With fire in their sound and fury in their lyrics, Philadelphia punk ambassadors Mannequin Pussy are shepherding in the generation of fans that the genre has (arguably) been waiting for.
Stream: ‘Perfect’ – Mannequin Pussy
There’s no better time to be in a punk band than now… Gen Z is angry, and they have every right to be.
There lies with certain musical artists an undefinable level of dedication to their craft, and it speaks to why they immerse themselves into it. It’s the sense that the musician isn’t just making music to just express themselves or tell their story, but rather they are doing it as an homage to what music gives back to them.
That’s the impression you get speaking with Marisa Dabice from Philly-based punk rock aficionados Mannequin Pussy who we were fortunate enough to catch up with in September at Firefly Music Festival.
Dabice is a purely incomprehensible force of a front person who commands the stage and audience; simply put, she personifies the genre.
Fans marvel during their set at the raw energy and emotion that she puts forth and if it’s cliche’ to say she leaves it all on the stage, well then so be it.
Mannequin Pussy present so very well on stage with the core components of guitar, bass and drums doing the real heavy lifting. Their sound is very much in accordance with the unwritten bylaws that true punk bands abide by: Play it angry, but make the message discernible.
Covering primarily outdoor music festivals with quite a bit more frequency than traditional walled venues, it’s always a curiosity to know about the technical nuances, pros/cons and hurdles artists might come up against: “The biggest difference is you get a sound check at a venue. So, you can actually sound good and hear yourself. When you play a festival you probably sound terrible for about the first four songs. But every musician I know is not going to hold that against the festival. It’s just the nature of the chaos.”
Still on the topic of festivals, Firefly being on a decade-long run in 2022 begged the question of what it must be like from the artist experience standpoint at an established festival: “I feel like festivals are very artist friendly. You might not get a soundcheck, but you’re going to get fed several times throughout the day,” she says, laughing.
2022 saw a very tour-heavy schedule for the band, spanning the globe with dates in the U.S., UK, and Ireland in support of their 2021 five song EP aptly titled Perfect.
Songs like “Control” and “Darling” highlight a more melodic and reflective feel, with great vocal storytelling in the former and the latter revealing a sort of loving vulnerability. “Pigs Is Pigs” drives much harder and reminds us why Mannequin Pussy is one of the premier punk acts today, due to their allegiance to the truest form of the genre.
The process for Perfect could not have been more different for the band, since the EP was born out of a worldwide pandemic and really forced the band to pivot creatively.
“It sucked,” Dabice shares candidly. Everyone I knew was isolated and depressed and having a really hard time finding motivation to feel creative. It was the first time we went into something unprepared. We just went into the studio and decided to write songs. That was a really interesting practice for us.”
Dabice spoke a bit on punk rock’s storied history of serving as a corollary between music and social climates.
Given the laundry list of truly historic socio-political and socio-economic events of the last few years you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who could have summed it up better: “I feel like there’s no better time to be in a punk band than now,” she says. “Mannequin Pussy has grown in popularity in the last couple of years, and I attribute that to the fact that this generation is angrier than past generations.”
“Gen Z is angry, and they have every right to be. They’re growing up in this hyper connected digital space, with so much information available to them. They can properly dissect the history of this country and the government they’re growing up with and they can clearly and intellectually pinpoint the big reasons why we have the issues that we do in American politics.”
As 2022 fades into 2023, we hope to see Mannequin Pussy continuing to push themselves and the punk genre forward.
— —
:: stream/purchase Perfect here ::
— — — —
Connect to Mannequin Pussy on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
? © Mo Smith (Phobymo)
:: Stream Mannequin Pussy ::
