Well, we are definitely late to the pop and grunge influenced party thrown by Mannequin Death Squad. The Australian duo has been making a racket since 2016 and they are currently wrecking a beautiful havoc on the UK indie scene while on tour. Thanks to a hot tip from the most excellent Christopher Nosnibor of Aural Aggravation, we might be fashionably late but we are fully supporting the band in their quest for world domination. Their newest single “Super Mental Psycho” is an unapologetic, super catchy, spicy ear-candy that will make you dance, shout and sing along.
Dan and Elly photographed by Jaz Huggan
There are so many excellent bands on the indie market these days. It’s hard to keep up with our local UK scene, let alone to know what’s happening in music in different countries. This is how we missed Mannequin Death Squad in the first place, a ground breaking, genre bending outfit that are known for switching their instruments on stage and giving wild, authentic performances. The band consists of Elena Velisnky (aka Elly Vex) & Daniel Cohn (aka DAN) who have been making music together for nearly a decade now. They debuted with a 5 track EP called “Eat Hate Regurgitate” that earned them a contract with UK based label, Integrity Records. A couple of singles followed (“Sick”, “KYMS” and “Van Gogh”) and the band toured Europe twice in 2017 and 2018.
A chance meeting with legendary Australian producer, Mark Opitz (Cold Chisel, Divinyls, INXS) led the band to record more pop punk orientated material (“Honey Punch” and “Blue”) that received praise from the independent press domestically and abroad. Australian Beat Magazine called “Blue” a “belter of a single” and British Get In Her Ears labelled their sound as “perfect”. “Honey Punch” was particularly popular with BBC 6 Music receiving multiple airplays from Steve Lamacq who compared them to Veruca Salt and The Melvins. Slaves were impressed with them too, the band opened a handful of shows for them alongside Estrons.
Released at the end of July, “Super Mental Psycho” is the first single and title track from Mannequin Death Squad’s upcoming debut album that will come out on 28th of September. The song stands exactly at 2 minutes and 58 seconds which should make a lot of radio DJ’s super happy as they love tracks that have less than three minutes. I’m not sure how the band did it, but they squeezed so much energy and passion into this one tune that could easily fill several albums. “Super Mental Psycho” is fast, loud, proud and has an unexpected tempo change at 1minute and 40 seconds mark which is probably my favourite part of the song.
Steve Lamacq is not wrong – Mannequin Death Squad sound like a younger sibling of Veruca Salt that learnt how to sing and play from the riot grrl movement bands that came out in late 80’s/early 90’s out of Olympia, Washington – The Go Team, Team Dresch, Sleater-Kinney or Hole. There is a definitive grunge flavour to their riffs and rhythmic section, to the tune of Green River “Rehab Doll” or early Screaming Trees (“Uncle Anaesthesia”).
It’s really fascinating as so far, it was their fellow countrymen, Amyl and The Sniffers that were praised as the saviours of 90’s grunge music and credited with bringing it back into current decade. I absolutely love Amyl but I could never agree with the grunge label that the press gave them early in their careers. For me, they were always more of a classic punk rock band without the foundation of hard rock and heavy metal that gave birth to the Seattle sound as we know it. Despite their pop punk aesthetic, Mannequin Death Squad are way heavier, louder than them may seem. In my book, it’s a great compliment to draw from the past genres and skilfully mix it into a track that easily can be played on home time radio show.
Mannequin Death Squad are currently in the middle of their UK wide tour and according to the reviews online, they are excellent. They still have 6 shows left so catch them if you can.
Follow the band online at:
https://www.facebook.com/mannequindeathsquad
https://www.instagram.com/mannequindeathsquad/
https://mannequindeathsquad.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/MannequinDsquad
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXPnXKDCLIxHhcpCEAX2SxQ
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5AzjW5JyaBBRJR1FUjD9iA
With bands such as Mannequin Death Squad, HAWXX, Delilah Bon, Glytsh, Soap Girls and others leading the way, heavy music seems to be in safe hands. And it’s a very encouraging thing to say.
Rita Dabrowicz
Indieterria 