Mannequin Men
PRICE $15, $13 in advance
Except for guitarist Ethan D’Ercole, who plays in Watchers and put in time with a handful of ska outfits in the 90s–Isaac Green & the Skalars, Skavoovie & the Epitones–nobody in Mannequin Men has been in another band that anybody’s paid attention to. As a result they’re totally psyched to be playing in this one. When they’re really clicking they can write five new originals in a single rehearsal, then play them all at a show the next night–and they’ll drop whatever they’re doing for a gig booked just hours in advance.
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When you’re between 16 and 19, says D’Ercole, “you feel music in such a strong way.” D’Ercole is 33 and his bandmates are in their mid- to late 20s, but they harness that kind of teenage intensity on Fresh Rot. Its snarly, bleary-eyed, girls-and-garbage protopunk is saturated with adolescent melodrama, and the boys tease fraying threads out of their tightly knit sound to make it feel disheveled and dangerous–the music’s to-hell-with-it malaise is as seductive as the hot dropout you couldn’t resist in high school even though you knew you’d probably end up with an STD.
Berger was still constantly hanging out at the apartment, even though he’d moved, and in no time he was part of the fledgling group too. “I never sang before, but I’ll try,” Richard told his friends.
But they’re “well-meaning and honest, heartfelt people,” says Flameshovel co-owner James Kenler. “That’s a great foil because they’re emotionally effective. . . . Kevin’s got a real personality that’s entrancing and captivating.” And when Richard ends up cut and bleeding all over his shirt, Kenler says, “it’s totally normal and not contrived.”
“People are like, ‘We can’t classify where this fits,” says Richard. “They think it’s too dumb for the indie kids and too smart for punk kids. That’s just bullshit. But it’s an empowering thing to have people against you.” The feeling that people are writing Mannequin Men off, he says, only makes him play harder.
