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Denmark's Mew brought their energized space pop to Los Angeles' famed Troubadour last night where the packed-to-capacity room was mesmerized by the Scandinavian prog rockers' animated music and visuals. Ripping through songs from their new album No More Stories... and its predecessor And The Glass Handed Kites, Mew navigated fourteen surreal soundscapes with perfection while nightmarish animations were projected on the screen behind them. Jonas Bjerre's stunning voice captained the music's adventurous melodies and difficult time signatures, and applying his flawless falsettos (no pitch correction here), he jumped between octaves as easily as if he was using his speaking voice. Meanwhile, Bo Madsen's Venusian guitar work and drummer Silas Utke Graae Jorgensen's monster robot beats supplied the crowd with something equally transcendental. Some of L.A.'s indie scene was seen (like Opus Dai, Woven, Helen Earth, That Noise, H Is Orange,...

The award-winning Danish band Mew is one of the latest Scandinavian indie ensembles to make a go of it in the States, and its new video "Introducing Palace Players" debuts today. The group features singer Jonas Bjerre, guitarist Bo Madsen, and drummer Silas Utke Graae Jorgensen, friends since the seventh grade whose recordings reflect the close relationship of its members. Though Mew was inspired by the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, and Dinosaur, Jr., their new album, No More Stories, enhances those darker colors with brighter, melodic pop elements. The album's tracks are framed mainly in prog-ish settings, its lyrics not a mandatory read since the Mew experience is about its music, not its mewsings. The best tracks, like "Hawaii" (from which the album's title is derived), the slight rocker "Repeaterbeater," the wild ballad "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy," and its current...