The problem with punk rock at this point in time is that it's all been done and done to death. The problem lies in the fact that musically speaking the stuff is simplistic and usually rooted in three chords repeated ad nauseum. There's nothing complicated about that formula and as a result so many punk rock bands sound like so many other punk rock bands that it is almost impossible to differentiate between them. You really, really have to stand out nowadays to be any good and unfortunately Mannequin Men don't really do anything different that makes you jump up and go, "Wow, that's a great band."
As if to make a point, Mannequin Men's album, Lose Your Illusion, Toois as clichéd as the title is. Aside from ripping off a Guns and Roses album title from nearly twenty years ago the band doesn't do anything different that 900,000 other punk rock bands are doing right now. The group plays snotty, sneering, blistering punk rock with shouted choruses, angsty/silly lyrics and the same riffs that you know by heart played into infinity. It's not terribly original and by about the fifth song it all sounds exactly alike.
While some punk bands go off the deep end, Riverboat Gamblers for example, Mannequin Men simply don't. From the happily titled, "Rathole," to the party anthem, "(Us and) All Our Friends Are So Messed Up," the band stay true to the tried and tested formulas of punk rock and their record suffers because of that. Unfortunately, I don't find stuff like that exciting; it's no wonder I was always a metal kid growing up instead of a punker, at least they could play.
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