Shropshire Star

Birmingham show promotes new Mini Mansions record

Mini Mansions will perform in Birmingham this spring to promote their third studio album.

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LA's Mini Mansions

The LA rockers have announced Guy Walks Into A Bar... will be released on July 26 on Fiction Records.

Before that, the trio will be in Birmingham at Kings Heath's Hare & Hounds to promote the record on May 9.

They've just released new single GummyBear, from the forthcoming album, and lead singer Michael Shuman said: “Although GummyBear is rather fun and comical, the sentiment and story behind it are quite the opposite.

"At that time I really wanted to make an all-disco record, but I guess this is as close as Mini Mansions gets to being part of the Gibbs family.”

On the tour, they will be joined by Shuman’s fellow Queens of the Stone Age bandmate and friend Jon Theodore, who also revolutionised the dynamic of the band by playing drums on Guy Walks Into A Bar…

"Guy Walks Into A Bar… as an album 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," Shuman continues. "There are 100 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 result is their sleekest, most direct and downright poppiest effort to date. There are some additional familiar voices dotted in, including a duet with The Kills’ Alison Mosshart on Hey Lover and backing vocals from Z Berg - former singer in The Like - on Forgot Your Name and Living In The Future.

Earlier this year at Barefoot Studios in Hollywood, the band flipped the song writing script by kicking the cocktail kit and bringing in an outside drummer. Shuman’s bandmate and friend Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, Mars Volta) graciously entered the picture.

While all three of Mini Mansions are occupied with other gigs - Shuman still plays bass in Queens of The Stone Age, Zach Dawes plays in The Last Shadow Puppets, and Tyler Parkford in Arctic Monkeys - Mini Mansions is where they feel most at home.

Tickets for the Hare & Hounds gig are available here.

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