IDEA USA RUNE UNIT

July 15, 2009 11:29 AM

Muse's international treasure hunt. (Sign up required for complete access to second link)

In a hunt seemingly designed by the band themselves and centered around thematic elements present in their next studio album, The Resistance, thousands of fans scramble to decode messages and solve anagrams using twitter and various message boards as a select few traverse to locations scattered throughout Eurasia. The prize? For most, simply a track of new music for now being served in snippets.

posted by Defenestrator (5 comments total)

I've been following this since the original announcement on Twitter. It's been fun watching the fan boards light up, and the pictures by the fans who made it to the actual locations to pick up the clues/keys, etc. The ultimate price is two tickets to a concert and to meet the band.

They are known for doing these kinds of things and being all into conspiracy theories (at least Matt Bellamy is). This time it's all about The Bilderberg Group and Zbigniew Brzezinski.
posted by gemmy at 11:50 AM on July 15, 2009

Muse is one of my very favorite active bands - I'll be watching this as it develops for sure (but probably not flying to Eurasia). From the first two snippets, this track sounds like something from Absolution, which I hope does not hold for the rest of the record - I loved Absolution but I have high hopes for The Resistance to be überprog.
posted by thedaniel at 4:18 PM on July 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm not terribly famliar with Muse, but really really love Knights Of Cydonia via Guitar Hero.. does the rest of their music sound similar?
posted by mediocre at 8:47 PM on July 15, 2009

suggest addition of tag 'überprog'.
posted by mhjb at 5:35 AM on July 16, 2009

Wow so this isn't too hit of a thread. I wouldn't worry thedaniel, considering there is a 15 minute "symphony" to wrap up the record. And although Knights of Cydonia is considered one of their more unique ones, if you like that mediocre you'd probably like their other stuff. The album "Absolution" is probably a good place to start, although all of them are great.

I'm not too familiar with twitter, but I guess the 30,000 fans bombarded twitter with a phrase that became more popular than Michael Jackson before twitter did something about it.

Whether you're a Muse fan or not, and whether or not this is the band having a good time or a massive promotional stunt (probably some of both), this seems like something other bands may want to emulate in the future.
posted by Defenestrator at 11:54 AM on July 16, 2009