KEY POINTS:
MAN MAN
Rabbit Habits
(Anti-)
Herald Rating: * * *
Verdict: Crazy experimental gypsy rock not for everyone, but if you're game ...
This uppity and completely bonkers quartet from Philadelphia could just as easily be called Mad Mad if third album Rabbit Habits is anything to go by. Musically and stylistically it's all over the place and you come out the other side feeling like a wild-eyed gypsy at a carnival. Either that or you'll be walking a little sideways for a few days.
It's joyous and demented all at once. It has that effect because the group uses instruments inc m the xylophone and marimba to the sousaphone and euphonium, two of the big boys of the brass family. Then there's frontman Honus Honus who has a drunken, raspy voice similar to Tom Waits (who is also on Man Man's record label Anti-), only more mischievous. He's at his best on the Vaudeville-style rant and holler of Easy Eats Or Dirty Doctor Galapagos.
Then there's The Ballad of Butter Beans which is punctuated with potty xylophone; mid-album interlude Doo Right is like Waits singing accompaniment to Chopsticks; and on Big Trouble there's moments of stop-start metal graunch before the wonky, out-of-tune oompah of the brass kicks in.
At times it's a demanding - if not daft - listen, so take this as a warning before attempting to play Man Man's games.
