Islands and Man Man Join Forces for 'Doom-Wop' Project

If there was ever a reason to start up a musical side project, pioneering a far-out sub-genre like "doom-wop" would be it.

"I guess I coined the term sort of facetiously. I'm not sure how much doom metal will actually shine through," Islands frontman Nick Thorburn tells Spinner of his new outfit, which falls sonically somewhere between low-frequency drone and classic doo-wop.

Still in its early stages, the currently-untitled project is a collaboration between Thorburn and Ryan Kattner -- otherwise known as Honus Honus, frontman for Philadelphia's Man Man. The new partnership isn't intended to eclipse the pair's respective day jobs. "We're just trying to make each other laugh and enjoy each other's company creatively," Thorburn explains.

The group's repertoire may still be limited -- two or three songs in Thorburn's estimation -- but it's quite an achievement when you consider the cross-state commute Kattner has to make every time the duo feels like working on what the the New York-based Thorburn calls their "old-timey beats."

With news of doom-wop's debut sparking interest throughout the blogosphere, you'd assume that Thorburn and Kattner would do their best to capitalize on the hype with a quick bout of releases. According to the ex-Montrealer though, that's not how they're going to play it. "We won't release a proper record necessarily," Thorburn says. "We're probably going to release all the tracks on the Internet at the same time, do something forward-thinking."

That's frustrating news for those dying to get a sense of what doom-wop is all about, but by the time we actually get the chance to hear the duo's tracks firsthand, they might be dealing with an entirely different genre, if Thorburn's free-flowing attitude is any indication. "One of the completed songs has more of a 'doom-reggae' feel than doom-wop," he says, "but we'll see."