Man Man
Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between
Sub Pop
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The circus that is Man Man’s live show is hard to describe. Even though I bought a ticket and took that ride close to ten years ago, I still see every vivid detail. But it wasn’t the band I remember most. It’s the crowd.
I had never seen a more diverse pool of fans. Skinhead punks clad in leather and zippers were dancing in the same circle as long-haired hippies donning floor length floral skirts and peasant blouses (I represented the jeans and flannel crowd, but there were also dudes in pastel button downs). Perhaps it was the natural juxtaposition that keeps the memory fresh. It wasn’t sold out, but the floor was full of dancers, splaying their arms and legs in sync with a band that flows against the current.
Formed in Philadelphia in 2003 by fearless leader Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner), Man Man is back with their sixth studio album and first for Sub Pop. Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between thrusts the band’s signature uncanny instincts of heavy horns and xylophone choruses out into the cosmos.
Opening track “Dreamers” is a fifty-second palate cleanser. We are now on their journey. Keys tinkle, a bass clarinet holds down the deep end while strings fill out the mids. This moment of peace is quickly shattered by “Cloud Nein,” its twenty-second intro is the chaotic trip a piano would make down a flight of stairs. But then Man Man flips it on its head and slows it down. Released as their first catchy single, “Cloud Nein” delivers what Man Man audiences want most: a song to sing along to wondering about reality, ego, and meaninglessness: “Nothing ever lasts / didn’t you learn this by now? / Were you born in a bubble? Were you raised on a cloud? / And all your dreams crash and burn / And fall to the ground / Were they're made of sweet nothings / 'Cause nothing sticks around.”
Man Man is a captivating band. Their music is crusty and haunting, dissonant and always clever. You have to give yourself over to it. Their music and lyrics are visceral and plunge you deep into the id. Man Man is the lizard brain of indie rock and Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between is the sound of the band rolling around, fingers twisting toward the sky.
Embrace the objectively weird nature of Dream Hunting. It’s a fantastic, accessible place to start if you’re new to Man Man and their catalog of organized chaos. Man Man is a band of alternate realities and identities. Each member has a stage name: Honus Honus, Jazz Diesel, Mature Kevin, Thu Butler, Brett Swett, and King Cyrus King. They’re a tribe of musicians who often wear face paint on stage to show their true colors. Dream Hunting is the most straightforward LP of their career, a perfect soundtrack as you wait for the maw of life to open and swallow you whole.
Their pleasure is in a chorus of vibrant horns—French, sousaphone, saxophone, euphonium, trumpet, and a few woodwinds—and the weird shapes that emerge from them. Their lyrics function as a party grab bag. Reach in and you’ll find unseen sadness, ice cream sandwiches, bags of rotting meat, infomercials, and simple, unexpected same-phrase rhymes of “a guy who swallows knives.”
“Lonely Beuys” points out that we all have dark clouds rolling in on us. Honus proclaims “I want to be consumed.” There might be some bright patches of sunlight, we have those too. Find them on “Inner Iggy,” a surf staccato dream, all bent wire and upbeat self-awareness. “One day you’re queen of the jungle / next day you’re fed to a snake pit.” Man Man loves to question the human mind and the world that shapes it. Their songs smash wants and expectations, and remind you of all the bad tastes life puts in your mouth. Honus Honus chews on them until they taste good.
“Where does it even come from / this manic life that wakes you in the middle of the night” Honus sings on “The Prettiest Song In The World,” which, at times, sounds so much like ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” you’ll forget where you are for a second. But when you hear the phrase “sucking dicks in a Kansas City hotel room,” you’ll remember this is a Man Man record.
A lot of songs on Dream Hunting explore the in-between the record boasts, stretching that space like a piece of taffy. “Unsweet Meat '' is a two-minute instrumental of bustling snare and horns with their quintessential xylophone shimmying underneath. Quickly followed by “Swan,” Honus Honus is alone with a piano for just a minute or so, a petite love song that lands on the phrase “blood of a swan.” “Oyster Point” is, simply, a bizarre wind up and down echoing a weird trip.
The title track “In The Valley Of The In-Between” is a minute-long piano ballad I can’t get enough of. It’s a perfect literal soundtrack. The thick saxophone that comes in halfway is reminiscent of a David Lynch scene, where the dreamer floats off into another dimension as they smile down at themselves asleep, grinning into their pillow. It’s the sound of a peaceful departure. Go off and find the answer on the other side.
Notable Tracks: “Inner Iggy” | “In The Valley Of The In-Between” | “Lonely Beuys” | “On The Mend”
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