If someone asked me which of the five Nordic countries is the ‘rockiest’ (musically not financially!) right now I’d probably have to say Denmark.
Here at NMC we get around a submission a week, each week, from Danish out and out rock bands, which is pretty startling when you consider the global statistics on bands, which suggest they are at best a dying species, replaced by the singer-songwriter and the duo in many genres.
(In fact the marvelously titled Me and Munich [or M&M but I won’t make any chocolate jokes] are technically a duo, with Jan Steiniche Petersen on vocals and rhythm guitar and Michael Tagesen on lead guitar, bass and backing vocals, with drums provided by Andreas Linnemann).
But not in Denmark. At least music isn’t rotten in that State (sorry Hamlet). And each one of these submitted songs does genuinely rock.
And so it is with Me and Munich.There must be a story in that band name; perhaps they’ll let me know what it is. Anything to do with the beer festival that just started?
The song, a single which precedes their third album, which will be released in December, concerns the human propensity for ‘Rumination’: getting lost in your own thoughts and worries, resulting in self-destructive torment and “losing the pulse of life in the present moment.”
Listen mate, if you had a Prime Minister like ours who makes a speech that says “We demand a ceasefire in Gaza immediately and the return of the sausages” you’d be self-destructing.
I can’t stop laughing about that so let’s move on to the song. It starts off like an XTC track, sort of punk-lite; in fact if I’d gone in blind I would have said it was the Swindon lads.
Then about half way through it picks up a memorable melody line but only for a short time before it gets lost in a maelstrom of flailing guitar notes (and some neat syncopation between the two guitars I might add). That’s a shame. Had they perpetuated that melody this would have been a sure fire winner.
It’s still pretty good as it is and I look forward to hearing more on the album.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meandmunichband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meandmunichband/
