Today, June 7th, Man Man will release their new album, Carrot On Strings, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop Records. Following the single releases of “Iguana,” “Tastes Like Metal,” and “Alibi” comes the new official video for their cheeky tableau, “Cryptoad,” which was directed by former Man Man member Dan Scofield. If only car washes could clean the soul of a man…
Carrot On Strings was recorded at Mant Sounds studio in Glassell Park, Los Angeles, and produced by Matt Schuessler, with whom Man Man frontman Ryan Kattner (Honus Honus) had worked on a cover of Neu!’s “Super” for the seminal Krautrock band’s box set. He and the band knocked out the songs live (workshopped in front of live audiences while Man Man toured) over 5 days in August 2022 and then hashing other sonic ideas over the following months. “I wanted things to be loose,” Kattner shares. “My intention was just to knock it all out,” he says. He even recorded more than a few of the single-track vocals while reclining on a couch. “It’s pretty wild,” he says — “because, you know, it wasn’t actually wild at all. It was the first time I wasn’t sequestered in an isolation booth, extensive baffling keeping me apart from the rest of the music. Something about being in the mixing room, tracking vocals, songs blasting out of the monitors that just felt perfect for this particular album.”
As previously announced, Man Man will tour the UK & Europe in late October and November. See below for a full list of shows.
Wed. Oct. 30 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie Thu. Oct. 31 - La Rochelle, FR - La Sirène Fri. Nov. 01 - Rouen, FR - Le 106 Sat. Nov. 02 - Lille, FR - Le Grand Mix Mon. Nov. 04 - Bristol, UK - The Lanes Tue. Nov. 05 - Leeds, UK - Headrow House Wed. Nov. 06 - Birkenhead, UK - Future Yard Thu. Nov. 07 - Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint Fri. Nov. 08 - Edinburgh, UK - Sneaky Pete’s Sat. Nov. 09 - Middlesbrough, UK - Teesside Univ. Students’ Union Sun. Nov. 10 - London, UK - MOTH Club Tue. Nov. 12 - Rotterdam, NL- Rotown Wed. Nov. 13 - Lasne, BE - Rideau Rouge Thu. Nov. 14 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Fri. Nov. 15 - Wiltz, LU - Prabbeli Sat. Nov. 16 - Dijon, FR - La Vapeur
Carrot On Strings is available to order from Sub Pop. LP orders in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and in the UK/Europe from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and select UK/EU independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on Transparent Orange. All color vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Man Man Carrot On Strings
Tracklisting: 1. Iguana 2. Cryptoad 3. Tastes Like Metal 4. Mongolian Spot 5. Blooddungeon 6. Carrots On Strings 7. Mulholland Drive 8. Pack Your Bags 9. Alibi 10. Cherry Cowboy 11. Odyssey
On Friday, June 7th, Man Man will release their new album, Carrot On Strings, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop Records. Following the single releases of “Iguana” and “Tastes Like Metal” comes the melodious bop “Alibi.”
Man Man has announced UK/EU dates for late October and November. See below for a full list of shows.
Wed. Oct. 30 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie Thu. Oct. 31 - La Rochelle, FR - La Sirène Fri. Nov. 01 - Rouen, FR - Le 106 Sat. Nov. 02 - Lille, FR - Le Grand Mix Mon. Nov. 04 - Bristol, UK - The Lanes Tue. Nov. 05 - Leeds, UK - Headrow House Wed. Nov. 06 - Birkenhead, UK - Future Yard Thu. Nov. 07 - Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint Fri. Nov. 08 - Edinburgh, UK - Sneaky Pete’s Sat. Nov. 09 - Middlesbrough, UK - Teesside Univ. Students’ Union Sun. Nov. 10 - London, UK - MOTH Club Tue. Nov. 12 - Rotterdam, NL- Rotown Wed. Nov. 13 - Lasne, BE - Rideau Rouge Thu. Nov. 14 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Fri. Nov. 15 - Wiltz, LU - Prabbeli Sat. Nov. 16 - Dijon, FR - La Vapeur
Carrot On Strings is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and in the UK/Europe from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and select UK/EU independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on Transparent Orange. All color vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Carrot On Strings was recorded at Mant Sounds studio in Glassell Park, Los Angeles, and produced by Matt Schuessler, with whom Kattner had worked on a cover of Neu!’s “Super” for the seminal Krautrock band’s box set. He and the band knocked out the songs live (workshopped in front of live audiences while Man Man toured) over 5 days in August 2022 and then hashing other sonic ideas over the following months. “I wanted things to be loose,” Kattner shares. “My intention was just to knock it all out,” he says. He even recorded more than a few of the single-track vocals while reclining on a couch. “It’s pretty wild,” he says — “because, you know, it wasn’t actually wild at all. It was the first time I wasn’t sequestered in an isolation booth, extensive baffling keeping me apart from the rest of the music. Something about being in the mixing room, tracking vocals, songs blasting out of the monitors that just felt perfect for this particular album.”
Man Man Carrot On Strings
Tracklisting: 1. Iguana 2. Cryptoad 3. Tastes Like Metal 4. Mongolian Spot 5. Blooddungeon 6. Carrots On Strings 7. Mulholland Drive 8. Pack Your Bags 9. Alibi 10. Cherry Cowboy 11. Odyssey
On Friday, June 7th, Man Man will release their new album, Carrot On Strings, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop Records.
Following the album’s lead offering, “Iguana,” comes the group’s striking new video for “Tastes Like Metal,” which was Directed by illustrator and filmmaker Joe Cappa.
Man Man’s Ryan Kattner shares: “With a little luck, a time machine, and a more accessible band name and face, this song has the potential to be the minor radio hit that finally helps fulfill my dreams of making it big in Japan.”
ClickHEREto watch “Tastes Like Metal.” Disclaimer: Sub Pop and Man Man do not advocate or endorse the use of any of the drugs in this video.
As previously announced, Man Man has shared North American dates supporting Carrot On Strings. Click here for a complete list of shows.
Carrot On Strings is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and in the UK/Europe from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and select UK/EU independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on Transparent Orange. All color vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Man Man
Carrot On Strings
Tracklisting: 1. Iguana 2. Cryptoad 3. Tastes Like Metal 4. Mongolian Spot 5. Blooddungeon 6. Carrots On Strings 7. Mulholland Drive 8. Pack Your Bags 9. Alibi 10. Cherry Cowboy 11. Odyssey
On Friday, June 7th, Man Man will release their new album, Carrot On Strings, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop Records.
The album’s lead offering is “Iguana,” a track that Man Man’s Ryan Kattner (Honus Honus) says is a song that is “loosely inspired by Werner Herzog’s monologue at the end of ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams,’ the Flying Lizards, and every old leathery man in a Speedo.”
Man Man has also shared the funny accompanying video trailer for “Iguana,” which stars bandleader Kattner (as Gary, The Iguana), Derek Waters of Drunk History (as the Director), and Noland Anderson (as John Travolta). Watch and listen to the “Iguana” lyric video and its hilarious long-form trailer for the song now.
Carrot On Strings was recorded at Mant Sounds studio in Glassell Park, Los Angeles, and produced by Matt Schuessler, with whom Kattner had worked on a cover of Neu!’s “Super” for the seminal Krautrock band’s box set. He and the band knocked out the songs live (workshopped in front of live audiences while Man Man toured) over 5 days in August 2022, and then hashing other sonic ideas over the following months. “I wanted things to be loose,” Kattner shares. “My intention was just to knock it all out,” he says. He even recorded more than a few of the single-track vocals while reclining on a couch. “It’s pretty wild,” he says — “because, you know, it wasn’t actually wild at all. It was the first time I wasn’t sequestered in an isolation booth, extensive baffling keeping me apart from the rest of the music. Something about being in the mixing room, tracking vocals, songs blasting out of the monitors that just felt perfect for this particular album.”
Man Man is also announcing headlining North American dates supporting Carrot On Strings. These dates begin on Friday, June 7th, in Phoenix, AZ, and end on Saturday, July 20th, with a hometown release show in Los Angeles at the Echoplex. See below for a full list of shows.
Fri. Jun. 07 - Phoenix, AZ - The Rebel Lounge Sat. Jun. 08 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Sun. Jun. 09 - Denver, CO - Globe Hall Tue. Jun. 11 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club Wed. Jun. 12 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall Thu. Jun. 13 - Louisville, KY - The Whirling Theater Fri. Jun. 14 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small’s Theater Sat. Jun. 15 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts Sun. Jun. 16 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall Tue. Jun. 18 - New York, NY - Racket Wed. Jun. 19 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar Thu. Jun. 20 - Durham, NC - Motorco Music Hall Fri. Jun. 21 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle Sat. Jun. 22 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade Mon. Jun. 24 - Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea’s Live Tue. Jun. 25 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Wed. Jun. 26 - Austin, TX - Parish Fri. Jun. 28 - Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole Sat. Jun. 29 - San Diego, CA - Casbah Thu. Jul. 11 - Morro Bay, CA - The Siren Fri. Jul. 12 - Sacramento, CA - Harlow’s Sat. Jul. 13 - Carson City, NV - Brewery Arts Center Tues. Jul. 16 - Seattle, WA - Neumos Wed. Jul. 17 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios Fri. Jul. 19 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel Sat. Jul. 20 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
Carrot On Strings is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and in the UK/Europe from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and select UK/EU independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on Transparent Orange. All color vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
About Man Man’s Carrot On Strings: When Man Man released its last album, “Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between,” frontman Honus Honus (né Ryan Kattner) was in a state of unrest, oscillating between hope and cynicism. Perhaps fittingly, the album ended up dropping during the pandemic. (We could all relate.) But much like that bizarre turn of global events, the ennui seems so distant now to Man Man’s creative force, whose revived sense of purpose washes through Carrot on Strings (out June 07, Sub Pop), his latest release, which radiates a mix of calm and confidence.
Kattner always embodied a wild-man pied-piper vibe: his melodic, art-rock output just unhinged enough that it was at once intriguing and angsty. He was so alluringly creative that you went along with it, even if you were never sure where Man Man would take you. Carrot on Strings is no less inventive, but its ethos is radical in context of the band’s two-decade, idiosyncratic career. “When I was younger, I would feed off of chaos. I would be upset and get drunk and smash chairs. Physically demonstrative of my emotions,” Kattner explains, “Now those chairs are in my head: It’s less of an outward projection, more of an interior monologue.”
The name “Carrot on Strings” came to Kattner while experimenting with the sound of someone munching on the vegetable, which you can hear in the cacophonous, almost similarly named title track. It refers to “the diagnosis of my career,” or how success always seemed to dangle uncertainly before him—life as a series of “almost maybe” opportunities to elevate things to a more sustainable tier. But listen intently, and you’ll hear a more content Kattner, making an uneasy peace with, “Life, as far as I’ve known it, has always been side hustles. Would it be great if I could go into a studio and record for a year without figuring out how to finance it? Yeah, it would be,” he says. “But ultimately, I need to keep making music because art is an extension of my psyche. It’s not about how I define myself or want to be perceived necessarily. It’s how I have learned to translate the palpitations of my heart. Or, simply put, I’d go insane without it.”
The unrest may have slightly lifted (chalk that up to fatherhood), but “Carrot on Strings” opener, the shot of scintillating adrenaline that is “Iguana,” clarifies that he’s still on a mission to traverse uncharted territory, even if it is total banger sing-along. The song melds Krautrock, dance music, no-wave, and even an homage to Old Yeller (the 1950s Disney film) sneaks in for good measure. Kattner, who penned the lyrics to “Iguana” while cycling through the hills of Los Angeles (“That’s how I found a lot of the songs, through looping…if you passed by me on the street, you probably thought I was a very unstable person, singing and workshopping ideas, but I guess in LA that kinda goes with the territory”), was inspired by director Werner Herzog’s somewhat mystical cave-painting documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. “In the last 10 minutes of it, he has this beautiful monologue about uncertainty and the universe, the evolution of self-consciousness, albino crocodiles. How nothing is real, nothing is certain. Here you have this relatively straightforward documentary about ancient cave paintings, and in the end, Herzog can’t escape himself from being himself, which in the end, why would you want to escape yourself anyway” he recalls, drawn to this outsider artist who infiltrated mainstream culture without compromising his impulses. With “Iguana,” Honus Honus continues, “I’m trying to write a very genre-specific song, but I can’t escape my own idiosyncratic pull into making it be something else or a combination of something else.”
Growing up with a father in the U.S. Air Force, Kattner lived an itinerant childhood that included a few pivotal years in Germany, where he honed in on an appreciation for out there German cinema and art. He’d go on to teach himself to play piano at age 22 by playing with drummers, developing a style more rhythm-based than chops heavy but was also equally focused on screenwriting, the craft he studied in art school along with playwriting. (He continues to more-than-dabble in the film industry with an acting role in the upcoming horror-comedy movie Destroy All Neighbors, for which he also served as composer; music supervising season 1 & 2 of the Interview With The Vampire AMC TV series; and shopping around, with director Matthew Goodhue, a script he wrote that he describes as a Wim Wenders road movie on acid.) “As a child I gravitated towards troublemakers but not necessarily out of rebellion but more likely because it simply seemed more interesting at the time,” yet, growing up as a multiracial Hapa kid (half Filipino, half white), “I didn’t have anyone else to relate to on that level until I discovered playing music in my early 20s. The artworld and especially underground music is scattered with people from all sorts of interesting and disparate backgrounds.”
Like “Iguana,” the spacious, indie-pop “Odyssey” is a slight nod to another of his German avant heroes, the filmmaker Rainer Fassbinder (also the musician’s professed style icon). “My melodies are typically born out of playing parts on repeat by myself,” he explains, “and pushing the boundaries of where my voice can go. Music and lyrics are birthed together, laborious but significant in that it instills a combined permeance. One fits into the other like a puzzle ring.” Meanwhile, “Blooodungeon” — a symbolic sexy, mutinous lovechild between Italo-disco legends La Bionda and the goth-rocker the Sisters of Mercy (or as Kattner puts it, “Dario Argento’s Goblin mixed with something from a ’90s Berlin leather bar”) — even finds him crooning suavely in German at one point. Sensing a theme yet?
All these journeys off the beaten path are underscored by a palpable ease that’s way less about the process and more about the outcome. “It’s never been a driving factor in my life as a performing artist but I’m truly at a point now where I don’t give a fuck about image or any of that stuff,” he says. “That’s not saying there isn’t care taken in aesthetics, presentation quality, truth, or the art itself. And it’s not about acquiescing. Making music, acting in people’s films, these things are just more fun to me these days, come more naturally. It doesn’t mean it’s easier. I wish it was! There’s still love, labor, and toil involved. And a reserved spot on the wall for banging my head in frustration.” This newfound looseness is imminently apparent on songs such as the twangy “Cherry Cowboy,” a lingering, ambling ode to the small Texas panhandle town where he was born, that is also loosely inspired by a Randy Newman ear worm from the 1986 comedy Three Amigos. By contrast, “Pack Your Bags,” is born to be a thumping stadium chant just waiting to be unleashed for consumption.
In a bid to not overthink anything (mindful that his last album took about seven agonizing years to make), he booked out five days in Mant Sounds studio in Glassell Park, Los Angeles and enlisted “very chill” producer Matt Schuessler, with whom he had worked on a cover of Neu!’s “Super” for the seminal Krautrock band’s box set. He and the band knocked out the songs live (workshopped in front of live audiences while Man Man toured) in 5 days and then hashed out other sonic ideas over the coming months. “I wanted things to be free. Loose. My intention was just to knock it all out and embrace whatever came from the sessions,” he says. He even recorded more than a few of the single-track vocals while reclining on a couch. “It’s pretty wild,” he says — because, you know, it wasn’t actually wild at all. It was the first time I wasn’t sequestered in an isolation booth, extensive baffling keeping me apart from the rest of the music. Or obsessed with stacking vocals. Something about being in the mixing room, tracking vocals, songs blasting out of the monitors that just felt perfect for this particular album.”
“Odyssey” considers Kattner’s transformation, his newly defined sense of self that distinguishes his outsize stage persona from the thoughtful, soulful guy he actually is. Before surmounting this identity crisis, he frequently faced bouts of severe depression and imposter syndrome. “I first got into music to escape from myself,” he says. “And now, it sounds so corny, but I have zero doubt that music ended up saving my life.”
So when you hear him croon on tracks such as the wistful meditation on humility “Mulholland Drive” or the cheeky-tableau “Cryptoad”, you’re actually hearing Kattner liberate himself. “Take me home,” he sings on the latter. ”This party sucks.” It’s his favorite song on the album. “I didn’t want to make an overtly heavy record. The world already has too much heaviness,” he explains. “We’re teetering on the brink of fascism, the planet is boiling, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. We don’t need to have another album that points that out with every breath.”
“On a cellular level, I’m not even the same person I was on my last album. This time around, I didn’t want to overthink it, or beat myself up too much about it,” he continues. “I think I spent the first 15 years of playing music, wanting to quit every day. And now…it just feels like a gift.”
Available today, January 12th, 2024, Sub Pop is digitally releasing the Destroy All Neighbors (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The film was scored by Ryan Kattner and Brett Morris of Man Man and features a new Man Man track titled “Free.” Kattner also lends his acting chops to the film’s ensemble cast, which stars Jonah Ray Rodrigues and Alex Winter.
The Destroy All Neighbors film depicts William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues), a neurotic, self-absorbed musician determined to finish his prog-rock magnum opus, facing a creative roadblock in the form of a noisy and grotesque neighbor named Vlad (Alex Winter). Finally working up the nerve to demand that Vlad keep it down, William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William’s accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla.
Ryan Kattner (aka Honus Honus of Man Man) offers this on the experience: “When I was first approached to score Destroy All Neighbors, I didn’t realize how incredibly bonkers and wall-to-wall the music cues would be; I was too absorbed by how psychotic the script was and in disbelief that it was getting made. It reminded me of the Blockbuster Video movie you’d rent as a kid and watch multiple times over the weekend.
“Once the dust settled and I decided to take the gig (and, more importantly, they decided to hire me), one thing became very clear: I would need a brilliant guitar wizard/musician to help execute the scale of everything required. Insert Brett Morris (Comedy Bang Bang). Between progressive rock cues, Euro-trash EDM, 80s synth diving, bad acoustic guitar pop, etc., we got to cover a gambit of vibes, and we’re proud of our contributions (even if the schizophrenic nature of the cues made us lose our minds at times).
“While this wasn’t my first time scoring, it was the first time I got a little weirder with the job. Since we didn’t have the budget to license the semi-obscure prog song everyone fell in love with during the edit, it forced me to write an original Man Man song to win over hearts/minds, which, in turn, created its own issues because the film people then had to change my mind about not keeping it for the new Man Man album coming out this year.
“Scoring hire aside, a month out from shooting, they asked me to read for one of the film’s antagonists, Caleb Bang Jansen, probably because they wanted to see me run around in only my skivvies (which I somehow overlooked when reading the audition sides) and play a horrendously penned acoustic guitar song on camera. I’d only done one previous feature and a handful of short films, but I love being forced out of my comfort zone. I also have the forgiveness of “musician turned actor” that isn’t afforded to the inverse. Sharing screen time with Alex, Jonah, and Thomas Lennon was a blast. I’ve got the bug if anyone else wants me for anything. That’s how this happens, right? Maybe my dream of a B-Movie actor will finally come true!
“Anyhoo, Sub Pop putting out a 69-track album of bizarre cues means everyone wins. Go see Destroy All Neighbors while it’s on the big screen, rewatch it on Shudder, and stream the fuck out of the soundtrack. I love you.”
Man Man has extended his first headlining tour in support of Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between, the group’s wonderful Sub Pop debut and acclaimed album of 2020. The touring spans Wednesday, June 22nd in Omaha at the Waiting Room through Friday, October 21st in Phoenix at Rebel Lounge. The newly added October dates includes stops in Arizona (Flagstaff), Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Kansas), New Mexico (Albuquerque), and Texas (Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin). Tickets for the October shows are on sale now.
Wed. Jun. 22 - Omaha, NE - Waiting Room *
Thu. Jun. 23 - Davenport, IA - Raccoon Motel *
Fri. Jun. 24 - Chicago, IL - Sleeping Village *
Sat. Jun. 25 - Chicago, IL - Logan Square Arts Festival *
Sun. Jun. 26 - Grand Rapids, MI - Pyramid Scheme *
Tue. Jun. 28 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe *
Wed. Jun. 29 - Washington, DC - Union Stage *
Thu. Jun. 30 - Ardmore, PA - Ardmore Music Hall *
Fri. Jul. 01 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere *
Sat. Jul. 02 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall *
Tue. Jul. 05 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop *
Wed. Jul. 06 - Indianapolis, IN - Hi Fi *
Thur. Jul. 07 - St Louis, MO - Old Rock House *
Fri. Jul. 08 - Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck *
Sat. Jul 09 - Denver, CO - Bluebird *
Sat. Jul. 26 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Catalyst ^
Wed. Jul. 27 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel ^
Thu. Jul. 28 - Redding, CA - The Dip ^
Fri. Jul. 29 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios ^
Sat. Jul. 30 - Seattle, WA - Neumos ^
Thur. Aug. 04 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy & Harriet’s ^
Fri. Aug. 05 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy ^
Sat. Aug. 06 - San Diego, CA - Casbah ^
Tue. Oct. 11 -Flagstaff, AZ - Yucca North
Wed. Oct. 12 - Albuquerque, NM - Sister
Fri. Oct. 14 - Oklahoma City, OK - 89th St.
Sat. Oct. 15 - Kansas, OK - Bushyhead Farm Fall Festival
Sun. Oct. 16 - Fort Worth, TX - Tulip
Tue. Oct. 18 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall
Wed. Oct. 19 - Austin, TX - Parish
Fri. Oct. 21 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge
* w/ Pink $ock
^ w/ Adam Halferty
Like many others, Man Man’s initial touring for the album was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and these shows will be the first time to see these “cacophonous…theatrical pop songs” (Rolling Stone) performed live.
What people are saying about Man Man’s Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between:
“It makes sense that Ryan Kattner of Man Man would release his best album to date during a pandemic. His band persona, Honus Honus, is perpetually down on his luck — bizarre and lovelorn, lonely and insane — haunted. In short, he’s all of us right now.” ★★★★ Rolling Stone
“In times as chaotic as these, Man Man provides a restless soundtrack to match.” - Exclaim!
“Based on “Cloud Nein” and this [“Future Peg”], it looks like Man Man are picking up where they left off with all the mood-lifting horns and fantastical vocal harmonies you could want.” -Consequence Of Sound
“Honus Honus—a.k.a. Ryan Kattner—is back with his freewheeling off-kilter pop group Man Man, and possibly its most accessible record yet. As eclectic as ever, the sprawling mix of horns, keys, percussion, guitars, and more remains a half-step away from sounding like the most unusual cabaret act in modern times.” - The AV Club
“The songs are served well by more polished production, tunes like “On the Mend” and album standout “Future Peg” molding the band’s unbridled energy into pop structures that would sit well on commercial FM rock radio playlists. The melodies are clear and neatly presented without neutering the group’s signature chaos or adventurous arrangements.” - All Music
“Revives the band’s wry sense of the grotesque, juxtaposed with joyfully unhinged and happily unpredictable music. Dream Hunting is full of other fun musical allusions — to the cartoon soundtracks of Carl Stallings, to Caribbean carnival music, to David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” — and the melodies are more accessible and the hooks more overt than in the past. Lyrically, the songs are bleak, full of breakups and meltdowns, broken dreams and maladies. The contrast is cathartic, and Man Man’s return is a treat.” - Philadelphia Inquirer
“Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between has the feel of a quality thrift store, with lots of unusual pieces in great condition. It also provides the same kind of fun surprises as you wade deeper into the album. Man Man has always had theatrical elements but here those elements feel much closer to the surface, if not ready to burst through, then at least enjoying their time in the in-between of the more familiar tracks (8.5/10)” - Northern Transmissions
“The piano-based songs carry elements of jazz and rock, with Kattner’s keen ear for sing-along melodies matched only by his desire to attack such melodies with unexpected bursts of bedlam. Those tumultuous bursts, occurring frequently and usually without warning, are part of what makes Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between so exciting, with no dull moments even over 17 tracks of content.” - Glide Magazine
Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between is ultimately an enjoyable record from a unique band. - Under the Radar
