When I called Man Man's Honus Honus, he was riding around Philadelphia on his bike, speaking hopefully about not getting hit by a car. That neatly sums up the band's sound on their debut, The Man in the Blue Turban with the Face. The album's atmosphere is like an acid-laced carnival on television in a room with your drunken grandfather. But lying therein is a lot of heart. I was thrilled to talk with Honus, who eventually managed to stop pedaling and find a stoop-side seat.

Where are you guys from? New York or Philly?

We're all from Philly. Everybody who was in New York came back to Philly. New York's only good if you have money. I love it here 'cause it's cheap. There's a lot going on in Philadelphia. A lot of great bands. This band would not be able to function in New York. I tell people it's all about livin' the dream.

My favorite track on the album is "Werewolf (on the hood of yer heartbreak)." But what's going on with the sample at the end? I've listened to it a bunch of times and at first I thought it was seagulls, but then thought is was whales, dolphins or seals?

Oh, the doo wop song. That's the sound of Steven (Dufala, a.k.a. Blanco) drowning. You may or may not hear someone screaming for help at the end. That kind of describes the band. Something that starts out soothing, like the sound of the ocean or a day at the beach, but ends with something tragic.

How's the touring been going?

We've been chippin' away at it for the last year. We started out playing with some of the worst bands in the worst places. Like we'd be about to play, and a bottle fight would break out. Right now, things are good, though. No matter what, we're gonna play the same show for 5 people we'd play for 500.

We've been playing together for two years now. We recorded the album in summer 2003. It was supposed to come out last winter. But it came out October 19. The machine was moving slow, you know? It's really great to get positive feedback. We started the band as a reaction to going to bad rock shows.

See, none of us are trained musician kids. We're not trying to imitate the Beatles. We don't even like the Beatles. We're just writing songs. If we didn't all have unhappy lives, this band probably wouldn't exist. We're the happiest when we play for kids and shit out kids. Philly can be a real hater town, but we've got kids singing along. That shit never happens.

The thing is, we want everyone to like us. We want to play for kids. When we play NYU, we want Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen to like us. Fuck it. But this is definitely going to be a word of mouth, barnstorming record. The records I like the most are word of mouth, though.

We played with Calexico a while ago and that was great. Some really enthusiastic kids came up to us and said when they first saw us it was the worst thing ever, but by the end they had smiles on their faces.

A lot of people have been saying you guys are influenced by Tom Waits. What's that all about?

Everybody says Tom Waits, but we're trying to create our own thing. When I was a kid, we were living overseas in Germany, and I had no concept of American culture. I was listening to like, the Fat Boys. My dad played Rain Dogs when I was 7 or 8 and that freaked me out. I was fucked up for the rest of my life. But if people wanna say we sound like whatever, that's great. Growin' up I loved Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I love Etta James - her songs can totally break your heart.

We get a lot of Zappa comparisons and that's great. I may have his moustache. But I've never listened to Zappa aside from that yellow snow song. I don't wanna listen to Zappa right now - I might have an existential crisis.

Blanco doesn't even listen to rock music. He listens to Cuban or Brazilian music. He's never even heard Beefheart. The truth is, our biggest influence is everyday life.

What's the deal with Clinton Killingsworth? Is he in the band now, officially?

He is in the band. He's part of the band. We've always had a fourth slot that's been a revolving door. The band almost fell apart in the winter and he pulled us through the hard times. He's not on the album, but he's in the band.

Can you talk about Jodorowski?

He's awesome. Check out The Holy Mountain. It's tough to find. If there's a Bible or a Koran or whatever to this band, that movie was a big influence. We knew we kind of wanted to go for that kind of feel with our music. But basically we write what we know, and I don't know that much. But yeah, The Holy Mountain. You might have to watch it in multiple sittings. You just have to watch it. You have to get into it.

(At this point, Honus excuses himself and tells me he'll have to call me back. He's being harassed by a drunk who's singing into his phone. A few minutes later, he calls back, and we resume.)

That sort of thing seems to happen to me a lot. I get approached. Or people will cross over to the other side of the street when they see me.

Well, you do have that moustache. With that in mind though, do people ever get rowdy at your shows?

We had a show where this girl just got totally naked. Just got totally naked and took a bucket of water from behind the bar and dumped it on herself. Shit like that happens. Not always. But people have shown up to shows in gorilla suits. We get lots of weird responses. But at least they're responses. We'll take 'em.

Joe Sullivan
February 9, 2005