“We’re Gonna Super High Fly Karate Kick Your Ass!”

Mantis Defeats Jaguar

The Mantis Is Musical Pornography

“Material With Little Or No Artistic Merit Whose Primary Function Is To Cause Sexual Excitement”

“If Someone Falls Down, Pick ’em Up Right!”

JP – ‘Humping & Shouty MC’

Mex – ‘Señor Tremolo’ AKA ‘Sub-Comandante Drop D’ AKA ‘Chief Ethnic Detuning Officer’

Jimmy – ‘Chief Swears At Fingers’

Pete – ‘Sweaty Syncopation Wizard’

Who are MDJ?

Mantis Defeats Jaguar are a 4 piece band from the Black Country in the West Midlands, UK. Fused together with many influences from around the world they blend together different genres of music to create something unique and always get the party started. Heavily shaped by Hip Hop, Metal & Funk to name a few (think Chili Peppers meets RATM). Pair this with a truly eye catching show and stage antics including costumes to boot. You’ll be sure to have one hell of an experience which is… The Mantis.

Originally formed in 2009, MDJ had some modest local success playing many live gigs and festivals (most notably playing The Rock & Blues Custom Show 2011, Derbyshire) until disbanding at the end of that year. Reforming during the covid pandemic in 2020 then finally recording and releasing their first single ‘Advantage Mantis’ in March 2022. Followed by their second single ‘We’re High (When we get down)’ which was released in July 2022.

Now back at it in 2023 playing live and with new music in the form of their latest single ‘Question’ (June ‘23) Mantis Defeats Jaguar are well and truly back. Their out and out main goal is to have fun, love one another and always put a smile on peoples faces.

Why MDJ?

“It’s funny because whenever we tell people who we are they always second guess us. They say ‘What was your name again?’ or ‘sorry what was that?’ which is cool because it’s different.” JP explains.

“It started with a kind of bidding war between me and Dan to see who could come up with the most extravagant band name in the world. The stranger the better. It was like one or two words to start with then it turned into full blown paragraphs with like 100 characters.

It was all by text, I think the official text was something like ‘Mantis Defeats Jaguar in a game of chess that spanned over 12 years of mental torture and stress related illness’, something like that. I remember Dan text back saying ‘You know what, I really like Mantis Defeats Jaguar’ and it just stuck”