Band of the Week: Dr. Manhattan

[January 12-18]

Dr. Manhattan
Sounds Like: Post-Punk
Drinking Buddies: Test Icicles, Foxy Shazam, Wax On Radio

Synopsis: Dr. Manhattan is a word scramble. Have fun! O-U-I-U-F-S-R

Makes You Want To...: Wild out; SCREAM!;
[Myspace]

One week, one band. You know the drill.
This week, the featured artist is Dr. Manhattan.


BRRRR!!! It's officially cold folks, at least all across the Western Hemisphere. Let me give you a set up of my present living conditions. My new place is on the second floor of a two story house, an abode that I dare say with complete legitimacy is easily over 100 years old. But there is no attic to this house with this second floor of mine (the adjacent room to my bedroom is the attic, for all intensive purposes). This means there's not a whole lot of space seperating my head between the roof of the house, meaning there's next to no room for any sort of insulation. Meaning it gets FREEZING up here (the other night I could see my breath... with the heater on... that's not right).

Since there's also no central heating in a house this antiquated, there's really no easy way to stay warm. How does one manage? Turn on a couple electric heaters, find the nearest blanket and couch, layer your clothes, and bite you lip! How do I manage? I keep my body MOVING. Not that I'm running laps around the house, mind you, but even when I'm sitting somewhere, I keep a groove going. With the right music, not only can you have an amiable time dancin' your butt off, but reader, you'll also have the blood in your veins coarsing and warming every section of that body. But to understand the cold, and to understand how to keep warm in such cold, you've got to find a band that knows their stuff, and (of course), has their own groove in their music.

Dr. Manhattan may not be affiliated with the Big Apple, but somewhere amidst the jumbled mountain of suburbs off Lake Michigan on the outskirts Chicagoland rests the town of Wauconda. And in this snowy little town resides a quartet of raving, rabid, riotous collection of post-punk rockers who see things a tad differently. You have to consider them a smidgen off the beaten path if you realize they're singing something like "Gunpowder: A Ballet." You must not only consider the oddity, but relish in it, as the sounds of gentle piano juxtaposed with vicious guitar riffs rocket through your ears. Dr. Manhattan takes your conceptions of music and rips them apart like a shredder.

It's one thing to bring a raging passion to the stage, but this is just ridiculous. With quick-spit lyrics alongside a pulsing drumbeat, Dr. Manhattan slurs poisonous rhyme like a venomous snake, the key objective to bring their respective listeners down to their rowdy level (that is to say, into a turbid frenzy). A slew of nonstandard chords filter out of the speakers as if in homage to The Blood Brothers, while a new pulse of young blood is invigorated with complex song structure. Not to mention that this cool Illinois cats know how to have themselves some fun; their vibrant, raucous attitude rings like silver while they parade in a violent soirée before their audiences. It's rumoured that Dr. Manhattan's live performances are indescribable in the best ways possible. Judging by their recorded work, I'm going to have to gossip and suggest that such fabrications are entirely true.

Cold, cold, it's so cold, dear reader. And that's down here in Texas. Those Illinois folks must be feeling it quite bitterly, but promises are that Dr. Manhattan will be heating things up as they play a few local shows around their home state, filling their free time with work on their sophomore album. Afterwards, Dr. Manhattan is launching on a rip-roaring tour of frivolity and debauchery across the states with the likes of The AKAs and Foxy Shazam. These boys have released an EP every year since 2005, culminating in the debut of their freshman self-titled LP last year. As if that weren't cool enough, Dr. Manhattan also support the Illinois natives working hard at Futureappletree Studio 1, and have graced the Daytrotter studios with an exclusive performance. You can check their perfomance out, or of course visit the boys on Myspace and give them a shout out. Have a nice week, faithful readers! Stay warm.