Man Man at the Roxy

Man Man played Thursday night at the Roxy in Los Angeles. This band is known for their odd songs, high energy, and white tennis outfits. Their “can’t stop, won’t stop” attitude apes the style of a club DJ. While refusing to participate in awkward band/crowd chatter, the level of energy plateaued but never peaked.

Man Man’s sound has been compared with Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, and Captain Beefhart, but I heard other Philly bands, Need New Body and An Albatross. Although sometimes described as “weird”, Man Man is a talented tight band who play dance music. They draw on jazz and waltz song structures with heavy horns and percussion. It’s the vocals that make the songs sound much weirder than they actually are.

Man Man evokes what I like to call the Jim Henson unconscious. Musically driven muppet shows like Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and the Muppet Show inform a lot of their perceived weirdness, but musically they sound quite traditional. At times the vocals sounded like creepy old jazz records, I just wish the warped quality the vocals took on was incorporated into their instrumentation.