On the radar: Mitchell Museum

Published on Wednesday 15 April 2009 11:20

Ever since Merriweather Post Pavilion mainlined into the public sphere, the music press's haggard scribes have prefixed every avant-garde pop ensemble with one languid tagline: 'the next Animal Collective'.

It was inevitable, really. Those wilting quills needed fresh meat to replace New Rave's demise and, let's face it, 'the next Pigeon Detectives' just wouldn't pass muster with trend-hopping hepcats.

Yet many of these knob-twiddling upstarts find the bar of expectation set too high for an inaugural leap. Not Glasgow quartet Mitchell Museum, however:

"We're very flattered that people compare us to (Animal Collective]," says band frontman Cammy Macfarlane. "I think that we're kind of a hard band to categorise. We don't sound exactly like Animal Collective, but I do think that since they've started attracting a larger audience they've become a good reference point for people that haven't heard us before."

Play: Mitchell Museum - Extra Lives on the green button

But the comparison is unavoidable. Mitchell Museum's aural tidings are a whirlpool of melody swooshing giddily against inane dog-yelped lyrics and frantic percussive swathes that pummel solar plexus' into a nervous, twitching pulp. Sound familiar?

Despite such damning indictments, Mcfarlane maintains the band's inspirations are more opaque: "I'm probably mostly influenced by the day to day things that happen to my friends and family," he insists. "I've started to feel like whenever I play a new demo to somebody that I should issue a disclaimer that reads: 'Don't worry. I didn't write this song about you.' Everyone seems a bit worried that I'm writing about them. Maybe I am….they'll never know."

Formed little more than a year ago, Mitchell Museum are now one of Scotland's most innovative new acts. Mcfarlane attributes this ascendancy to the band's unique blend of instrumentation: "We use gas canisters as musical instruments (drums] - I've not heard of another band doing that yet," he says. "We use a lot of unusual instruments in our recordings but we've yet to bring the gas canister to a live gig...I think there might be a health and safety issue."

Currently gestating in the bowels of Glasgow's Lofi Studios, Mitchell Museum's debut LP looks set to alleviate everyday toils when it drops later this year. "Essentially we want to entertain people...," explains Mcfarlane. "We would like to be the kind of band that helps people forget about forget their boss shouting at them at the end of a long day - I think that we can achieve that."

• For more blogs on the best unsigned bands in Scotland, visit Under the Radar