Man Man: Best live band...ever.
Seriously, believe the hype. Man Man is the most spectacularly entertaining live show in rock today. Dressed all in white with moustaches groomed, this Philadelphia band unleashes enough energy to power a city. With fantastically controlled chaos, a plethora of instruments are pulled out from who knows where, pots and pans banging the rhythm, party blowers adding emphasis, and Honus Honus's caveman growl leading the way. It's like this clown car theatrical spectacle, where the surprises keep popping out just when you think there couldn't possibly be more.
And yet for all its wackiness, Man Man is also equal parts genius. With stark, moving lyrics and a penchant for unconventional rhythms, Man Man arranges an otherwise cacophonous clutter into an eclectic symphony.
So it was with great pleasure that TALive had a chat with the honorable Honus Honus, mastermind of Man Man, as he enjoyed his first day off in nearly three weeks.
And yet for all its wackiness, Man Man is also equal parts genius. With stark, moving lyrics and a penchant for unconventional rhythms, Man Man arranges an otherwise cacophonous clutter into an eclectic symphony.
So it was with great pleasure that TALive had a chat with the honorable Honus Honus, mastermind of Man Man, as he enjoyed his first day off in nearly three weeks.
TALive: Last we heard you were off to the Windy City to record your third record, are those sessions complete yet?
Honus Honus: No, we have to go back after this tour and finish the record. I'd say the record is like 75 percent done. We went in and recorded nearly 20 songs, and16 will probably end up on the album. We had to stop and tour, and we were going to go back after this tour, but we were lucky enough to be added onto the Modest Mouse tour so we've got another month of touring.
TALive: Right, how did you work that out? That is going to be huge for you guys.
HH: You know, apparently they are into what we are doing and they're being supportive. We've never met any of the guys in the band, but we just heard through the grapevine that some of the guys like what we're doing. It's one of those things where Modest Mouse could bring whoever they want on tour, so we're lucky….We're trying to restructure for the tour, because one of our permanent members can't do the tour with us [Chang Wang], so we're going to have some auxiliary family people jump in and help us out.
TALive: Do you have a record label lined up to release the new material?
HH: We don't. We’ve been very perplexed by it. We're a band that has a notoriously good live show, we tour relentlessly, we put out albums that people are into and kids are fanatic about our band. Yet we can't seem to find an awesome label to put out or records…It's totally bizarre.
TALive: These days so many indie bands are doing it themselves anyway…People turning to podcasts and the Internet for exposure instead of the radio, etc. With the industry becoming increasingly divided, how can you measure success? What would it take for you to feel successful as a band?
HH: I'll know that we're a successful band when we can quit our day jobs. You know, we're still touring half the year but we can’t quit our day jobs.
TALive: What about turn out at shows, is that an indicator? When the shows are packed?
HH: It's not just the turn out at shows; it's getting them packed with the right people. You want people to learn the language you’re trying of speak and follow you on whatever trips you decided to go on with your records. I think that's more important that just being some one-off blogger band that blows up real fast and then people move on to the next band. That's never appealed to me, and it still doesn't. We're working toward where we're going to get, hopefully…if we don't crack.
TALive: Well hopefully the Modest Mouse tour will be really helpful then. They are also a great example of an indie band that succeeded after starting off with years in obscurity…
HH: Started off and worked so hard. It was their fourth record that broke for them, and they toured like crazy. You know there's very few, enormous bands that we would make sense opening up for and they're one of them. Because, I feel like there's a similar underlying vibe that both bands kind of share…which I think will keep maybe a small percentage, maybe more than a small percentage, of Modest Mouse fans into us…I'm hoping... Who knows, we played shows with Arcade Fire and kids hated us.
TALive: Really? That’s surprising. I am looking forward to seeing you with Modest Mouse just to watch the reaction of kids who have never seen you before…
HH: All we've noticed, and it's been pretty awesome, is that it seems as far as the underground community (it's my impression at least) is that they are psyched that we've been added to that tour. It's sort of like, "oh, that's awesome. I wasn't expecting that band but it makes sense." We haven't really received any backlash for it. I don't know why we would…
TALive: Maybe Modest Mouse is on the perfect level where they've gotten huge, but they stuck to their own sound and so… still have some cred I guess.
HH: They're making their weird music that they make, you know? And obviously there's going to be just, dudes wondering what's going on…[phone cuts out]
TALive: Well speaking of dudes…When I saw you in Atlanta, and maybe it was just that show, but I remember thinking there were a whole lot of dudes there. Much more dudes than girls.
HH: I hope not! Actually, today when I woke up I said to the dudes, the dudes in the band, I am so happy that our demographic still includes just as many hot girls as dudes. No I mean, that might have been a rare show [in Atlanta]. There tends to be more, if not an equal amount, of girls at our shows.. We definitely pick up on those things. If we ever end up playing music that only other males are in to.. .fuck it, I’ll quit. That’s kind of the danger of the music we play, is that it could attract just dudes. But fortunately, that’s not the case yet.
TALive: Well, at least the dudes that were there were REALLY into it.
HH It’s awesome because it’s a pretty wide demographic. We get the arty girls, we get the arty dudes, we get the dude dudes, and we get the awesome dads. Like, we just played a show in Vancouver and there were almost a dozen awesome dads, like, dudes in their 50s with big moustaches and an awesome mom wearing a fake mustache. It was totally bizarre and completely amazing.
TALive: Were they wearing white, too?
HH: No, they don’t go that far…but one guy came up to me and was like (puts on superb Canadian accent)”Eh, we’re looking forward to the show, Honus! I hung up a poster in my office, eh?” I was like, “you are an amazing man.”
TALive: Not to bring things down, but I noticed a few rather apologetic posts on your myspace page form fans in Seattle. Can you fill us in on what happened at that show?
HH: Oh yeah… and this isn’t about the venue we played necessarily, more about the individual working the venue… We’re playing a show and we look over, and the security guy is violently throwing out several girls. This is the same security guy who was being lecherous earlier checking girls' IDs, being creepy. And while we’re playing we look over and he is really, almost assaulting them, and throwing them out of the club. And one of them happened to be a friend of ours from Seattle. So, after the song is finished we stopped and tried to figure out what was going on. I mean, it was disturbing enough to see that it made us stop our set, and we’ve never stopped our set. We don’t stop, we don’t banter. We wanted to figure out what the hell was going on. One of the girls that was thrown out was this British girl, and she was bawling outside the club! She had no idea why she had been thrown out and why she had been thrown out so violently. It was just this door guy, being a dickhead.
People in the audience started yelling “fuck security, let them back in!” It went on for a little over five minutes. We find out afterwards that the door guy was throwing this story around about how our friend had a fifth of whiskey….it was just, such bullshit. I would hope that somebody would do that for me one day, if I got thrown out like that. It was a really fucked up scenario and we wanted to address it. It’s funny; the next night Daughters stopped their set half way through for the same reason. The girls got back in, but it was annoying for us because we had to stop our set and we were pissed off. …And also, we knew that there’s a delicate balance between the amount of girl audience members and boy audience members, and this douche bag security guard was throwing it off! There were suddenly more guys in the room and that would not happen.
TALive: Is your set list for the upcoming tour going to include some of the new, unreleased material?
HH: The thing about this tour was specifically just to try out a lot of the new material from our next record; to test it out on the road and feel it out. I mean, we recorded the songs, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t wiggle room in the studio to flush things out even more. We’ve been playing a lot of new songs; there are probably eight new songs in our set.
We’re trying to get the record released as soon as possible because ideally, we feel like it should come out this year. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t. But then again, in the same breath, we only want to work with a label that believes in what we’re doing. There’s no reason to jump the gun and get in bed with someone who’s not going to be completely supportive.
TALive: After completing the initial recordings, do you have a feel for how the next record might be different? Was there a new approach to writing/producing the songs?
HH: I feel like this band has just been honing, and honing its craft as far as trying to write pop songs, you know, our way, obviously. In our own mind, in our universe, they would be on the radio…But clearly, on the planet Earth, not the case. We have the focused Man Man attack songs, the three minute pop songs, and then we have the nine minute murder ballads, and then we have the five minute Southern Gothic meets Duke Ellington jazz hands…It’s going to be a mixed bag again. It’ll make sense. In the trajectory of each album it will make sense. It’s not necessarily going to sound like “Six Demon Bag” but it’s definitely going to have elements from “Six Demon Bag: and “..Blue Turban..” but we’re not trying to recreate the same album every time. And that’s the great thing about this band and the people in the band. . .We have a surf tune on the next record. But when I say “surf tune,” it’s a surf tune inspired by Quee-Queg in Moby Dick.
TALive hopes Man Man will find a label home so we can hear this next record soon!
-Michelle Gilzenrat
Honus Honus: No, we have to go back after this tour and finish the record. I'd say the record is like 75 percent done. We went in and recorded nearly 20 songs, and16 will probably end up on the album. We had to stop and tour, and we were going to go back after this tour, but we were lucky enough to be added onto the Modest Mouse tour so we've got another month of touring.
TALive: Right, how did you work that out? That is going to be huge for you guys.
HH: You know, apparently they are into what we are doing and they're being supportive. We've never met any of the guys in the band, but we just heard through the grapevine that some of the guys like what we're doing. It's one of those things where Modest Mouse could bring whoever they want on tour, so we're lucky….We're trying to restructure for the tour, because one of our permanent members can't do the tour with us [Chang Wang], so we're going to have some auxiliary family people jump in and help us out.
TALive: Do you have a record label lined up to release the new material?
HH: We don't. We’ve been very perplexed by it. We're a band that has a notoriously good live show, we tour relentlessly, we put out albums that people are into and kids are fanatic about our band. Yet we can't seem to find an awesome label to put out or records…It's totally bizarre.
TALive: These days so many indie bands are doing it themselves anyway…People turning to podcasts and the Internet for exposure instead of the radio, etc. With the industry becoming increasingly divided, how can you measure success? What would it take for you to feel successful as a band?
HH: I'll know that we're a successful band when we can quit our day jobs. You know, we're still touring half the year but we can’t quit our day jobs.
TALive: What about turn out at shows, is that an indicator? When the shows are packed?
HH: It's not just the turn out at shows; it's getting them packed with the right people. You want people to learn the language you’re trying of speak and follow you on whatever trips you decided to go on with your records. I think that's more important that just being some one-off blogger band that blows up real fast and then people move on to the next band. That's never appealed to me, and it still doesn't. We're working toward where we're going to get, hopefully…if we don't crack.
TALive: Well hopefully the Modest Mouse tour will be really helpful then. They are also a great example of an indie band that succeeded after starting off with years in obscurity…
HH: Started off and worked so hard. It was their fourth record that broke for them, and they toured like crazy. You know there's very few, enormous bands that we would make sense opening up for and they're one of them. Because, I feel like there's a similar underlying vibe that both bands kind of share…which I think will keep maybe a small percentage, maybe more than a small percentage, of Modest Mouse fans into us…I'm hoping... Who knows, we played shows with Arcade Fire and kids hated us.
TALive: Really? That’s surprising. I am looking forward to seeing you with Modest Mouse just to watch the reaction of kids who have never seen you before…
HH: All we've noticed, and it's been pretty awesome, is that it seems as far as the underground community (it's my impression at least) is that they are psyched that we've been added to that tour. It's sort of like, "oh, that's awesome. I wasn't expecting that band but it makes sense." We haven't really received any backlash for it. I don't know why we would…
TALive: Maybe Modest Mouse is on the perfect level where they've gotten huge, but they stuck to their own sound and so… still have some cred I guess.
HH: They're making their weird music that they make, you know? And obviously there's going to be just, dudes wondering what's going on…[phone cuts out]
TALive: Well speaking of dudes…When I saw you in Atlanta, and maybe it was just that show, but I remember thinking there were a whole lot of dudes there. Much more dudes than girls.
HH: I hope not! Actually, today when I woke up I said to the dudes, the dudes in the band, I am so happy that our demographic still includes just as many hot girls as dudes. No I mean, that might have been a rare show [in Atlanta]. There tends to be more, if not an equal amount, of girls at our shows.. We definitely pick up on those things. If we ever end up playing music that only other males are in to.. .fuck it, I’ll quit. That’s kind of the danger of the music we play, is that it could attract just dudes. But fortunately, that’s not the case yet.
TALive: Well, at least the dudes that were there were REALLY into it.
HH It’s awesome because it’s a pretty wide demographic. We get the arty girls, we get the arty dudes, we get the dude dudes, and we get the awesome dads. Like, we just played a show in Vancouver and there were almost a dozen awesome dads, like, dudes in their 50s with big moustaches and an awesome mom wearing a fake mustache. It was totally bizarre and completely amazing.
TALive: Were they wearing white, too?
HH: No, they don’t go that far…but one guy came up to me and was like (puts on superb Canadian accent)”Eh, we’re looking forward to the show, Honus! I hung up a poster in my office, eh?” I was like, “you are an amazing man.”
TALive: Not to bring things down, but I noticed a few rather apologetic posts on your myspace page form fans in Seattle. Can you fill us in on what happened at that show?
HH: Oh yeah… and this isn’t about the venue we played necessarily, more about the individual working the venue… We’re playing a show and we look over, and the security guy is violently throwing out several girls. This is the same security guy who was being lecherous earlier checking girls' IDs, being creepy. And while we’re playing we look over and he is really, almost assaulting them, and throwing them out of the club. And one of them happened to be a friend of ours from Seattle. So, after the song is finished we stopped and tried to figure out what was going on. I mean, it was disturbing enough to see that it made us stop our set, and we’ve never stopped our set. We don’t stop, we don’t banter. We wanted to figure out what the hell was going on. One of the girls that was thrown out was this British girl, and she was bawling outside the club! She had no idea why she had been thrown out and why she had been thrown out so violently. It was just this door guy, being a dickhead.
People in the audience started yelling “fuck security, let them back in!” It went on for a little over five minutes. We find out afterwards that the door guy was throwing this story around about how our friend had a fifth of whiskey….it was just, such bullshit. I would hope that somebody would do that for me one day, if I got thrown out like that. It was a really fucked up scenario and we wanted to address it. It’s funny; the next night Daughters stopped their set half way through for the same reason. The girls got back in, but it was annoying for us because we had to stop our set and we were pissed off. …And also, we knew that there’s a delicate balance between the amount of girl audience members and boy audience members, and this douche bag security guard was throwing it off! There were suddenly more guys in the room and that would not happen.
TALive: Is your set list for the upcoming tour going to include some of the new, unreleased material?
HH: The thing about this tour was specifically just to try out a lot of the new material from our next record; to test it out on the road and feel it out. I mean, we recorded the songs, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t wiggle room in the studio to flush things out even more. We’ve been playing a lot of new songs; there are probably eight new songs in our set.
We’re trying to get the record released as soon as possible because ideally, we feel like it should come out this year. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t. But then again, in the same breath, we only want to work with a label that believes in what we’re doing. There’s no reason to jump the gun and get in bed with someone who’s not going to be completely supportive.
TALive: After completing the initial recordings, do you have a feel for how the next record might be different? Was there a new approach to writing/producing the songs?
HH: I feel like this band has just been honing, and honing its craft as far as trying to write pop songs, you know, our way, obviously. In our own mind, in our universe, they would be on the radio…But clearly, on the planet Earth, not the case. We have the focused Man Man attack songs, the three minute pop songs, and then we have the nine minute murder ballads, and then we have the five minute Southern Gothic meets Duke Ellington jazz hands…It’s going to be a mixed bag again. It’ll make sense. In the trajectory of each album it will make sense. It’s not necessarily going to sound like “Six Demon Bag” but it’s definitely going to have elements from “Six Demon Bag: and “..Blue Turban..” but we’re not trying to recreate the same album every time. And that’s the great thing about this band and the people in the band. . .We have a surf tune on the next record. But when I say “surf tune,” it’s a surf tune inspired by Quee-Queg in Moby Dick.
TALive hopes Man Man will find a label home so we can hear this next record soon!
-Michelle Gilzenrat
Featured Show:
Rock and Roll Hotel
Washington, D.C.
April 16, 2007
Labels: interview, man man, rock and roll hotel, washington d.c.
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