Mannequin Pussy

One Liner:  A really great indie rock band that can't quit ruining songs with screaming

Wikipedia Genre:  punk rock, indie rock, noise rock

Home: Philadelphia

Poster Position: 14
Weekend One Only.
Friday at 3:10.

Miller Lite Stage.

Thoughts:  This is one of those bands that critics seem to like and you hear about, but then when you try it out, its not that fun.  Kind of like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for me.  This is the kind of band who gets props from both NPR and Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and SPIN.  Here is what I had to say a few weeks ago when listening to one of their top singles to see what the fuss was about: "Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven.  I want to like this more than I actually do.  The backing music is great, but the vocals grate on me."  Feels about right.  4.8 million streams.

It's like if one of those good Wet Leg songs got remade with an angrier lead singer.  Again, I'd like to actually like it.  I never really gave Hole a chance back in the day - the few songs I heard with Courtney Love freaking out over the top just turned me off immediately.  This is what I imagine I was missing.

The band was originally formed by the current guitarist and lead vocalist Marisa "Missy" Dabice and Athanasios Paul, who met in school.  Just a two piece at the time.  They released an early album called Gypsy Pervert, but later re-released that album as an eponymous album because the band regretted using the word gypsy, which is often used as a pejorative insult.  Funny that they are totally cool with using pussy in their band and album name, but gypsy is a line too far.  There is an old man who lives on the street behind us who uses that word all the time, pretty much in his head it means anyone he doesn't like in the neighborhood - yard workers, homeless guys, thieves, someone knocking doors asking for signatures, whatever.

In one interview, they were asked if they think the band name is sexual, and the response was "[t]here was never an intention for it to be, but I’ve definitely learned just how little control we have over how others will interpret it."  Really?

Anyway, but 2015, they've bulked up the band to a four piece and released their second full-length, Romantic, in 2016.  Rolling Stone called the title track from that album the 14th best song of 2016, and it is still the band's top streamer at 11.3 million.

Yeah, sticking with my earlier thought.  Nice for a bit, then unpleasant for a bit.  But as you go through the catalog, there are some genuinely enjoyable tunes.  Sometimes they hold the screamo in check.  For example, on the I Got Heaven disc from this year, "Nothing Like" is pretty, but then "OK? OK! OK? OK!" just shreds all of that nice feel.  When it is nice, I get some Japanese Breakfast or Soccer Mommy vibes.  And I like both of those!  When it is not nice it detracts from my whole day.

We'll do one more to listen to a track from the 2019 album Patience.  This was the last one with that founding drummer before he left to go find himself.  "Drunk II" is the track from there with 8.2 million streams.

I wanna go boogie while I play pool at that bar.  I don't think I want to make out at that bar tho, that part looks stressful.  But yeah, a nice rock and roll tune that never devolves into something that would make me nervous to play it around my wife who hates angry things.  And even though the lyrics are sad, they are also poignant in a great way.  But this album does the same thing, following up a lovely "Who You Are" with the grating "Clams" and "FUCAW."

We'll see.  Friday is looking like a really solid day, except that the top line is a bummer with both Stapleton and Blink at the same time.  Couldn't they move Blink to up against Dual IPA?  But who knows, this may end up being the right show on that day despite the screaming.