Somewhere between New York, Philadelphia, and the Holy Mountain, MAN MAN fastens together shellac, perfume, feathers, dirt, and blood, knits together Screaming Jay Hawkins, Etta James, 80s pop, Iggy Pop, Soda Popinski, Mexican funeral marches, religious cults, bad luck, and two-headed wolves to wrangle out something entirely else. With themes ranging from loss to love to mayhem and back, SIX DEMON BAG's narrative structure once again straddles the blurry line between order and chaos, the outsider elements from their debut THE MAN IN A BLUE TURBAN WITH A FACE sharpened into alternate universe pop hits; an album just as comfortably suited to the workplace desktop as to the Lord of the Flies campfire, post Piggy. Gravel-throated Ringmaster Honus Honus has assembled a motley crew of likeminded shamans to help perform Man Man's many song exorcisms; sweaty, sexy swamp boogies rest easily alongside no-wavey guitars, melancholy funeral dirges, French new wave sound-scapes, and exiled river-bed gypsy jams. At the core of the everything is a pop heart, albeit a wounded one, but nonetheless a heart that beats strong and confident and will not be satisfied until you are a full-on converted follower.
SIX DEMON BAG introduces a few new band members into the fold. The new Man Man converts include Sergei Sogay, Les Mizzle, Christopher Powell (aka Pow Pow ) of Icy Demons and Need New Body fame, and multi-instrumentalist Alejandro "Cougar" Borg. Sergei has a very nice beard, gentle eyes and exudes a natural, refreshing, unthreatening machismo. Alejandro is an accomplished ping pong player, has a penchant for shoestring headbands, is a Scott Joplin enthusiast and descends from a family of gypsy fur trappers. Les Mizzle has a confessed weakness for Cajun gumbo, women with concealed weaponry, and is from France. Pow Pow has mojo. According to Pitchfork, "if you aren't excited by the above descriptions alone, you have no soul. At the very least, take yourself and your friends to one of the shows. . . for an experience unlike any other. It starts with white suits and tribal rituals, and only gets better from there. Seriously."
Man Man has played shows with Arcade Fire, Fiery Furnaces, Okkervil River, DFA 1979, Mary Timony, Out Hud, Cat Power, and Deerhoof, and received critical accolades in The Fader, Magnet, Spin, Alternative Press, Village Voice, Urb, Time Out NY, Pitchfork, and more.
Crawl back to the cave with Man Man. Sleep with the wolves. Ace Fu proudly releases Man Man's second LP, Six Demon Bag, on February 21, 2006.
