Man Man Find Comfort In Polarizing Audiences
Tuesday April 08, 2008 @ 05:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Man Man

Man Man vocalist/keyboardist Honus Honus just told me he's going to jump out of an airplane, but it's not as dire as you might think.

Honus (real name Ryan Kattner) says he's going skydiving, and he could either be completely serious or joking, considering that it's April Fools Day. The skydiving company provides a DVD of the experience, but he's not sure he'll purchase it.

"I figured [skydiving would] make a good obit right around the time of our album release," Honus says jokingly. "I'm sure the rest of the band could find a crazy person to sing. Just put marbles in his mouth. He doesn't have to learn the words."

That irreverent sense of humour is something that marks all of Man Man's records, including their third and latest release, Rabbit Habits. The disc, their first for Anti- Records (they were previously signed to Ace Fu), is yet another sonic blast of Honus' gravelly, deep vocals overtop conventional guitars and bass combinations, xylophones and instruments as unconventional as the sousaphone and spoons. Rabbit Habits is a bit different than the band's last two albums, since the klezmer sounds that filled Six Demon Bag aren't as prevalent this time around.

"We didn't want to recreate the first two records," says Honus. "We wanted to try and explore some new sounds.

"This is our pop record. I have no idea if it's more accessible, because clearly my notions of accessibility and those of tastemakers aren't aligned. If they were, I wouldn't be making music."

For some reason, even after Man Man have released two critically-acclaimed albums, some people are still unable to grasp the idea that they're not a joke band. Despite the fact that music journalists continually compare them to influential experimental artists and fall back on the "Man Man sound like Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, etc." crutch, there are people who still seem to think the band aren't "serious." Live, Man Man dress in white and wear war paint, animal masks and goggles. And with stage names like Honus Honus, Pow Pow (drums, percussion) and Chang Wang (guitar, trumpet), they can't be serious, right? Wrong.

Honus says there's a huge difference between being a complete joke and injecting a sense of humour into one's music. That people either love or hate Man Man doesn't bother him. From what he can tell, Rabbit Habits has equally polarized those who've heard it.

"I don't feel like there's any middle ground, which is perfectly fine with me," says Honus. "I'll leave the middle ground to everyone else.

"I'm sure, somewhere, there's about 10 people who are like, 'Fuck this band!' It's funny, 'cause any negative stuff that I've heard [about Rabbit Habits] is like, 'It's not as good as their first two records.' I'm like, 'Well, you never wrote about our first two records, so whatever.' You can't really be bothered by that stuff, 'cause we're just writing tunes and we're really fortunate that people are supportive of what we're doing and hopefully willing to grow with us."

To give you an idea of the intensity of the Man Man live experience, the band have just finished a three-week tour, during which Honus says they only took one day off. They'll take their live show and irreverent sense of humour back on the road when they kick off a world tour this week. Honus says the band are already thinking about a fourth LP, too.

"Our head was in the tunnel working on the last one, but now that this one's out, we're just thinking about where we're gonna go next. How can we alienate more people?"

Man Man play Montreal's Le National on April 13 and Toronto's Lee's Palace the following night.

—Kate Harper