'Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between' by Man Man: Marimba and a Head-bobbing Front for Heartbreak
Man Man’s new songs address heartbreak
with upbeat poetry and eclectic instrumentation.
I gaze about the burning, post-apocalyptic landscape that is the internet through black Mad Max goggles. I search, but I cannot find any gossip on the band Man Man’s new album, “Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between.”
Sure, Rolling Stone covered it, but not even Pitchfork, the blog that breeds out more content than a rabbit in a rabbit whorehouse, not even they dipped their toes in the river of Man Man.
Man Man deserves more. They’ve traveled for 16 years in that nebulous desert of touring with ukuleles and being the human embodiment of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band. Check the two out side by side:
Do you see it? No? I’m sticking to it. If they rode through Center City atop a backfiring double-decker bus raucously playing “Night Life”, it’d be completely natural. The only difference is that if Ryan Kattner is Animal then he should be on drums.
“Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between” is also the experimental indie band’s first album in 7 years, cause for more excitable clapping and foaming at the mouth until the neighbors call Animal Control. I saw them touring for “Oni Oni Pond” in 2013 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia – they are freaking cool live. Go see them live, immediately. Then compare them to the Muppets.
So, let’s get into Man Man’s new album. Like the Lady Gaga “Chromatica” review, we are reacting in real-time, as it plays, with no prior research. Because we’re so edgy and spontaneous.
Headphones in?
Commence Man Man:
“Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between.”
Track 1 – Dreamers
I feel like I’m in a dark, glittered ballroom with Zsa Zsa Gabor. Very classy. Are they clearing their throat for impending mayhem or is this setting the tone for orchestral lounge fusion?
Track 2 – Cloud Nein
Nope. Definitely impending mayhem. Sometimes when their horns come in, it reminds me of a Menomena song, circa 2007. I hate that it puts this in my head, but I just imagine this song in the background to a Rom-com scene where Paul Rudd glumly kicks a can down a city street because he’s found himself in another whimsical tough love situation.
Track 3 – On the Mend
Just like Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, you can never tell how many musicians are actually riding atop the double-decker bus. Are there seven of them, or 45? They have someone just to play the marimba! Or is it one man playing three instruments? See, that’s how damn talented they are.
Track 4 – Lonely Beuys
Love the consistency so far. They all make you want to shuffle your feet and bob your head like a parakeet to the sexy marimba. Parakeet Marimba – the experimental indie band you’ve never heard of and nobody’s talking about.
Track 5 – Future Peg
Can “Dastardly Island Romp Music” be a new genre? That’s the vibe I get. The DIRM vibe. I want to go on a caper to these songs. Something mischievous. Still doing the parakeet bob.
Oh man, there’s a marimba breakdown:
“Oh, you’re in a band – what do you play?”
“I shred on lead marimba.”
Track 6 – Goat
Man Man is often labeled as “experimental” (see title of article) but if you hear this song blind, you know it’s Man Man. A declarative, driving drumbeat, jaunty piano riffs that sound like the keys were played with a pair of spoons, and those prowling, devious Pink Panther horns.
Never have I ever heard such a prominent role for the marimba, and I’ll accept that’s what makes them experimental.
Track 7 – Inner Iggy
“One day you’re queen of the jungle, next day you’re fed to a snake pit.” Lyrically, or musically, there’s never a time you can say “I think Man Man copied that style from someone else.”
Track 8 – Hunters
I still get a vibe like, I’m stumbling through a zany, wonky light-hearted comedy, and I’m getting my legs tangled in a dog leash in Central Park, and I spill my coffee on myself, then my car is being towed when I get back and I throw my hands up in exaggerated surrender.
Track 9 – Oyster Point
Okay, it’s a 30-second song. Time to press pause for a half minute to get a jug of water for the guy going hard on the marimba.
Track 10 – The Prettiest Song in the World
Setting a high standard for this one. Oh, snap! Blow job lyrics alert!
“Who found Satan sixty-nineing/Sucking dicks/in a motel room in Kansas City.”
Yeah, have to give it to them – nothing prettier than a Kansas City Satan blowie. Pure poetry.
Track 11 – Animal Attraction
Love the horn intro. This is the slowest song thus far, but I still haven’t heard anything resembling the heavy scar tissue that was “Deep Cover” from Man Man’s album “Oni Oni Pond”. Through 11 tracks, the album feels like a representation of a recovered soul.
But the music is so deceiving. Read the lyrics as you listen, and you’ll find that songs like “On the Mend” still reference ongoing heartbreak. It’s like when you hurt, and you put on the happy front. In this case, marimba and mischievous horns play the happy front.
Track 12 – Sheela
Note that yeah, there are 17 tracks, but several are just around two and a half minutes. In candy terms, that’s a handful of bite-sized Snickers. In this case, bite-sized prostitutes named Sheela.
Track 13 – Unsweet Meat
I’ve really been yearning for a song that would be appropriate for a marimba-inspired mosh pit. A marimba-pit. This isn’t that, but I do want to strut into a room in a purple velvet robe to this in Big Lebowski glasses.
Track 14 – Swan
It’s apt to say this is a minute and 20 seconds to watch a piano bird splash around in the pond that is “Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between.”
Track 15 – Powder My Wig
Back to something we can parakeet-bob around the room at a Breakfast at Tiffany’s party with our foot-long cigarette. I must emphasize the way the upbeat songs sound like:
1.) I’m a bumbling fool on a city street haplessly spilling coffee on pedestrians.
OR
2.) I’m on the prowl in a French mansion with a stockinged mask, looking to steal exotic candlesticks.
Track 16 – If Only
Maybe this is the “Deep Cover” of this album. “If only I gave a little more of myself/Maybe you’d still be here with me.” Lyrically, yeah, it’s heavy. It’s beautiful, especially when the female vocal section comes in at 1:23 (the guest vocalist is Dre Babinsky from Steady Holiday) . And the sad horns say “I know what we could have been, but it’s never coming back.”
Track 17 – In the Valley of the In-Between
We end on a one minute piano outro, almost an extension of “If Only”, as if Honus Honus is still lingering on what could have been, what he lost, and that’s why he’s Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between.
“Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-between” gets…
One sexy marimba and sincere heart loss layered under chipper horns and Satan blowjob poetry.
That’s rating system isn’t certified yet but go listen to it!
Artist links:
Man Man website
Man Man Insta
Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner) Insta
Songs by Man Man to get you bothered:
Head On (Hold On To Your Heart)
This entire performance in Seattle, 2016
Upcoming Shows:
All shows currently postponed — you know, pandemic stuff.