Life After Brent for Menomena?

The recent news of Brent Knopf's departure from Portland, Oregon trio Menomena really knocked me for six. It's not that the news was so surprising - last year's Mines was a troubled birth to say the least, with the three members reportedly at each others throats - it's just that Menomena seemed like one of those bands that would either exist as their original trio or not at all. Whilst the remaining two members Danny Seim and Justin Harris have pledged to carry on (and seem pretty confident in their ability to do so, judging by this article), it's hard to imagine Menomena minus Knopf. As a trio, each member formed an integral part of the band; all three members contributed to the songwriting, shared singing duties across each record and played an array of instruments both live and on record. One only needs to look at Knopf's fine work with side-project Ramona Falls to see just how much he brought to Menomena.

Menomena easily rank amongst my favourite bands to emerge in the last 5-10 years. They're certainly one of the most underrated, one of those bands that so frequently garner praise yet are conspicuous only by their absence come the end-of-year lists. They seemed to arrive fully-formed too, with 2003's I Am The Fun Blame Monster (a clever anagram of The First Menomena Album), an album which showcased the band's way with meticulous arrangements and crystal-clear production which, as with all subsequent releases, was put together with "Deeler", a computer program written by Knopf no less. That album also showed off Menomena's creative flair with album packaging, containing a flickbook which decoded the anagram and showed the three guys playing their instruments; 2007's Friend & Foe featured multiple album covers comprising a plethora of comic beasties, cut so that rotating the underlying CD changed the image, giving near endless possibilities. They're not averse from taking a risk too; as early as album #2, they were composing  20-minute instrumental suites made to accompany a performance by a local dance troupe. But most importantly Menomena were making great music, music entirely unique to them.

Good luck to Danny and Justin; let's not forget they're extremely talented guys and I'm sure they can still do  the Menomena name justice. As for Brent, I'm sure he'll be just fine.