Man Man performs like a circus on acid
Man Man can’t be placed in a genre.
April 8, 2008
(Click graphic to enlarge)
Earning its acclaim and reputation by means of its circus-on-acid live show, Man Man has established itself as one of the forerunners of ... well, exactly. Placing Man Man in a genre is pointless (except maybe bottom of the bottle, keyboard pounding, avant-garde bar music), but the Philadelphia collective is easily one of the most exciting bands currently creating music. 2006's Six Demon Bag was one of the best of that year, yet most critics recoiled in shock because of the band’s indefinable antics, and after an extremely successful tour with Modest Mouse, the band recorded Rabbit Habits.
Rabbit Habits is very similar to Six Demon Bag, with a few differences in the overall direction. The wild percussion that drove the berserk outbursts on Six Demon is tossed aside in favor of a slower, stoned swagger, which could also be related to the emotion found exclusively in this album.
But as the title implies, Man Man has its own habits, and it sticks with them throughout the entire record. As on its past two albums, an uncountable number of instruments make random unpredictable appearances: xylophones chase after vocals, disgruntled kazoos shriek for attention and violas waltz along carelessly.
Of course, any band that is often viewed as the sick-minded child of Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits (as if those two weren’t already sick-minded enough) is going to miss the mark once in a while due to its very experimental nature. There are plenty of questionable moments on Rabbit Habits (the intro to “Hurly / Burly” is downright annoying in all ways), but they are exactly that: moments located far and few between the parts that really stand out like the poppy anarchy of “Mister Jung Stuffed” and the bizarre melancholy of “Big Trouble.” They in no way make the songs less enjoyable, due to fact that changes occur so often it is really just hard to remember the bad parts.
What’s truly amazing about Man Man’s music is the fact that seemingly absurd melodies, rhythms, lyrics and sounds are together used to construct such fucked up pop songs (fucked up is an extremely common term used to describe anything related to the band). “Big Trouble” boasts this fantastic songwriting by building a chorus around the phrase “You make me feel like a zombie” and following it with a syncopated sequence of undistinguishable screams before leading back into the romping horn led riff.
Rabbit Habits does not exactly expand upon the band’s sound, but with no one else making music within the same ballpark as them, Man Man has no reason to redefine itself.
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