Mew (band)

Mew

Mew is a Danish rock band consisting of Jonas Bjerre, Bo Madsen, and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen. Bassist Johan Wohlert was also a founding member of the band, but left in 2006. Whilst their music may be classified as Indie and on occasion (like on And the Glass Handed Kites) prog rock, they sometimes humorously refer to it themselves as "pretentious art rock", or in guitarist Bo's words, "the world's only indie stadium band".

History

Formed in 1995 in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen, they had a profound impact on the Danish indie scene, emerging alongside the likes of Carpark North, Swan Lee and Saybia, amongst others, in 2003. At the 2003 Danish Music Critics Award Show, Mew won the awards for "Album of the Year" and "Band of the Year".

Their first major commercial success came with Frengers, released in 2003, described as "a work of quiet brilliance, aiming for the epic without straying into the bombastic, offering cerebral arrangements while keeping things accessible." The album was well received. After a European tour supporting R.E.M. they began to attract wider attention. Their latest album And the Glass Handed Kites was released in Denmark on September 19, 2005, in the United Kingdom and rest of Europe on September 26, and in the United States on July 25 2006. The album received critical acclaim, with Mew described as making "dreamy thunderstorm pop". They were MTV Asia "Buzz-Worthy" as of January, 2006, and at the DMA06 (Danish Music Awards) they took home 4 statuettes.

On April 11, 2006, Wohlert left the band to spend more time with his girlfriend, Pernille Rosendahl from the now dissolved band Swan Lee, who was to give birth to their baby boy in May 2006. In September 2006, a MySpace account was created for The Storm, a new band consisting of Johan and Pernille. Mysteriously, the account was deleted only days later.

The band tours with Nick Watts (formerly of UK indie band Headswim) as their keyboardist, and Bastian Juel (who used to act as a studio and live bassist for Swan Lee and also played bass on Tina Dico's EP Far) recently joined them as their live bassist. However, he is not an official replacement for Johan and the band has said they will return to the studio with just the three original members.

The band finished touring for And the Glass Handed Kites in the summer of 2007, and have since been finishing up writing new material for their next studio album. They are scheduled to head to Brooklyn, New York in May 2008 in order to begin recording, and have tapped Rich Costey (who produced their breakthrough album, Frengers) once again as producer. According to Mew's video journals, posted on Myspace and Facebook, the new album is to be released sometime this fall. 15 tracks are being considered by the band for the new album

Discography

Albums

• A Triumph for Man (1997, re-released 2006)
• Half the World Is Watching Me (2000, re-released 2007)
• Frengers (2003, re-released 2007) #2 DEN(2003) #36 FIN(2006) #6 NOR(2003)
• And the Glass Handed Kites (2005) #2 DEN #36 SWE #4 FIN #4 NOR
• TBA

Singles

• "She Came Home For Christmas" (1997)
• "King Christian" (2000)
• "Her Voice is Beyond Her Years" ZAK IS SEXY (2000)
• "Mica" (2000)
• "I Should Have Been a Tsin-Tsi (For You)" (2000)
• "She Came Home For Christmas" (2000)
• "Am I Wry? No" (August, 2002) #137 UK
• "She Came Home For Christmas" (December, 2002) #76 UK
• "Comforting Sounds" (Released in the UK on March 24, 2003; charted at #48)
• "Am I Wry? No" (Released in the UK on June 16, 2003; charted at #47)
• "156" (2003)
• "She Came Home For Christmas" (Released in the UK on December 15, 2003; charted at #55)
• "Apocalypso" (2005) #75 UK
• "Special" (2005) #46 UK
• "Why Are You Looking Grave?" (2006) #53 UK
• "The Zookeeper's Boy" (2006) #80 UK

DVDs

• "Live In Copenhagen" (2006)

B-sides

• Animals Of Many Kinds
• Bones (Song for Albert)
• City Voices
• Drown
• Forever And Ever
• In Time Do You Forget
• Killer
• King Christian (new)
• Like Chaser
• Like Paper Cuts
• Mica (new)
• Misplaced
• Nothing Is Red
• Quietly
• Safe As Houses
• She Came Home For Christmas (acoustic)
• Shiroi Kuchibiru No Izanai
• Succubus
• Superfriends
• That Time On The Ledge
• Watch This Space
• Where Have All the Geysers Gone

See also

• List of shoegazing musicians

External links

• Official website
• Template:MySpace
• Mew discography at Discogs
• Gaffas pedia about Mew (In danish)
• PopGurls Interview: Mew's Jonas Bjerre
• Interview with Jonas & Johan from Room Thirteen
• Podcast interview with band on Spinner.com's The Interface