Text by Ben "Mouse" McShane & photos by Laurie Scavo
OFF THE TOP ROPE
Manhattan Murder Mystery reigns supreme at Echo Curio every Friday night in October...
Matthew Teardrop is not a hipster douchebag. Always donning a heavy coat or hoodie, his skull forever covered by a bandana or sock cap, face displaying a wildly unkempt beard, the lead singer and guitarist for Manhattan Murder Mystery looks more like he should be body-slamming the neighbor kid in a bootleg backyard wrestling video than hanging around indie rock clubs.
The first time I met Matthew was through beer goggles. My roommate introduced us after a liver-threatening show. We went to Burrito King where Teardrop ordered a California burrito and ate it like a sandwich. Then he came to our apartment to drink Tecate. I’d just moved to Echo Park.
The next time I saw Teardrop was through beer telescopes. He led me by the arm, like an indie rock Tom Bombadil, into a strange van after a night of blistering music at the art gallery-turned-music-venue Echo Curio. There was wandering through a mysterious house. Strange people. Sweet smells and bitter liquids. Later Teardrop drove me home at an abyssal hour, street lights smeared across my vision through a dirty windshield like electric shit-streaks on midnight underpants. It was a helluva night.
Experiences like this convinced me that Manhattan Murder Mystery should play my birthday party earlier this year, which was a battle royal of a show at Pehrspace, another art-gallery-turned-music-venue. It should be suggested to you that every Manhattan Murder Mystery show is like a battle royal. A wonderful, scummy battle royal.
“Go out there and cut some heads of, ya know?” explains Don Miller, the owner of Don’s Music in Eagle Rock who moonlights as Manhattan Murder Mystery’s indispensable bongo player.
Don’s an older guy with long, stringy gray hair and a wild eye. “We do a group circle, we pray to the creator, and we say ‘We’re gonna cut some heads-off tonight! We’re gonna kill ‘em!’”
Don’s explanation of the band’s philosophy falls in line with the reputation they’ve gained over the last couple years in Los Angeles. Manhattan Murder Mystery’s take on post-punk (truly deserving of the designation) has the sub-Spaceland LA indie art gallery circuit in a choke hold. Every performance finds Teardrop surrounded by his faithful following and on his back, or in the arms of fans, or scrambling to locate / plug-in his equipment mid-song.
Any group of slackers can thrash about, but Manhattan Murder Mystery’s take on the no-holds barred rock show aspires for a greater purpose, with Wrestemania-like ritual power. Having Katja Arce (one of the LA scene’s most respected bassists) in Teardrop’s corner doesn’t hurt. And his tag partner, drummer Laura Velez, is just as responsible for the band’s signature sound.
“She came-up with the harmonica stuff and all that,” Teardrop informs me while munching on a veggie burrito at Pescado Mojado in Echo Park. “Something you don’t see every day, I guess.”
I got a good, sweaty grapple with that sound when I sat-in on a Manhattan Murder Mystery rehearsal last month; in the same strange house Matthew Teardrop whisked me off to over a year ago. The band spent most of the rehearsal trying to pin-down a new untitled song that features a hyper-angular guitar jangle and lyrics from the perspective of deceased wrestler Owen Hart.
“I kind of combined Owen Hart’s story with like, I dunno, bitching about other stuff?” Teardrop told me later that night. “Usually it just turns into me ranting. It starts out writing about Owen Hart and then it’s like, you’re just pissed off about something.”
Teardrop sells himself short, a common occurrence when speaking with him. His regular guy appearance, wickedly talented band, and kayfabe-enhanced live show notwithstanding, the lynchpin to Manhattan Murder Mystery’s appeal is Teardrop’s philosophic lyrics. The band’s newly released EP Skull (one of the year’s best) is pumped with literary references and poetic imagery, lending an operatic quality to Manhattan Murder Mystery’s slobberknocker style. “Ulysses,” for example, ponders a world where James Joyce lives in 2009 and the ramifications of that on both Joyce and contemporary society. Why the noisy rock music with romantic notions?
“Well, what else you gonna write about?” Teardrop muses, a little incredulously. “It’s like, love and death. I could maybe shoot for birth, but that’s a little more gross, a little more disgusting, than anything else.”
Manhattan Murder Mystery plays Echo Curio every Friday in October. $5. 1519 Sunset Blvd, Echo Park, CA 90026.
The SKULL EP is available for purchase at Only For the Open Minded or from the band at shows.
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