The Man Cubs Would Love to Talk About Bruno

Members of the Man Cubs are at an age where their most memorable Disney songs come from movies like The Lion King, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. But guitarist Joe Mondragon says the five-piece Denver band — which takes the music from those classic cartoons and ratchets it up a few notches with pop-punk energy — heard a song from 2021's Encanto that they couldn’t ignore.

“We recently made a new rendition of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno,’ because all the kids have been asking for that one,” Mondragon says. “We had a really good time putting together a punk-rock version of this song.”

Hear it yourself when the Man Cubs, which also includes Chris Fruci, Cody Troyer, Collin Sitgreaves and Will Timbers, play Lost Lake Lounge on Thursday, December 22, with Ipecac, Rocky Burning and Marcos Hudson.

Mondragon says “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” is the most recent Disney villain song, and notes that the traditional Disney villain has now become a more abstract concept. Bruno, the ostensible bad guy in Encanto, represents generational trauma, according to Mondragon: “The song ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ is about as close as we can get to the rumor of Uncle Bruno, who mysteriously disappeared and had a lot of woe come along with him."

He adds that in the film, the song includes numerous characters singing multiple parts, weaving together numerous melodies, so it was a fun challenge to transmute it into a pop-punk song for a five-piece band. He and Troyer tackled it one afternoon, and took a version to the band to learn. “It’s pretty much our favorite song to play at shows,” he says.

The band was commissioned to adapt “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” for a graduation party by a fan; it was one of the group’s first post-pandemic gigs. “They loved it,” he recalls. “It was a great time. They even served us a taco bar, so that’s always a plus.”

The Man Cubs started in 2017, when members of two other bands, Compass & Cavern and Creature Canopy, had dinner after a show and discussed the idea of a band that would play covers of ’90s bubble-gum pop. Someone threw out Disney songs, and the band was born.

The band, which takes its name from Mowgli of The Jungle Book, boasts a large repertoire of songs from films such as Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Pocahontas and Coco. The band has also tackled songs from A Nightmare Before Christmas and is working on versions of songs that appear in Disney television cartoons.

It’s not hard to keep the band's set list in the Disney universe, since that company owns most of the known universe anyway. Mondragon notes that even Deadpool is technically a Disney princess nowadays.

“We have several other songs in the works, as well,” Mondragon says. “It’s kind of nice since Disney keeps on putting out musicals.”

The only creative challenge currently affecting the band is that numerous members are new parents, and others are getting married. Aside from that, the sky’s the limit, says Mondragon. The bandmates are looking forward to enjoying these films and the ones to come with their own kids now.

“These properties have been around for so long, it stands to reason they will be enjoyed by the next generation, enjoyed by our kids,” he says. “It also kind of keeps the magic alive, because now it’s a little more exciting when a family-friendly Disney movie comes out.”

The Man Cubs, 7 p.m. Thursday, December 22, Lost Lake Lounge, 3602 East Colfax Avenue. Tickets are $12.