U.S. discovers chillingly beautiful Muse

Injury-prone Brits to play Tucson at last

Muse has been making headlines this year because it has won prestigious awards, headlined big music festivals and toured the world. The band has also made headlines because of a big bout of bad luck. The ill-fated band was scheduled to play at Tucson's KFMA Fall Ball in October but backed out when bassist Chris Wolstenholme broke his wrist.

"It's been a bit of an accident-prone year really," drummer Dominic Howard said in a phone interview from a tour stop in Nashville. "Lips getting split open and Chris broke his wrist. I've had some injuries on my arms from Matt (Bellamy's) guitar and stitches in my forehead. It just seemed like it was continuing to happen. But it feels like it's calming down. Hopefully, there will be no more injuries for the remainder of this tour."

Let's hope fortune shines on the band Monday when the British trio performs at City Limits, 6350 E. Tanque Verde Road. The textured soundscapes and wailing vocals on Muse's debut album, 1999's "Showbiz," released on Maverick Records, drew comparisons to Radiohead, though Muse ventures into harder and darker territory at times. The album was a success, and the band hit the road for a world tour.

Between legs of the tour, Muse recorded 2001's "Origin Of Symmetry" and the band's popularity soared - just not here. While Muse developed a huge international following, the band didn't receive much exposure stateside, Howard said, mostly due to the fact that Maverick chose not to release the band's second album in America.

"It wasn't released here, so we didn't get a chance to come over and tour, but elsewhere it was released and it did really well," Howard said. "I think the whole thing has probably worked out for the best, really, because we didn't get a chance to come over here, but we had a lot of time to tour all over the world apart from here. It was maybe not the right time for us to be in America because the American rock scene was very different to the British rock scene in 2001 when we released our album. It was nü metal with Limp Bizkit and Korn and really heavy metal/nü metal bands. In the U.K., it was the complete opposite. What people considered rock was acoustic softer stuff."

The band switched to Warner Bros. Records, and with the release of its third record, 2003's "Absolution," America has caught on to what the rest of the world has known for years - Muse makes chillingly beautiful music with dreamy verses swelling into emotional choruses. The band took a break from touring to write "Absolution" in a less pressured environment.

"It did feel very different, really, but it's kind of similar to how we used to do things years and years ago before we got signed," Howard said. "We found a really cool room in a warehouse in London and we'd go there, just the three of us, and we'd only go there to make music and nothing else. That's kind of how we did it when we were young. We'd just go rehearse and make music for ourselves. I think the songs ended up sounding just more personal really."