Old School

Self portrait by Mannekin Piss

Mannekin Piss is a lesson to all the poor confused hardcore bands who run out of inspiration after two EPs and turn into either an art project or sign a bad deal with a label and release three uninspiring albums because the contract says they have to. The San Diego four piece's sound harks back to FUN political hardcore bands like Batallion Of Saints, Reagan Youth or, to a certain extent, speedcore kings Cryptic Slaughter. Fuck, I've wanted to write about Cryptic Slaughter since I was 17. What a fucking amazing logo they had. Money Talks? What a fucking album. It's worth getting for the back cover alone. Bill Crooks with his amazing soap spikes? Did you know they've reformed? They have a new song which is half great and half terrible, like Extreme Crazytown or something. Umm, just like Sam McPheeters' new band Wrangler Brutes—which was formed off the back off the amazingly boring and spazzy Men's Recovery Project—the basic premise of Mannekin Piss seems to be unlearn everything about hardcore that you think you know and start right from the beginning. "The main inspiration for us getting together was basically having one spot where we could share each other's pot," Piss guitarist Mario Rubalcaba (ex-Clikatat Ikatowi, Hot Snakes and RFTC) told me over the internet. "Sometimes our drummer Matt A (ex of Heroin) would only have Mexican dirt weed. Then Deadboy (the singer) would walk in with some deep chronic and we'd tell Matt to save his nasty dirt weed for later. Then we'd just start playing old Batallion Of Saints and Reagan Youth covers. "We slowly retaught ourselves to write simple fun trashy punk songs, with a 60s feel to it. If hardcore had existed in the 60s it would be us." VICE: What's wrong with the present?
"A lot of the hardcore I hear nowadays just sounds like Korn or Pantera demo tracks. It's not loose or trashy like I like it." Mannekin Piss' Planet Death LP is out now on Flapping Jet.