Viking vaudeville! Manic Gypsy Jazz! However you describe them, the Man Man troupe swing into town this December for their frenzied debut tour.

Before the world came into existence, all was chaos, unimaginably limitless and without shape or form. Eon followed eon, particle became mass: then, lo! out of this boundless, shapeless mass something light and transparent rose up and formed the heavens. And from the heavens fell five shapes, loud and heavy and jumbled, and from these rough forms were shaped and sculpted the first firsts: Honus Honus (the High-August-First-Voice), Sergei Sogay (the Divine-Center-of-Four-Strings), Pow Pow (the August-Beat-Divinity), Critter Cat (the Divine-Twang-and-Everything-Else) and Chang Wang (the Other-Twang-and-Wondrous-Everything-Else).

From the wilds of Philadelphia, please enter Man Man. Five men. Many instruments. Lots of face paint. And a little bit of Honky Tonk. They bring their exuberant live show to town for the very first time, performing at the Meredith Music Festival, in support of their latest release Rabbit Habbits (Anti/ Shock). We are now pleased to announce two intimate sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.

With comparisons to the usual avant-garde forefathers – Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Tom Waits – Man Man are decidedly not identity thieving or even overtly referencing these spiritual godfathers in their music, but rather are acting as torchbearers of the unusual, the spontaneous and the plainly fucking funny in an increasingly homogenized world.

The famously riotous Man Man live show has captured the attention of many including ARCADE FIRE, MODEST MOUSE and CAT POWER who have all invited the band on tour. Centered on Honus Honus Honky Tonk style piano, the Man Men pick up and discard various instruments depending on where their mood takes them, including a clavinet, microKORG, sousaphone, saxophone, trumpet, French horn, flute, drum set, euphonium, Fender jazz bass, Danelectro guitar, xylophone, marimba, melodica and various percussive instruments including pots and pans and toy noise makers and horns. Anyone know what a sousaphone is?

Dates Played

MELBOURNE
When: Thu 11-12-08
Where: East Brunswick Club

SYDNEY
When: Sat 13-12-08
Where: Oxford Arts Factory

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