Supergroup Mini Mansions to headline Bedford venue

The band is poised to release their third studio album Guy Walks Into A Bar… in July and their new single GummyBear is out now.

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.”

Shuman, who plays bass in Queens Of The Stone Age, is joined in Mini Mansions by Zach Dawes who plays in The Last Shadow Puppets and Tyler Parkford from Arctic Monkeys.

When the band head out on their UK tour in May, they will be joined by Shuman’s fellow Queens of the Stone Age band mate and friend Jon Theodore, who also revolutionised the dynamic of the band by playing drums on their new LP.

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, happily disaffected by trend, time or place, like the titular joke itself.

“It started off as a joke because it is a joke,” explains Shuman of the title.

“It's a way to start off the story of a relationship that ends up getting much deeper.”

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-fiancée 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.

The result is their sleekest, most direct and downright poppiest effort to date.

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.

Mini Mansions headline Esquires in Bedford on Thursday, May 16.

Tickets are on sale at 9am on Thursday, February 21, and cost £14 in advance before fees via seetickets.

They are also available via Slide Record Shop, the venue and Marios Hair Design.

For more details, visit https://www.minimansionsmusic.com