Mini Mansions, the beloved Los Angeles band comprising members of Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets, recently announced their forthcoming album Guy Walks Into A Bar… which will be released July 26, 2019 on Fiction Records. The band shared the single for “GummyBear” last month and today Blackbook has premiered the video for the track saying ““GummyBear” is a groovily perky track that documents a stage in singer/guitarist Michael Shuman’s recent ill-fated whirlwind relationship – and if the music makes you want to get up and dance, the neon lights, glitterball, and 70’s vibe of the Liam Lynch directed video only serves to further emphasize the song’s dancey DNA.”
Watch the Liam Lynch-directed “GummyBear” below!
Michael Shuman of Mini Mansions remarked on the track saying, “We made a video for new single GummyBear with our friend and comedic legend, Liam Lynch. Inspired by Saturday Night Fever and the classic videos of the early 2000’s, we created some
serious visual eye candy for a song that sonically tastes the same. Pun intended.”
Liam Lynch noted “I’ve known Mike Shuman for over ten years, through my work with Queens of the Stone Age. When he asked me if I’d do a video for Mini Mansions, I was happy to do so. To me, this song really straddles being sort of 70’s and 80’s at the same time. I kept coming back to this BeeGee’s feeling but it was more like a realm in between. This got me thinking about the gateway door on the album cover and maybe that was a doorway to this in-between realm. So this video is a collage and mish-mash of elements but they sort of come together in their bar, disco, neon, and city lights to support the vibe.”
Mini Mansions are the type of gang whose charm lies in their individual idiosyncrasies. A trio of partners-in-crime, best friends and brothers in all but blood, Michael Shuman, Zach Dawes and Tyler Parkford’sunique personalities are reflected in their third forthcoming album Guy Walks Into A Bar… The album was recorded at Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles in 2018. While all three bandmates are occupied with other gigs (notably Dawes plays in The Last Shadow Puppets, Parkford in Arctic Monkeys and Shuman plays bass in Queens Of The Stone Age), Mini Mansions is their priority. And, for this album, Shuman relinquished his role as drummer for the first time. Drumming come courtesy of his QotSA bandmate Jon Theodore.
Guy Walks Into A Bar… is a record that examines the kind of hip-swaying rock’n’roll you’d find on a dive bar jukebox, it sounds happily disaffected by trend, time or place, like the titular joke itself. There are a hundred different kickers to that joke, but this time around the joke’s on them. A guy walks into a bar only to face reality. The album has been a labour of love individually and collectively. In terms of the former, the lyrics on the record penned by singer/guitarist Shuman are the most hard-hitting, self-reflective he’s ever shared, and all informed by a whirlwind relationship that’s since dissipated. His ex-fiancee came into his life after one such night out, and he wrote most of the songs here contained in real time while on the road. As they reveal each stage from beginning to end, the songs change in mood and even specific setting as the relationship itself deteriorated.
Co-produced by Shuman and long time collaborator/mixer Cian Riordan, there are some additional familiar voices dotted in with a duet with The Kills’ front woman Alison Mosshart on “Hey Lover” and backing vocals from Z Berg (former singer in The Like) on “Forgot Your Name” and the disco banger, “Living In The Future”, which sounds like Devo by way of ELO.
The album’s narrative progresses from reckless antics to the serious trappings of starting to care for a person you’ve connected with, falling in love, then swiftly and dramatically falling out of it. There’s a push-pull between the nocturnal whimsy of being freewheelin’ dudes, and a fear of adulthood as the threesome become fully grown men. And, because Mini Mansions are always a good time, the result is both their most heartfelt and their sleekest, most direct and downright poppiest effort to date.
UK Tour Dates
04.05.19 – Live at Leeds – Leeds
05.05.19 – Hit The North – Newcastle
06.05.19 – King Tuts – Glasgow
08.05.19 – Whelans – Dublin, Ireland
09.05.19 – Hare & Hounds – Birmingham
11.05.19 – The Great Escape – Brighton
12.05.19 – The Joiners – Southampton
13.05.19 – The Cavern – Exeter
14.05.19 – Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff
16.05.19 – Esquires – Bedford
17.05.19 – The Portland Arms – Cambridge
18.05.19 – The Waterfront Studio – Norwich
20.05.19 – Picturehouse Social – Sheffield
21.05.19 – The Forum – Tunbridge Wells
22.05.19 – Islington Assembly Hall – London
23.05.19 – District – Liverpool