Menomena are an experimental rock band from Portland, Oregon, made up of Brent Knopf on guitar, keyboards, glockenspiel; Justin Harris on bass, guitar, baritone sax and alto sax; and Danny Seim on percussion. All members of the band share singing duties.
Menomena began as a side project of Danny Seim's late 90's solo project Lackthereof, a project which still continues.
They self-released their first album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster!, in 2003 and had the album released nationwide by FILMguerrero in 2004 (I Am the Fun Blame Monster is an anagram for The First Menomena Album). In 2005 Menomena released Under an Hour, an album of instrumental music written for and performed with Monster Squad, an experimental dance company based in Portland. In August of 2006, Menomena signed with Barsuk Records although the band still maintains a relationship with their old label, FILMguerrero. It was stated that FILMguerrero would still be involved in their old catalog and possibly with future vinyl releases[1].
Menomena released their next album in 2007, titled Friend and Foe. It was released to relative critical acclaim -- while some websites like Pitchfork Media praised the album for its effective modular pop[2], others like PopMatters criticized it for presenting a sense of feigned maturity[3].
The band's name was chosen for "the way it rolls off the tongue, sexually, or something" and has no specific meaning, although it is often assumed to refer to the Piero Umiliani song "Mah Nà Mah Nà", a staple of The Muppet Show. A recent audioclip from SpotDJ had Brent stating that the band name was a contraction of the words "Men" and "Phenomena". This is most likely a joke.