Man Man - Six Demon Bag

What do you get when you cross Tom Waits' gravelly vocals and the under the bigtop, carnivalesque feel of the opening track on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled 2005 album? Yep, you get Man Man's Six Demon Bag.

Critics invariably mention the Waits, Frank Zappa, and Captain Beefheart influence triumvirate when reviewing Man Man albums. The waltz feel of many of the tracks and the high pitch call-and-response vocals are also obvious fodder for the critics. What's lost on the reader amidst all of this self-referential music criticism is the simple fact that when Man Man are on their game, their charged romps are about as fun as any pop music in recent memory and listening to them is the closest musical equivalent to a drunken riot you're likely to hear. The fact that Man Man simply cannot be serious and most of their appeal is based on caricature and shtick is of little consequence; their tunes are too absurdly entertaining to be ignored.

Derek Miller offered this great allusion to the feel of Six Demon Bag in his review for Stylus Magazine: "There's a fiesta foaming in the drunk tank again. The inmates have doped the lawmen and hollowed out their few toilet rolls for percussion. They've pulled their teeth and thrown them at the bars, plink, plunk, and pink plop. They're squealing in chorus, leaping at these steel rods and filling the cell with the thud of their skulls, mayhem. This is extravagance in the night, within the cage; a group of sensualists done gone rabid, in a commune that supports them body and mind via chain and steel. But they don't want to leave. " Now, how could I possibly improve on that?

What the critics have said:

Prefix Magzine: 90

Pitchfork: 8.3

Stylus Magazine: B+

Tiny Mix Tapes: 3.5/5


From Six Demon Bag:

Man Man - "Engwish Bwudd"

Man Man - "Black Mission Goggles"

Man Man - "Van Helsing Boombox" *recommended* (PC: right click, "save as" | Mac: ctrl click, "download linked file")


Buy the album album from Amp Camp and receive the out of print "10 lb. Moustace" single free.