Meridene

“Kill the Memory“
from the album You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse
2008
iTunes

The word “catchy” came up quite a bit in the interviews with Meridene. It turns out that “catchy” can mean a lot of things. When a centerfielder is catchy, we all get pumped and start buying ill-fitting baseball shirts. When a flu is catchy, we run like crazy and take super gross vitamin C tablets. Fortunately for us, local power-poppers, Meridene is most certainly in the former category, and not in the latter.

“To me, Meridene songs are still exactly the same as they’ve always been — catchy,” said keyboardist Paul Brandt in a recent interview.

To say that Meridene has been in a bit of a flux since its last article in V1 is a bit of an understatement. Since then, the band has gotten rid of a banjo, replaced their bass and piano players (twice), wooed a recording phenom to join in on guitar, and added a drummer that actually makes me scared for my life. Yes, quite literally.

They’ve taken a year to record a new album, played to large-ish crowds in other cities, dropped the country twang and added a little bit of mouth-punch to their set. This is all fine and good, but it doesn’t answer this burning question; do they rock?

Fortunately for the city of Eau Claire, the answer is a resounding yes. Meridene’s new album, You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse finds the band awash in dirty guitar squalls and keyboard flourishes. Where the first Meridene album was a simple, almost Sufjan-esque approach to songwriting, this one relishes in the decadent. Track after track drives, heaves, and pleads over pounding drums and rollicking bass lines. This is an album without middle ground, a collection of songs that wears its heart on its sleeve. Let’s just put it this way, there are trombones on this album. Lots of trombones.

“I think that songwriting-wise, this band really opened me up. I always leaned towards the New Pornographers’ brand of indie rock, but playing in this setting just brought that out even more,” said lead singer and primary songwriter Trevor Ives. The band is fleshed out by a number of other ultra-capable musicians: Brandt on keyboards, Eric Rykal (of the Gentle Guest) on guitar, Shane Mclaughlin on bass, and David Power on the drums.

Meridene also has the distinction of being one of the first bands signed to Amble Down Records, a local label that has gained some national recognition for putting out quality record after quality record. Many Amble Down bands are featured on the website, Virb.com, perhaps most known for featuring another local act, Bon Iver. The decision to stick with Amble Down was a no-brainer.

“I mean, we were pretty sure from the outset that we were going to release it with Kyle (Frenette, Amble Down’s owner and manager),” said Ives, “Amble Down has just grown so much in terms of knowing how to promote and how to get a record publicity.”

The future does indeed look bright for Meridene. Immediate plans for the band include a modest, Midwest tour in January followed by a heavy promotion of the new album. It’s something that Ives has looked forward to since Meridene’s inception almost three years ago.

“I mean, in a dream world I could quit my day job and have music be my life,” said Ives with a sideways smile, “But I’d be content to release another album and just have more people give us a listen, a chance.” If You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse is any indication of the future, Meridene’s biggest problem may be in deciding what Blu-ray player they should put in its tour van.