Musée Mécanique is an American Indie folk

Indie folk

Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, country music, and indie rock. A few early artists included Lou Barlow, Beck, Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith...

 band based in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, United States, fronted by singer/songwriters Micah Rabwin(vocals/guitar/musical saw

Musical saw

A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical instrument. The sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin...

/keyboard) and Sean Ogilvie
(vocals/keyboard/guitar/accordion/melodica

Melodica

The melodica, also known as the "blow-organ" or "key-flute", is a free-reed instrument similar to the melodeon and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole,...

). The other members of the band are Matt Berger (drums/percussion/glockenspiel

Glockenspiel

A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...

), Jeff Boyd (bass/glockenspiel/cassette player) and Brian Perez (keyboards/lap steel/glockenspiel/melodica/percussion). The band's debut LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 Hold This Ghost was released Sept. 30, 2008 on Frog Stand Records of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

History

The band's chief songwriters, Micah Rabwin and Sean Ogilvie have been writing and performing music together since childhood. Ogilvie is formerly of San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

 post-rock

Post-rock

Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...

 band, Tristeza

Tristeza

Tristeza is a post-rock band from San Diego, California. The band has performed in 19 countries.Tristeza is a California-based band, with most members currently living in Oakland, CA....

. Musée Mécanique was founded in 2006 with the addition of Berger, Boyd and Perez.

The band is named after San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 museum, Musée Mécanique

Musée Mécanique

The Musée Mécanique is a for-profit interactive museum consisting of 20th-century penny arcade games and artifacts located at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California...

. Ogilvie said, "We love to make a song that has its own soul, just like the machines they have over there at the museum".

Hold This Ghost

This record's sound has been described by music and culture magazines XLR8R

XLR8R

XLR8R is a magazine and website thatcovers music, culture, style, and technology. It was founded as anewsprint ‘zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in Seattle; themagazine currently has offices in San Francisco and New York...

 "a layered, delicate take on folk, meticulously arranged with an ear for atmosphere and texture, with surprises unfolding every moment" and by Metroland (newspaper)

Metroland (newspaper)

Metroland is an alternative newspaper that is published weekly in Albany, New York and mainly serves the Capital District area. Distributed free of charge, the paper offers local arts and music scene coverage, news and feature articles, and political columns with a mostly liberal bent...

 as "subtle, elegant, yet fully modern folk-pop." Musée Mécanique has been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel

Neutral Milk Hotel

Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie rock band formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Jeff Mangum in the early 1990s. The band was noted for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and eclectic instrumentation....

 and Beirut

Beirut (band)

Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. The band's first performances were in Wollaston, United Kingdom, in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar...

.

This album was produced and engineered by Rabwin and Ogilvie and mixed by Tucker Martine

Tucker Martine

Tucker Martine is an American, Grammy nominated record producer, musician and composer who has worked with artists such as My Morning Jacket, Mudhoney, Bill Frisell, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, R.E.M., Laura Veirs, Spoon, and Tift Merritt...

 who has worked with The Decemberists

The Decemberists

The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...

, Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...

 and Laura Veirs

Laura Veirs

Laura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter.Veirs was raised in Colorado, studied geology and Mandarin Chinese at Carleton College, worked as a translator for a geological expedition in China, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.While growing up, she heard folk-country, classical, and pop...

.

'Hold This Ghost' received a 7.2 (on a 10 point scale) on Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

. Writer Rebecca Raber said, "Musée Mécanique distinguish themselves from the throng [of Portland, Ore. folk acts] by ignoring Americana influences and infusing their brand of intimate melancholia with lush arrangements and electronic underpinnings."

The song, "Like Home" was featured on the internationally-syndicated NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

 show "All Songs Considered

All Songs Considered

All Songs Considered is a weekly online multimedia program started in January 2000 by NPR's All Things Considered director Bob Boilen. At first, the show featured information and streaming audio about the songs used as bumper music on All Things Considered. The program has turned into a source of...

" on Nov. 17, 2008.

Musée Mécanique toured extensively in support of 'Hold This Ghost' including multiple tours in both the United States and Europe. They have shared the stage with such acts as Iron & Wine, Beach House, Laura Gibson, M Ward and many others.

The band plans to release a second full length record in the Fall of 2011 and to tour the United States and Europe in support of it.

Track listing:

1. Like Home
2. Two Friends Like Us
3. The Propellors
4. The Things That I Know
5. Fits and Starts
6. Somehow Bound
7. Under Glass
8. Sleeping In Our Clothes
9. Nothing Glorious
10. Our Changing Skins

External links

• http://music.aol.com/artist/musee-mecanique/829734
• http://www.riotactmedia.com/artist_mm.php
• http://soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/album-reviews/1159-review-musee-mecanique-hold-this-ghost
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/03/PKKT131U1J.DTL&type=music
• http://localcut.wweek.com/2008/10/24/muse-mcanique-hold-this-ghost
• http://www.portlandmercury.com/music/once-more-with-feeling/Content?oid=905040
• http://frogstandrecords.com