CD review: Headhum -- Manican [LP]

This is a crazy-great month for local music, and far, far out in front of the pack is Headhum’s ground-breaking Manican, the seven-song LP slash love child of Andy Tanner, previously the singer-songwriter for the band Laymen Terms, which, over seven years, turned out four albums on Suburban Home Records. Had I known their sound -- or about Andy Tanner’s gift -- before this month, I would have been a huge fan and I would have been blabbing on before now. But, alas, I’m just now finding out. The sound here is like someone of immense musical talent who has the confidence -- and the experience -- to really branch out and deconstruct music to find and build something entirely, entirely new -- new for the Grunge genre and new for Rock and new for just music. We say music or a band sounds “new” or “fresh” or what have you all the damn time. That’s until you hear something like this LP and realize you wasted “new” and “fresh” and have no words left to describe the very newness and freshness you’ve just had the privilege of experiencing. Innovative? That’s just for starters. Joined with the enormous talents of drummer Jonathan Johnson and bassist Noah Harpman, Tanner’s brilliance as a singer-songwriter who plays baritone and electric guitars and keyboards and incorporates sound samples is full actualized on clean, crisp tracks. With influences such as diverse as The Replacements and Nirvana, buckle up for the totally uncharted but for that which also boasts a structural purity – matched equally by intensity -- and lyrics that are on fire, amazing, on and on. This CD is crazy-impressive, brilliant and then some. I’m writing home.

http://www.destinationmoonmusic.com/headhum.html
http://www.myspace.com/headhum
http://www.myspace.com/andytanner