It's unlikely you'd have heard that J Mascis or rock producer Michael Beinhorn was working with a band like the Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine back in their respective heydays a decade and a half ago. That said, here and now, both gentlemen have contributed to the latest release from Mew, a Danish band that bears more than a passing resemblance to both aforementioned bands. Brewing up a concoction of almost-danceable, spacey prog rock with elements of ethereality, along with the beefy rhythms of The Pixies and the chimey vocals and innocuous charm of current indie faves like The Postal Service, Mew has somehow made fans of Mascis and Beinhorn, who come from the less ethereal, more corporeal side of the rock spectrum.
For the geographically disinclined, Scandinavia is otherwise known as North Europe, and Denmark is a small country north of Germany and below the Scandinavian Peninsula which includes Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Fans throughout Scandinavia have eaten Mew up like cake; their latest LP, And the Glass Handed Kites (just released in the U.S. on July 25th), brought an onslaught of awards for its release in Denmark last year, including Best Band, Best Singer, Best Album and Best Rock Album at the Danish Music Awards, Best Song and Best Male Singer at Denmark's Zulu Awards, Best Breakthrough Act at last year's Nordic Music Awards, and most recently Best Cinematography In A Video at the CADS06 Music Vision Awards for the video of "Special"—beating out videos for Gwen Stefani, Coldplay, and James Blunt.
"We're not a mainstream band," singer Jonas Bjerre muses just moments after stepping onto U.S. soil the day their album was released here. "For us it's very weird to suddenly be that popular, because our music is pretty different, and we had a lot of battles in the beginning to even get played on the radio. But it seems like all of a sudden we clicked with something and people are really getting into it."
With Americans' appetite for alternative forms of rock growing, thanks to the infinite accessibility of music through the Internet and the volumes of airspace filled by satellite radio, bands like Mew may just have a fighting chance. Reaching award-winning status, however, might be a long shot, thanks to the continuous American appetite for all things Green Day, U2, and Kelly Clarkson. But then again, Bjerre says their charts don't look much different.
"If you look at the Danish hit list, you will find a lot of very mainstream bands and then us," Bjerre says. "You don't see that many alternative bands. Then you have countries like Norway, their hit list has a lot more of [alternative] stuff in it. I don't think there are any bands that sound like us, but there are definitely some alternative bands on the Scandinavian hit list."
In addition to having some stellar music video production, Mew is also known for its artistic visual accompaniment, which includes animation created by Bjerre. They're currently doing a mini-tour of the coasts with Bloc Party, but a humble Bjerre says their popularity at home has not inflated their expectations for their first shows here.
"It's very different how big a band we are in different countries; in Scandinavia we're a very big band; in Italy we're a small indie, as we haven't toured there much. We're used to that changing a lot, playing small places and then big places, and each is both really fun and different and challenging in different ways."
Penelope Biver
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http://www.mewsite.com
