Elliott's Eccentricities- Engrish Bwudd and Poor Jackie by Man Man

What a busy week I had! I promise that I will soon be back to regular posting! So in a time-saving move, I am going to combine last week’s MIA  EE with this week’s late EE to form a double header of Eccentricity!

Saturday was my birthday! So this is also a special birthday edition where, as a present to myself, I am going to allow myself to talk about my favorite band that is still together, Man Man. I don’t normally allow myself to talk about Man Man because if I did, then every single post I write on this blog would be about them. I am so obsessed that it is a running gag among the Frog on a Log crew to replace every word ‘man’ with ‘man man’ whenever they talk to me. Eventually conversations devolve into ‘man man man man man man man.’ Why do they do this you ask? Well, that is because if I get talking about Man Man it is hard for me to shut up. Anyways onto the tunes!

The first song I give you, Engrish Bwudd, is from their sophomore album Six Demon Bag, is the first song I ever heard by them, and is my favorite. The second song I present to you is Poor Jackie from their third album Rabbit Habbits.  

I love Man Man for a couple main reasons. First, Honus Honus (lead singer/pianist) has an amazing voice and writes some really awesome lyrics, in message, phrasing, and delivery. Engrish Bwudd is more an example on how his delivery and phrasing is fantastic than on meaning, but my god does his lines kick ass. The way he belts out “and he don’t know why she loves him, and he don’t know why the sun sets” really breaths emotion into the line. If you want an example of how good the meaning to his lyrics are check out Ice Dogs; it is the greatest break-up song of all time and I will fight you to the death (politely argue with you) if you disagree.

   

 Next, they have very eclectic drumming; Pow Pow (the drummer) really knows how to rock a solid beat and breaks it down fantastically. I saw them live and he really gets into it; he spends probably as much time in the air as he does sitting down he bounces so much. To call Man Man’s instrumentation eclectic is an understatement. They are not afraid to bang on whatever is within reach; pots, pans, bikes, pianos, and the floor are all game. Pow Pow summed their philosophy best when he was teaching me the basics of drumming on Friday. To paraphrase what he said, “what is important is to get the basics down and then just have fun with it, just go wild and have a good time”. (Did I mention that I am learning drums and I was fortunate enough to have a one on one lesson with Pow Pow? To me it was like being able to learn guitar from Jimi Hendrix).

The last reason as to why I am obsessed with Man Man is related to my previous point; they just like to have fun. I have listened to their entire discography multiple times in a single day (4 albums so that is actually a lot), I have seen all their music videos, I have seen them live, and I have met one of them in person and let me tell you, not once was there a dull moment. Sure they have songs that are quieter and more sentimental, but they are anything but bland. The music videos are hilarious, ranging from a werewolf having a night out on the town to a group of 10 year old greasers running amuck. The show was fantastic! The band was incredibly dynamic; Honus Honus wore a dress and night vision goggles before firing off a confetti canon. It was awesome. Their desire to have fun lets them go mad and make some fantastic music.

On the eccentricity scale ranging from 1 to 10

1- I think Nick Cage is a good actor
10- I am Nick Cage
Engrish Bwudd - 5/10
Poor Jackie- 6/10

The first song, Engrish Bwudd is pretty much the definition of eccentric. It starts with Man Man’s trademark falsetto-ish voices singing “All I want to be is a shovel bubbly gobbly gook!” Let me tell you, I can play Engrish Bwudd on piano and few things are more fun than belting out those lines. After that comes one of said few things, a wondrous wailing that kicks of the song just perfectly. Then the real song starts.

The song kinda tells the story of a ridiculous relationship, but that is not what matters. What matters is just the words and how they fit together, like how Honus Honus can say “badunkadunk” and have it sound perfect. The chorus is ripped straight out of Jack and the Bean Stock, fee fi fo fum I smell the blood of an emglishman. What does this have to do with a boy raised by hyenas? Does it actually matter? Something in this song just makes me feel unleashed. It is as though I am able to physically exhale my inner demons just by singing along. It is as if I become a madman for three and a half minutes and at the end I return to my true self. That might just be me, but that is some powerful stuff right there.

The second song, Poor Jackie, is a different beast entirely. I consider it to be one of their softer songs, though it is probably one of their more messed up songs in terms of themes.  It is an 8 minute long epic that sort of tells the story of a female psychopathic serial killer that cuts out people’s hearts and how the singer wants to find her because he wants to be murdered. So yeah, is it pretty damn messed up. However I think it is a pretty good advice to never take Man Man’s lyrics too seriously (they have some pretty dark views on relationships).

 What is more interesting is to view the song (and many other Man Man songs) as a sort of portal to view and understand one’s hidden dark side, like how I described exercising internal demons above. I have dealt with some pretty dark times in my life, last year I suffered from some pretty bad depression. So I know what it is like to have a part of me feel that “there ain’t no god here, as far as I can see, your god of hope and light never did nothing straight by me”.  I have walked the line of self-destruction, so I get the whole “so please come with your sharpened knives and murder me” thing.

Now you might be thinking that this is pretty messed up stuff and probably not good for people who are depressed to listen to (and you might be right). However I have found that part of my personality is soothed when I listen to it, it is nice to know that others have felt this way as well. Yet what is important is to not indulge it or glorify it but to realize how messed up it is. It is like editing a paper by reading it out loud; hearing something out loud will let you know how bad it really sounds. Knowing how bad those thoughts and feelings sound can be really be helpful in changing your feelings and behaviors to more healthy ones. Whenever I listen to it now that I am healthy, I am reminded me of how well off I am and how far I have come; it is really beautiful.

Personal discussion of depression and music aside, Poor Jackie is just a fantastic song. The opening violin is beautiful. The sectioning of the song and the way the time signature changes is simply fantastic. The lyrics’ phrasing is really poetic and clever. Time flies by whenever I listen to this song, it is 8 minutes but it feels like half that long. Something has to be said for any song that can do that and, for the most part, have the pace of a moderate waltz. The abrupt ending is perfect and flows great into the last song on the album. Poor Jackie is just a fantastically written song.

I cannot stress enough how fantastic Man Man is. There is a reason that they are in my top 5 bands with the Beatles and Pink Floyd. Please do yourself a favor and check more of them out. I cannot wait for their next album, whenever it will come out. Okay, I think you have had enough of my babbling over how much I love Man Man, so I will lock up my thoughts on them until my next present to myself.