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[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Mannequin Men – Massage (2009)

Mannequin Men are my favorite new band this decade, perhaps because they’re one of the only group of guys I’d want to hang out with whether or not music was involved. For a band that has garnered (and earned) comparisons to the Replacements, “Massage” sounds a lot more like This Year’s Model-era Elvis Costello filtered through 30 years of sexual, cultural, and musical frustrations that have repeated themselves again and again and again. On “Massage,” Kevin Richards  sings about how his masseuse ex-girlfriend turned out to be a liar, a manipulator, and a mooch. And thus, we have the age-old rock “she took my money” motif that also rips on the fake, manipulative fevered egoes of bullshit fakers that have seeped into to coolest girl at the cool kids’ party. This kind of garage punk snottiness was once reserved for other-wordly fake celebrities. “Massage” applies it to the Mannequin Men’s peers. And off of this is wrapped into Mannequin Men’s best pop track, with guitar hooks a plenty, a singalong chorus which you shouldn’t really be singing along to, and New York Dolls-esque fadeout that pretty much closes the book on a song about unabashed hipster decadence. Mannequin Men are a band who couldn’t be fake if they tried; it’s only fitting that their most(relatively) popular track would tackle contemporary cultural demons head-on.

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One Response to “[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #86 Mannequin Men – Massage”

1. Kevin Kujawa
   October 21st, 2009 @ 9:42 pm

   thanks, Eth. That was really nice of ya.

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