mew - "the zookeeper's boy" (from the and the glass handed kites lp, import available for purchase here.)

in brief : not your kid brother's synth-rock ...

mew have been around for a few years. and the glass handed kites is their second album, the follow-up to 2003's frengers. which i missed, due to some really silly biases. oh, nothing against the danes--i mean, some of my favorite pastries are danish--but, rather, against pokemon. see, a number of years ago now, there was a pokémon movie (remember pokémon?), and it was all about this, like, super pokémon called, you guessed it, mew, and so i thought the band would be some uninspired piffle. (of course, the name of mew's nemesis, mewtwo, did nothing to end my long-standing love affair w/ a similarly-named irish band.)

turns out, i was wrong. mew is truly inspired piffle. i mean, really, how else can you describe lyrics like, "but if there's a glitch, you're an ostrich?" but it sounds fantastic.

indeed, you could probably use it fool your younger brother. secretly switch his normal rock & roll--fall out boy, mychem, tbs, &c.--w/ mew and watch what happens. for about the first fifty seconds, he should totally dig it--but when it gets to the chorus, watch out! "mom!" he'll scream--and if there's anything his music has taught him, it's how to scream--as the rock & roll becomes synth-pop, real synth-pop, like omd, ca. architecture & morality. much current rock pays lip-service to synthesizers and the 80's, but mew really mean it; the results are incredibly fascinating. of course, your kid brother won't get it, but what the hell does he know anyway? i mean, he probably likes morrissey more than the smiths. and, and ...