Last night, May 2, fans of Mannequin Pussy saw actress Angourie Rice and her fictional band in Mare of Easttown performing Mannequin Pussy songs that had been re-recorded for the show. It was the third episode of the successful new HBO miniseries, during which the fictional band played a set at a college radio station.
The band’s music had first appeared when Rice sang a section from Mannequin Pussy’s 2019 song “Who you Are” during the first episode. Now, the full band gets to shine. Mannequin Pussy is a fitting group for the series, since many of their songs deal with similar themes of love and personal reflection to what Rice’s character is experiencing onscreen. Besides that, they’re Philadelphia locals.
Mare of Easttown is a show that follows detective Mare Sheehan (played by Kate Winslet) as she investigates the murder of a teenage mother in a small town near Philadelphia, PA. Rice plays Sheehan’s daughter Siobhan.
Vocalist Marisa “Missy” Dabice announced their involvement in the show once it began airing in April. In a Twitter thread, she commented on how they had been contacted about it by the show’s team over a year ago. Mannequin Pussy was on tour in Europe at the time, so they had been unable to meet with Rice and the band in-person to coach them on what it’s like to be a band like Mannequin Pussy. However, they sent Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast in their place to teach them how to act like a band in general.
Dabice adds that the band was not told which episodes their music would be featured on, and she encourages fans to watch the whole series. It’s a seven-episode miniseries that has been airing on Sundays since April 18, and will end on May 30.
The tour they had been playing when they were contacted by HBO was in support of their breakout album Patience (2019), which saw them move from their noisy garage-rock roots into much more melodic style. They had released two previous albums, Gypsy Pervert (2014) and Romantic (2016). The band is set to release a new five-song EP on May 21, 2021 called Perfect via Epitaph Records. Two singles have been shared from it so far, “Control” and “Perfect,” each of which got high-production music videos.
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