Song Premiere: ME ME ME “Before The Music’s Over” (EP out Thursday!)

West St. Paul duo Me Me Me isn’t easily categorized, and that goes double for ‘II’, their new EP, set to be released on August 27th on IDFIXE Recordings. Recorded with Twin Cities engineer Nat Harvie (fresh from working with Alan Sparhawk), ‘II’ follows directly on the heels of Me Me Me’s debut album ’S/T’, which came out in June of 2025.

Thick, unfiltered synths unfold over electronic percussion—bright, tactile hats and weighty kick drums—all of which initially suggest early electronic music like Harmonia, Kraftwerk, and other Berlin School luminaries. And the hypnotic structures of songs like ‘Bleu de Prusse’ reinforce this notion; guitarist Mark Sorvari’s introspective baritone vocal recalls Suicide’s Alan Vega in a meditative mood, or maybe Sonic Youth’s more spoken word side, adding an undercurrent of 70s New York drone to the Kosmiche Musik first impressions. On his catchy ‘Grapefruit Lemonade,’ Sorvari maintains this same optimistic, driving, energy: round-cornered synth melodies in recede into the distance in a haze of delay, like a summer drive into distant primary-colored midwestern sunsets.

But the more ballad-shaped songs penned by bassist and keyboardist Nao Koyama channel the sound of Köln and the Lower East Side towards other, more unexpected destinations. The buzzing main theme of ‘Before The Music’s Over’—with its flute-like sawtooth motif that somehow recalls the top line of Bing Crosby’s ‘Would You Like To Swing on a Star’—sets a lyrical, if anxious tone. The moody ‘Akuma no Omoide’ (“Demon’s Memory,” in Japanese) proceeds slowly, its minimal atmosphere anchored by Koyama’s warm, blunted bass textures. Her monochromatic vocals will appeal to fans of other straight-tone singers—Broadcast’s Trish Keenan comes to mind, or maybe the deadpan art-punk delivery of Munich’s Chicks On Speed—and the track’s understated melancholy almost shades into menace when Sorvari’s brief guitar leads burst in to illuminate a through-line between Link Wray to Mogwai. Koyama’s higher, more yearning register is on display on closing track ‘The Answer,’ which blends the duo’s various styles seamlessly, with a lightness that borders on being downright romantic. As they do throughout ‘II’, the melodies remain minimal and restrained, but the emotional content of ‘The Answer’ suggests the French chansons (like Vanessa Paradis) whom Koyama deeply reveres, even as she declines to imitate them stylistically.

For anyone who has followed their previous output, Koyama’s (Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her) and Sorvari’s (Arm, In Corridors) blend of subtlety and straightforwardness won’t come as a surprise. The only real question is how long it will take the local and overseas music press to notice Me Me Me; enjoy them in small rooms while you still can.

Me Me Me plays a release show Saturday, September 26th at Case Edgerton Studios in St. Paul. More information here.

Croix C. Clayton