Mini Mansions

Hailing from Los Angeles, Mini Mansions specialize in dark psych-pop whose smoldering rock textures and abundant hooks reflect the other projects of its members: multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Michael Shuman serves as bassist for Queens of the Stone Age, bassist Zach Dawes collaborates with the Last Shadow Puppets, and vocalist-keyboardist Tyler Parkford tours with Arctic Monkeys. The trio nevertheless maps the glossy exteriors and shadowy underside of its native city through distinctive wit and irony, whether delivering a glacial reinterpretation of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" or interweaving dramatic gestures with confessional vocals across 2015's The Great Pretenders and 2019's Guy Walks Into a Bar….

Longstanding friendships underpin the group's origins: Shuman and Dawes knew each other from childhood, while Dawes encountered Parkford during their studies in Santa Cruz, California. In 2005 Dawes forwarded Shuman several of Parkford's compositions; after Parkford's return to Los Angeles in 2008, the three resolved to collaborate musically. They formally adopted the name Mini Mansions in 2009 once Queens of the Stone Age concluded its touring cycle for Era Vulgaris. Shuman and Parkford selected their strongest preexisting material and shaped it into a self-released EP issued later that year. The band kept recording, with QOTSA frontman Josh Homme handling mixes on several tracks, and prepared its self-titled debut album. The single "Monk," incorporating a slow-motion version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass," surfaced in June 2010 via Psychedelic Judaism; the full album followed in November 2010 on Ipecac Records and Homme's Rekords Rekords. In 2012 Mini Mansions issued several unused album tracks as the Besides EP.

After two and a half years of songwriting for its sophomore effort, the band tracked the album at Vox Recording Studios in L.A. with contributions from Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and Brian Wilson (Dawes also supplied bass for Wilson's 2015 album No Pier Pressure). T-Bone Burnett's Electro Magnetic imprint put out The Great Pretenders in March 2015. The 2016 crowd-funded release Flashbacks gathered B-sides and unreleased material from those sessions.

Following separate commitments with their respective side projects, Dawes, Parkford, and Shuman regrouped for the 2018 EP Works Every Time. Produced once more with Cian Riordan, the set contained some of the band's most intimate material alongside a cover of Edwyn Collins' "A Girl Like You." Its title track later appeared on Mini Mansions' third album, July 2019's Guy Walks Into a Bar…. Chronicling the arc of an ill-fated relationship experienced by Shuman, the record featured guest appearances by the Kills' Alison Mosshart, Z. Berg (formerly of the Like), and QOTSA drummer Jon Theodore.