File Under: Music that Frank Zappa would think is too weird
If You Like: Captain Beefheart, Mr. Bungle
Label: Ace Fu
Man Man is the sort of band which defies explanation. The shorthand has been to compare them to Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, if Tom Waits was their lead singer (who, by the way, also put out a great album this year). That only gives you an idea that they are weird, which they certainly are. But it’s not weird for weird sake, you get the idea that these guys just come by it honestly.
“Engwish Bwudd” gives you a good idea what you’re in for. It starts with a falsetto nursery rhyme, broken up by the lead singer bellowing “fee fi fo fum”. There’s two competing percussion sections, and I think a calliope in the background. And when the song complains, “Daddy always hated me,” a voice pops up, presumably daddy’s, screaming at everyone to get the fuck out of his house. The song is even stranger than I describe, but it somehow works. But its not going to be on MTV anytime in the near future (though, disturbingly, somewhere out there, there is a video for an edited version of the song which aired on Nickelodeon – I must find this).
It would be a mistake to just dismiss this as a bunch of guys who ingested a bathtub full of crank (though it is possible). There’s a dark undercurrent, as the songs are usually about loss and regret. You peel away the crazy, and you’re left with an exposed wound, open for us to see. And by the time the album is winding down, they actually slide in a traditional song structure, which perhaps is the weirdest moment on the album. Normal becomes disconcerting, even if the lyrics are vulnerable, “I want to sleep for weeks like a dog at your feet even though I know it won’t work out in the long run.” It’s a brief moment, and by the next song they are doing doo wop. And the men in the white coats are knocking on the door.
THE VIDEO: Not surprisingly, Man Man doesn’t have a video, aside from the Nickelodeon thing and its been pulled from YouTube. Equally unsurprisingly, their fans are sort of obsessive. So here’s a fan-made video of “Spider Cider” which edits together footage of their live shows. And for no apparent reason, cheerleaders. By the way, their live shows are indescribable. Controlled chaos.
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