Man Man

Man Man. God, how does one describe this band? Honestly, you can try and liken them to other things, but you’ll never really get it down. iTune’s describes them as “Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits collaborating on your scariest nightmare about clowns.” Which comes pretty close. My first thought was “The Aquabats meets a Klesmer band on LSD”, and a friend of mine attempted “The soundtrack to a nymphomaniac on a bad acid trip.” These really only barely do them justice.

I found Man Man when I went to see Modest Mouse live. Things weren't looking good when they were moved from an awesome venue (the Avalon) to a incredibly shitty venue (the Gibson Amphitheater), and then my friend and I were held at the gate as the attendants scrutinized our tickets, somehow convinced they were fake (”They look like they were printed out of a printer!” complained the attendant. “They were.” I pointed out. “Ticket master had to e-mail us new tickets”). Then we discovered we were relegated to the back seats at the top of the ‘stadium’, not to the pit as we thought we were. Needless to say we were unhappy. However, when the curtain rolled up and to reveal the instruments of the first band our interest was piqued. Two drum sets, two key boards, various metal objects ranging from a car’s tail pipe, to pots and pans, to what could only have been a massive iron dildo, were set up in a very precise fashion. Then the band trooped out. Five men dressed in tattered, but pure white clothes, and all of them daubed in blue war paint. They arranged themselves at the instruments and started playing. Forty five minutes they got up and left the stage. In those forty five minutes they did not stop playing, they did not introduce themselves, and they did not speak. The entire set was a simple wall of unbroken music that segued from song to song flawlessly, and more or less blew my mind. Through out the show they would dance, the two drummers (who sat across from each other) taking turns with the drum line, jumping up and down as if they were on the seesaw, one in the air, one playing. At other times they would almost duel with their instruments, drum sticks being deflected by clarinets, etc. It was a damn near religious experience.

But what do they sound like? That night I picked up Six Demon Bag and was able to listen to them with a bit more clear mind, and ear. It kind of didn’t help. The first song “Feathers” is obviously designed to ease you into the album. It’s arguably the slowest song on the album and inarguably the calmest, a simple piano driven ditty with a dusky chorus going along. However, this ends and they seem to throw away any pity on there listener, going strait into Engrish Bwudd, what can only be described as a insane musical retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, complete with slamming percussion, falsetto howling, and instruments that seem to be played by giant spiders on speed (You will excuse me if I don’t try and break down the instruments, listen to them and you’ll understand). The album just careens off from there with Skin Tension (an intense ballad that’s just a cup of grog short of a sea ditty), Black Mission Goggles (the opening line of which is “The sky is falling like a/Sock of cocaine in the/Ministry of information), Spider Cider (opens with Indian-esque bobbing and howling, and features a grinding, stomach rumbling chorus of “Spider cider spider cider spider cider”) and Van Helsings Boom Box (a heart breaking song of incredible intensity, which has a chorus of “Oh god damn you Michel/god damn/I let down my guard/and there went my heart/just out the door again”).

I dont know if it is possible to describe Man Man, hopeful the above takes a few steps towards it. Man Man is not for the weak of heart, but if you can take it, they are incredible.

-Sigmund Amadeus Werndorf

Here are the only two songs I could get complete versions of: Black Mission Goggles and Ice Dogs