MENOMENA

Menomena is a band from Portland, Oregon made up of multi-instrumentalists Justin Harris and Danny Seim. Both members of the band share singing/songwriting duties while recording themselves in their homes. The band formed in late 2000, when ex-member Brent Knopf graduated from college and returned to Portland to collaborate with Harris and Seim, who had been playing music together since high school (Knopf parted ways with Menomena in 2010). They self-released their debut album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster! in 2003. The album was packaged in an 80-page flipbook that Seim designed and individually hand-assembled. It later received nationwide distribution through Portland-based label FILMguerrero in 2004. In 2005, Under an Hour was released as a three-track album of instrumental music written for and performed with Monster Squad, an experimental dance company based in Portland. In 2006, Menomena signed with Seattle’s Barsuk Records and released Friend and Foe the following year. Shortly before the release, Menomena signed to City Slang in Europe, and began traveling the world playing music. Friend and Foe’s packaging features elaborate artwork by cartoonist Craig Thompson, consisting of die-cut shapes, decoder rings, and hidden messages. It received a Grammy nomination for “Best Recording Package”. The fourth Menomena LP Mines was released in 2009 and the band spent the next two years playing their music everywhere from the Coachella festival in California to the Laneway Festival in Australia, to Hawaii and Alaska, as well as performing on national television. Justin and Danny's fifth Menomena album, Moms is out September 2012 on Barsuk Records.