Rabbit Habits
Known for their deliriously wild live shows, this Philadelphia five-piece has slowly gained an audience appreciative of their particular brand of sonic adventure, and *Rabbit Habits* take a small (but necessary) step in a more accessible direction. Known prog rockers like Zappa and Beefheart are inevitable touchstones, but so are more current, globally influenced artists such as Devotchka and the now defunct 3 Mustaphas 3. Squalling sousaphone, inebriated marimbas, screeching guitars and two-stepping drums (and more drums) provide the color for vocalist Honus Honus’ Tom Wait-ish growl, the music swaggering from one soundtrack to another: a dingy, eastern European punk rock club (“Mister Jung,” “Easy Eats,” “Top Drawer”), a New Orleans funeral (“Big Trouble”), a late-night piano bar (“Doo Right”), a Raymond Scott cartoon score (“The Ballad of Butter Beans”). The zig-zagging post-rock of “Hurly Burly” and the multi-flavored mayhem of “Harpoon Fever” are fairly intoxicating, but the somber, poetic telling of “Poor Jackie” and “Whalebones” will sober you right up (there’s a novel in those songs, waiting to get out). Impressive, from both a musical and lyrical standpoint, and definitely new.
Man Man follow their breakthrough Six Demon Bag with their self-confessed "pop record," an album that hints at maturation without eschewing the group's unique tics.
"I wanna hold you 'til the mountains turn into sand," Honus Honus croons in "Doo Right," one of the more conventionally tuneful tracks on Man Man's Rabbit Habits. In fact, the chassis is downright orthodox: Comprising an early-R&B; piano vamp and some intermittently falsetto sweetness, the song is a palate-cleanser…
Discover Rabbit Habits by Man Man released in 2008. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.