ManCub

With a perforated, paneled structure as its backdrop with lights shining through and strung along the top edge, ManCub started things off with a forceful flood of low end, and both Alex Anderson and Ethan Converse seemed to push themselves headlong into the music with absolute focus, intensity and fluidity at once. The opening had sampled vocals and didn't sound like something that band had on either of its EPs, but the guys followed that up with "8 Bit Crush" and its collision of screaming white noise and 8-bit sounds processed and warped beyond immediate recognition, subservient to the urgent flow of ManCub's rhythm. - The Westword Magazine

We caught up this week with the Denver's ManCub, who just dropped the music video for "Don't Go Dying On Me" from their Business Dogs EP available from Colorado electro indie imprint, Holy Underground Records (aka HUG). Spreading the gospel of anything-you-wanna-be electronic pop sciences; Alex Anderson and his video producer brother Kirk, collaborated with LA graphic artist Suzy Fahmy to turn "Don't Go Dying" into a Bill and Ted transportive and transcend-elic Water World music video adventure that's "better than words". Alex explained it to us like this over our past week's conversations. - Impose Magazine

Today’s Steal This Track brings you fresh music from a couple of fresh Denver bands who prove, once again, that Colorado music lovers of all stripes need not look beyond the walls of our box. Whether your heart beats for the rusty robot music of ManCub or for the dense indie pop of One Sun One Moon, you’ve come to the right place.

Arising unexpectedly from the heavy, progressive rock of Portamento, ManCub began about a year ago as a side project for drummer Alex Anderson and guitarist Danny Stillman. Inspired by electronic acts like Ratatat and hardcore bands like Minor Threat, the two wanted to make live electronic music that retained the rawness of rock and didn’t require computers. After experimenting with a number of vintage drum machines and analog synthesizers that didn’t work in a live context, the pair decided that guitar pedals were the perfect tool to create the loops, effects, noise and atmosphere they wanted to call ManCub.

Stillman and Anderson debuted ManCub in July, and shortly after, Stillman left to accept an offer to play keys with Buffalo-based experimental band the Bunny the Bear. Since then, Anderson has been collaborating with James Wayne of Denver’s Force Publique. The two have evolved the ManCub sound from its noisier incarnation to a dreamy, lo-fi synth sound that is almost poppy.

To give Reverb readers a sense of ManCub’s new direction, Anderson shared with us “The New Sound,” a revision of a song that was previously called “Sound,” from “8-Bit Crush,” the band’s debut EP. Re-recorded, remixed and “spiced up,” in Anderson’s words, “The New Sound” begins as a minimalist, bass-driven track that would be at home on an early record by the Faint, but then transforms into a lush, sweetly melodic dance track that walks the line between ’80s retro and gauzy surf pop. Steal it to hear for yourself, then get out to the Bluebird Theater tonight to see ManCub open for Air Dubai and the Epilogues. - Reverb of the Denver Post

This show was an exercise in local-scene hierarchy. I say that because in my opinion, FLASHLIGHTS should have opened (from a talent perspective) and in reality, Mercuria and the Gemstars probably shouldn’t have been there at all, considering how different they were from the headliners.
First opening, and sounding frankly awesome, were Mercuria and the Gemstars, a half ‘n’ half display of the sexes producing fantastic, rhythm-driven pop/rock with honest lyrics and a captivating front woman in Maria Kohler. Actually, both ladies of the band were of a siren degree, as bassist Julia Mendiolea wowed the audience with her bad-ass bass skills and alluring style. The men were represented by James Hale on drums and Andrew Frank on the sound boards. But Kohler was clearly the nucleus of the band, as her to-and-fro movements and passionate lyrics were shamelessly (and I mean this in a good way) thrown from her throat and into the tonic of their double-tall style. Clearly, this woman was the booze in said tonic.
Next up was FLASHLIGHTS, comprised of Ethan Converse and Sam Martin, who have gained a strong local following that I was curious to look into. With three soundboards, two men and one computer, they make dreamy electronic that doesn’t require the use of one’s arms to dance.
Honestly, their music reminded me of past mushroom trips in cars, when the music coming through the speakers becomes its own entity and starts to take you for a ride instead of the other way around. They were heavy on nod and atmosphere, but lacking in energy. One audience member, Kevin Tenny, even went so far as to say they sounded like “shitty early Depeche Mode” after the show. But personally, I wouldn’t say the same.
Rave-y buildups give way to beat-dropping rhythms, with a singer that is indie-earnest and boyish in both voice and enthusiasm. If the term “shoegaze” wasn’t already in use and fully loaded, as far as genres go, it would apply well here. Electronic Shoegaze, one could say.
Their last song was a new one, appropriately titled “Drugs.” While I haven’t done drugs myself in quite a long time, I must say, I found myself wishing I had some early on in the show, just to be on the same level the band’s music appeared to be. At any rate, this track seemed to verify my first impression. FLASHLIGHTS is a good band, no doubt, and have earned the following they have in Denver. Their just not my band.
Headliners ManCub, however, melted my face off.
See, you don’t need drugs to get into Danny Stillman and Alex Anderson’s ManCub, or even want them. In fact, I might strongly caution against them. These guys are indie-dance of the Denver persuasion, in that they are dark and submersing, with the kind of live rock feel that makes you want to watch the stage instead of just dance and lose yourself.
So why would I caution against the drug use here? Clearly, these guys have a Ministry album or two at home. I would even go so far as to guess they have Fear Factory’s Demanufacture as well. Combine this with a video game or ten, as well as the dance-beat knowledge most prominently displayed by groups like Junior-Senior, and you get ManCub. A band that is constantly pulling the taffy in you between self-losing dissonance and power-hungry dancing. These guys don’t fuck around. They get inside your head, and they make you feel nothing.
Now I am not ashamed to admit I was a goth kid in high school. I was also into going to the occasional rave. Both lifestyles encouraged a pursuit of oblivion I found enjoyable, and the kind of music that encouraged transcendance from life either via bliss or devastation. Later, I found out that goth kids spotted at raves were called “gravers.” I found this pretty funny, really. And I’ll bet ManCub did too. You just get the impression that these two scraggly, long-haired local kids had something go really wrong at some point, probably around the time they got into computer programing and sound boards.
With green and red lights that h - Denver Grass Roots

ManCub is a Denver-based electronic band comprised of 20-something natives, Danny Stillman and Alex Anderson. Their name, initially an affectionate term coined by Anderson’s old girlfriend, now operates as a little twist of the knife following her unceremonious dumping of Anderson for another guy.

Vendetta aside, ManCub creates an addictive drone toned buzz of beats and reedy vocals springing from a pile of 80’s synths, drum machines and mics obtained from incessant Craigslist trolls.

Their arts and crafts packaging uses hand stitched scraps of denim marked with a “MNCB” gold spray paint stencil. In addition to the five track CD, the pocket contains a handmade sticker as well as an assortment of upcoming gig flyers. - The Denver Egotist

?Nothing you've heard about ManCub can probably prepare you for ManCub.
It would be easy to compare the duo to Daft Punk because both make groove-heavy electronic music and have an arresting visual element to their shows, but ManCub seems more tied-in with a raw energy of punk. These guys jump when the rhythm hits a particularly intense moment, the group's sampled drums sound like an acoustic kit. Mixing the dark and lurid with the upbeat and the driving, Mancub didn't let up last night at the hi-dive.
?And that's not often something you can say about artists that make electronic music. Maybe Pragha Kahn or Vaughan Harris or Trent Reznor. Or whomever. These guys were in motion the whole time in a real way and that inspired much of the audience to dance along with them. Nothing sounded samey and the variety of the songs was impressive on its own. Between the visceral feel of the performance, the sonic assault and the chaotic visual component of the show, Mancub seemed like A Place To Bury Strangers' guitar rock -- larger than life and incredibly forceful. - Westword

By: Joel Frieders
mancub, 8 bit crush, electronic, effects, dance, denver, colorado
Album Rating:
7

"What the fuck am I listening to?" My topless wife asks.

"Put some fucking clothes on, we're at the mall." I says, I says to her.

ManCub are two hairy fuckers from Colorado who beat beat machines and run them through a shitload of guitar effects pedals. Having a number of these do-hickeys myself, I was attracted to the idea of hairy men pushing buttons. Imagine their supple hairy thumbs hitting plastic pads o' plenty while the beats pulsate on and on and on and on...

OH FAG-GASM!

At first this shit annoyed me. Who the fuck makes 8 bit techno dance music and has that much hair? How am I supposed to take this seriously? I'm a professional music critic! (Read: I run a music site with my best friends and only talk about things I like, so that kind of makes me a pussy actually. FUCK YOU FOR NODDING YOUR HEADS! FUCKERS! COCKLIPPED FUCKFUCKERS!)

But I find this on par with the first time I listened to Crystal Castles when I wasn't on pain killers for an Easter appendectomy. It's glitchy tick tick boom with a vocoder voice voicing vocoder voices through a vocoder type shit, and even though I'm sure I could overlook it because it doesn't sound any different than alot of the shit I pass up on SYFFAL, it's got something.

What is that something? Call it quirk. Call it spunk. Call it hutzpa. Call it two hairy fuckers bent over a table making music I used to drop acid to.

It isn't overly or overtly complicated, but what it is to me is potential for the potential for even more electro fuckery, using even MORE guitar effects pedals and EVEN MORE HAIR!

I'm partial to music that sounds like a chainsaw getting fucked in the ass on occasion, and on this occasion, the chainsaw got fucked in the ass with a second set of hands yanking on the cord and blowing into a kazoo.

ManCub: The future of hippies everywhere is inside their bedrooms making dance music.

MY PARENTS SHOULD BE HAPPY THEY AREN'T LIVE ACTION ROLE PLAYING WITH FOAM SWORDS OR TRYING TO DATE THEIR DAUGHTER AND MAKE HER A HEMP NECKLACE ON THEIR HEMP-LOOM.

Fucking hippies.

- Shut your fucking face and listen