danish musicians jonas bjerre (lyrics), bo madsen (guitar), and silas utke graae jørgensen (drums), collectively known as mew became friends in seventh grade.  "eventually, when you are hanging out all the time you need something to do," said bo. "so we started playing music."

in 1997 the band formed at the insistence of a book-publishing agent who liked the music so much he convinced his company to change their business plan in order to release mew's debut album.

early on however, joanas had to deal with onstage shyness and stage fright.  to compensate, he incorporated projected animations into their dream space-pop/shoe gazing live gigs.

soon after, the band, who often refer to their music as "pretentious art rock" really started to pick up steam and develop a steady following as they supported r.e.m. on a european tour and bloc party and kasabian during u.s. tours.

in 2003, mew won "album of the year" and "band of the year" awards at the danish music critics awards.  since that time they've self-referentially been known as "the world's only indie stadium band."  i don't think anyone else calls them that however.

the band's fifth album the epically titled no more stories/are told today/i'm sorry/they washed away//no more stories/the world is grey/i'm tired/let's wash away released august 25, 2009.

"yeah, the title sounds pretty bleak," said jonas. "it comes from having watched a lot of tv when i was a kid. i feel like i've been told so many stories in my life i don't need to hear anymore, and so i've kind of given up on being impressed by stories. but the cover art is really happy and colorful and it shows the positive side-which is to go out, become part of the world and make your own stories."

click here for a march 14, 2007 sxsw gig recorded by kexp.  click here for an october 05, 2006 in-studio set recorded by minnesota public radio's the current.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check here to see if mew have any gigs scheduled near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.