MAN MAN PLAY LEE’S PALACE (529 BLOOR W) APRIL 14.
Residing in a frenetic, feverish place somewhere between Cab Calloway, Captain Beefheart and Bone Machine–era Tom Waits, this disc lives up to the reputation created by Man Man’s bizarro live sets. It’s no mere exercise in eccentricity, though — marimba, brass and other curios augment the soulful (if half-mad) lyricism of “Mister Jung Stuffed” and “Easy Eats or Dirty Doctor Galapagos.” When Rabbit Habits does finally gear down after its two closing epics (“Poor Jackie” and “Whalebones”), one is only more curious about what other riches lie within Man Man’s madcap looking glass. All hail the death of dour.