Breakout 2007: Die Mannequin

06/30/09 12:23pm

by Caitlin Hotchkiss (CHARTattack)

Sound:
Like Iggy Pop and Brody Dalle going on a raging punk-rock bender together before having a knife fight in a dirty Los Angeles alleyway. With Chrissie Hynde refereeing.

Why?
They may seem to be few and far between, but pretty much any music fan can name a band whose live show has made them want to scream out loud, punch their fists in the air, rush the stage and set shit on fire. For many people in 2007, that band will be Toronto's Die Mannequin.

"Messy and scrappy, but then gluing it all together," is how Care Failure describes her band and their thrash-worthy music. The frontwoman of the trio continues, "I think it's kind of refreshing that there's bands like ours and others where you don't have to make up stories or an image. It'd leave less work for labels, but they don't wanna work with fucking bands like that. Everyone won't touch that shit with a 95-foot pole."

Yet, as a band to work with, Die Mannequin are hardly enfants terrible. When it comes to their music and live shows, they're passionate, dedicated workaholics whose persistence at home and touring cross-country is starting to pay off with bigger gigs and more notoriety. This is something like a double-edged sword, however, because with more renown comes more exposure, not to mention "people calling and claiming to be my long-lost Russian cousin and stuff," Failure laughs.

"I do watch everyone with a guarded eye now," the guitarist admits. "I mean, I already have a reputation for having done a lot of drugs and stuff, and then there's the music rep and all that. Some people are really amazing and just genuinely nice — and I'm not used to people being nice to me — but y'know, if anyone talked to me before all this, they'd know that I'm still the same person."

And the ability to kick ass onstage is hardly something Die Mannequin would lose thanks to a little extra fame. With ragged songs "Autumn Cannibalist" and "Fatherpunk" from their brutally awesome How To Kill EP, combined with the chaos of their live show ("There's no personal concern for myself onstage," Failure says blithely), Die Mannequin have already more than proven themselves to their homeland. The rest of the world is next.

This feature is from the February 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, go to the Chart Shop.