Saturday, December 19, 2009

Mewsic Brings the Frengers Together

I was lucky enough to spend the start of my 29th year with beautiful people in my life and...Mew. These great Danes push the boundaries of music in a way that no other band does for me. I’ve had the conscious experience two albums in a row now of listening to the album, thinking, “Hmm, this is pretty good, all right…”…warming up to it and then realizing that they were simply speaking a musical language that my body was not yet familiar with. Once I spent more time with them and their sounds, my body learned this language and was suddenly opened up to their ridiculous, spacey genius. They’re just so new and innovative! And they have such a crazy, unique, specific, creative vision that they are just so good at putting forth unadulterated! Every time I experience Mew, I am covered with the rubble of incredulous wonder: "How does their music shake me like a rattle and rock me like a baby...at the same time??" "How do their guitars sound like a factory?" "How do they make Forest Elvin music sound so gooooooood?"

I saw Mew play on December 2nd at Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA, where I suspected my companion and I were getting shortchanged on our first time seeing them live because of the sound and overall quality of the venue. Then I saw them again on December 4th, (my actual birthday), in New York City at Webster Hall, where it was absolutely confirmed that we were shortchanged in Boston. To be fair, Webster Hall has exceptional sound and my entourage and I were lucky enough to get what I consider the best spots-for-sound in the house-- right behind the sound booth. Still, I probably won't return to Paradise Rock Club and I feel bad for the dashing woman that accompanied me to that show because it was a damn joke compared to the magical experience at Webster Hall.

In other news, SunChips has unveiled a new completely compostable bag, which I learned about by purchasing at a Duane Reade. It is obviously an amazing accomplishment that should be lauded far and wide. It is also the LOUDEST BAG EVER MADE IN THE UNIVERSE. Seriously, I could just carry that bag around instead of a rape whistle. Rustle the bag, and all the cops from all over NY would come running. It's better than the Bat Signal! That, or sometimes it kind of feels like I'm being attacked when I touch the bag because it's so loud. It's all very unsettling. Go SunChips, for redefining the boundaries of what it means to carry around a bag of chips the way Mew redefines what it means to experience recorded and live music! Listen to Mew while you eat SunChips! And then you'd probably just explode.