Fresh rot

Thanks to a happy stop-in at Love Garden while on a break from studying this evening, I got to see a show from one of my new favorite bands. Mannequin Men, from Chicago, are playing a show in Kansas City tomorrow night, and since they couldn’t get a regular gig, the kind folks at Love Garden hooked ’em up.

For free, they played a full set, including new stuff, a Clean cover, and a bunch of stuff of their new album, Fresh Rot – including “The Boys,” which is just about my favorite song that’s come out this year. Fantastic stuff from some really nice guys – I had a chance to talk to all four members before their set, and they were just about the friendliest folks I’ve met in ages.

Every once in a great while, a band’s press kit actually gets the “Band X meets Band Y in Band Z’s front yard in the middle of a barbecue with Artist A” part right. Mannequin Men do sound like the Stooges fronted by the Modern Lovers’ Jonathan Richman. There’s a good amount of sneer in the vocals that owes as much to fellow northern Midwesterner Gordon Gano as it does to New England’s Richman. The jangly Television guitars meet with the Stooges’ powerful sense of distortion. Fresh Rot is an album that is very much rooted in the ‘70s, but like the best of that era, it feels fresh and new after a hundred listens. It’s out now on Flameshovel Records. Go buy that sucker right now.

The Boys
Grapefruit