are an Australian band and they are recording a new album over in the states, due out later this year.

SouGei

Blackwood, NJ

January 2007

SEP 15, 2007 06:31 AM

Indie...rock? Huh.