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June 6th, 2006 by Dillon Flynn (Permalink)
Label: Ace Fu Year: 2006 Add Comments |
Man Man’s “Six Demon Bag” is possibly one of the most daring albums this year; it’s invigorating, challenging, and simply a fun forty minutes and twenty-six second romp.
The prospect of playing the Q and A game with the band’s enigmatic front man, Honus Honus was simultaneously daunting and exciting: Getting insight into the mind behind your favorite album of the year is more than enough to send the giddy complex into overdrive, but with the sheer alligator ferocity that Honus’s vocals and melodies irradiate on said album, what if the man turned out to be a complete psychotic?
Both fortunately and unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Instead, Independent Culture was treated to a man of bar brawling wisdom and razor-sharp wit, capable of putting his verbiage-defying album into prose.
Independent Culture: Right off the bat I’m gonna try to pin you down on something, even though I have the feeling I might get the runaround: Who plays what? The liner notes make all sorts of wacky claims. For instance, Pow Pow is credited to have played, among other things, a “sexual trap kit.” You yourself are listed as a “primitive Rhodes” player. Care to lay it out for us in layman’s English?
Honus Honus: Once you’ve seen Pow Pow’s playing you’ll fully understand what sexual trap kit implies. The man has an amazing sexuality about him. If I could only bottle it…
IC: I smell a merchandising op.
HH: I play Rhodes like a backwoods caveman. It’s that straightforward. I guess I could have listed every single instrument or non-instrument that we all played on the record but I feel like whenever I see that stuff on other people’s records I’m like, “Whoa, aren’t you a pretentious fuck!” So, therefore, however, and furthermore, our descriptions are fairly general. Who knows, maybe by the next album we’ll break everything down and get real pretentious.
IC: Alright, I’m satisfied. On another note, what changed for Man Man between the criminally overlooked debut, “The Man In The Blue Turban With A Face,” and your new sophomore effort, “Six Demon Bag?”
HH: I’m amazed our first album even came out and it was so “soft” released (slipped out under the radar of 2004) that I’m even more surprised that anyone even heard it. It was very frustrating putting so much energy into a project and then having very little support for it. I won’t elaborate. Man in a Blue Turban with a Face was recorded very cheaply in very stressful situations. I thought things would be easier with Six Demon Bag. I was seriously mistaken.
Half the band quit a month before I went into the studio and I had to put it all back together while recording knowing that by September (recording started in June 2005) I’d need a finished album and a touring band different from the studio band. At the time, the studio band that I had was not going to be the same band that was going to tour (Blanco, due to his visual artist career with gallery shows, could not tour). Stress box. I was saddled with having to record an album and rehearse a band simultaneously and I didn’t even have a drummer for the project.
No bother. Wasn’t going to be stopped. Pulled in Sergei, who had previously played in the band, and with Les Mizzle, Cougar, and Blanco started laying down bare bones tracks. THESE DUDES MADE IT HAPPEN. Bringing in Pow Pow, who was then drumming for Need New Body, really got things up and running. Pow Pow came in and had to reinvent and inject his style of drumming into these songs. We had two weeks of rehearsal, writing, and recording, before he had to go on tour in Italy with NNB (Need New Body).
Anyhoo, the record got finished, we toured with Moonglow (NYC visual artist), Need New Body went on permanent hiatus, Pow Pow signed on for the long haul, Moonglow returned to making killer artwork, Chang Wang (Blanco’s Brother) signed on playing multi-sax, flute and percussion, Les Mizzle returned to recording bands in his studio, and here we are.
IC: Man, that’s like an epic Greek poem, or something. Oh, by the way, “Six Demon Bag.” Is that a World of Warcraft reference or what?
HH: Is it a “Big Trouble in Little China” reference? Is it a reference to the Gospel of Luke? Was it the name of the horse that my grandfather bet on and lost his farm to and ended up blowing his brains out over at the Little Big Foot Diner in 1943?
IC: Holy jeez. Enough said. One of the most endearing tracks on the album is Van Helsing Boom Box. It’s place as a latecomer on the album gives it a cathartic sort of feel, sort of like the chaser to the rest of the bundle. Who or what inspired this ballad, and what do you perceive it to be about?
HH: That song was written in some very dark personal times. There are no highlight reels from that period. I was a ghost of a person. It’s amazing that out of that blackness came a wonderful pop song. Sometimes that’s how it works, I guess.
IC: In semi-contrast, Skin Tension is an equally laid back song as far as presentation is concerned, but there’s a more bitter message to behold (It’s refrain of “Goddamn you, Pierre” immediately comes to mind). Same question, basically: Where did the song come from, and what was it trying to say?
HH: A girl that I was hanging out with came to me and in casual conversation told me that a boy had written her a love song. I told her I’d write a better one.
IC: I’d venture the guess that nothing came of that. How do people react to Man Man in a live setting? Shock? Fear? Brotherly dancing?
HH: Demonic Take-overs are highly recommended.
IC: Although your colorful vocals saturate the album, it’s clear that other voices are woven in throughout. Was it a goal of yours to coax each member into implementing a different style of vocal performance? And, similar to that first question, who exactly is doing what as far as vocals are concerned?
HH: Let’s just say that with the exception of clearly female vocals, I personally discovered my inner voices. Although credit is due where credit is due.
*Blanco channeled a lot of fatherly outrage on Engrish Bwudd.
*I have absolutely no idea how Sergei manages to hit the notes he hits on the very end of Tunneling without blowing out his testicles. AMAZING.
*Lulu, god-bless her, made my falsettos much prettier throughout.
*Crystal somehow managed to tap into her 2nd grade recital voice for the end of Black Mission.
IC: Speaking of voices, my girlfriend is terrified of your band. We tend to see eye-to-eye on these things, but she seems visibly paranoid when I put on the albums. Everyone else in my social circle thinks you’re the vocalist of the year. Have you found that Man Man finds its core audience with, well, men? Or is my girlfriend just being weird (don’t worry, I can take it)?
HH: I hope that we never, I repeat never ever never never never have only a core audience of only dudes. Don’t want to offend anybody, but Dudefest would totally be the end of it all. Up until now (and I’m knocking on wood as I type this) we have been totally fortunate to have an equally hormonally balanced audience and the ladies we do get out to our shows are amazing. Nothing better than having artistically inclined ladies at our shows. Speaking on behalf of the Man Man Famile, more ladies!!!
IC: That’s an open invitation, readers! Oh, and before I forget! That Etta James cover, “I’d Rather Go Blind.” What a fantastic choice! What made you decide to wrangle up that particular song for interpretation?
HH: It’s a beautiful, perfect, melancholy song.
IC: Agreed! How about Six Demon Bag’s cover image, which appears to be a mob of villagers brawling and raping amongst one another while they carry around a disfigured, piecemealed elephant corpse? The whole scene is disturbing yet sort of venomously intriguing. Is there an underlying message to be had, or should we just take it for what it is?
HH: Look at the whole picture and take in the breadth of everything that is occurring; fighting, fucking, dancing, aging, killing, rejoicing. Now listen to the album.
IC: Your lyrics occasionally suggest that you take a certain personal pride in your super-thick ‘stache (See Bag’s “Push The Eagle’s Stomache” and Turban’s “10lb Moustache”), as you damned well should. List off your own top five celebrity moustaches for good measure.
HH: Frida Kahlo
Charlie Chan
Groucho
Steve Harvey
Robert Crumb
IC: Way to tap Crumb! Man Man is signed with Ace Fu. Are they treating you boys alright over there?
HH: We’ve put out two albums with Ace Fu. We had a two album deal with them. We’ve put out our two albums. Kate and JT at Ace Fu are amazing people. Other than that… No comment.
IC: Point taken. If “Back In Black” is the soundtrack to the violent drunk and “Nevermind” spells it out for the disenfranchized geeks of the world and “Let’s Stay Together” is strictly for lovemaking, then who is “Six Demon Bag” for, and what should they do while they listen to it?
HH: Just let it all go.
IC: Obligatory last call: Give me a run-down on the future of Man Man, both definite and indefinite. Third LP, tour, new line-up, et al.
HH: Open road.
IC: Spoken like a true prophet. Thanks for shooting the breeze with us, Honus. Don’t let anyone tidy you up so they can sell you at SamGoodies. We like you nice and dirty.
“Six Demon Bag” is in stores now. Cancel your day, get to your local wax-pusher, and buy it.
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