Download: Manhattan Murder Mystery “Your Mother’s Neck”

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(from the self-released SKULL EP available now)

Manhattan Murder Mystery is apparently named after the Woody Allen film, not the Velvet Underground song, but either influence seems more than applicable to the MMM sound. There is an unashamed bookishness at play here, similar to Orange Juice, but don’t be mistaken—MMM wants to kick open your doors of perception and rock your mind. An instinctual precision operates when Laura, Matt, Duck Dongo, Brooklyn, Gabe and Todd convene like rock ‘n’ roll animals stalking their prey. “Your Mother’s Neck” is a stand-out track—a story/song about mental degradation and battery. “In the Parking Lot” is a fierce little nutrocker with bongos, tambourines and guitars crumbling into pleading prose and brazen beat. Matt’s voice recalls Tom Verlaine from time to time, with its fierce warble that can be pleasingly piercing one moment and soothing the next. The title track, “Skull,” is lyrically oblique, yet somehow also direct: “When I’m with you I feel invincible/when I press my mitts all over your skull.” You’re carried forward by a full-steam, straight-ahead rhythm locomotive. Last stop: your skull.

 —Eyad Karkoutly