Man Man’s music is a lot like an auto accident. It’s a mess, but you can’t help craning your neck and looking as you drive by. Man Man’s odd, almost shocking approach to pop music — which includes vibraphones, sousaphones, even pots and pans — might be what draws you in. But at the heart of the Philly quintet’s wacky sound is catchy tunes that will find you tapping your foot while you scratch your head.
“Rabbit Habits,” the band’s third studio album and first for indie label Anti-, opens with the spooky “Mister Jug Stuffed.” There’s skittering percussion, busy drums and the growled vocals of Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner), who is equally scary and sensitive throughout. Honus adds some garage-rock organ before the next track, “Hurly Burly,” which could’ve snuck onto ’90s radio if the Butthole Surfers or Flaming Lips left the door open behind them. “Butter Beans” is zany, with some almost cartoonish vibraphone runs in the intro and eerie female backing vocals. Think Lawrence Welk on meth. It’s one of the album’s finest.
“Doo Right” is a short, rootsy ballad in the vein of Dr. Dog, and Man Man — Sergei Sogav, aka Chris Shar (bass, synths); Cougar, aka Russell Higbee, also of Lewis & Clarke (trumpet, guitar); Pow Pow, aka Chris Powell (drums); and Chang Wang, aka Billy Dufala (sax, percussion) — gets weird again with “Easy Eats Or Doctor Dirty Galapagos” and “Harpoon Fever (Queequeg’s Playhouse).” “Harpoon” is Man Man at its best: controlled chaos. Fun syncopated piano, Eskimo-ish chanting, surf guitar and headbanging verses, and it all works.
The title track is wistful, earthbound and spare, spotlighting Honus’ emotive vocals, accompanied only by piano.
“Top Drawer” is the most complete composition on “Rabbit Habits,” filled out by grinding organ and a driving beat. The lyrics, too, are a hoot: “You need a haircut, you need a shoeshine” and “People say I’m possessed by the devil/ But I know I’m obsessed by your daughter.”
“Poor Jackie,” the album’s penultimate offering, is more than eight minutes long and falls into sections. The first section is announced by gypsy fiddle and is a mournful two-step. The second segment is slow but jaunty, with Honus singing “I don’t see what everybody sees in your sexy body/ All I see is a shallow grave trapped inside a pretty face.” The third portion is more deliberate and slinky, with some haunting voodoo/gospel backing vocals.
w