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On the Shelf 115 : The Men
Apr. 22nd, 2014 05:59 pmLong time readers know I am a fan of NYC band The Men.
2011's Leave Home was where I first picked them up, and it and their next two albums (2012's Open Your Heart and 2013's New Moon) easily made my year end Best Of lists.
Leave Home was a gloriously noisy album and I joked that they took the best of American 80s college rock (Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Big Black, Husker Du, Fugazi, all things SST) and made an album of it. Lineup changes and evolution led to me to joke that on Open Your Heart sounded like they remembered to add the Replacements and in 2013, that they had just remembered REM.
This is where they remember the dbs and the Violent Femmes.
No, not really. I have to kill my joke as it doesn't sound that much like those bands, but it's certainly a southern album and certainly a traditional rock album in ways that only The Men could be.
In fact, I am hard pressed to find a comparison for this record. Every single review I have read has mentioned Neil Young, and though this band certainly loves the art of noise, and Crazy Horse probably married Southern rock and feedback as well as anyone, it's not an obvious comparison.
Similarly, Springsteen shows up in reviews as well. This has some solid FM rock credentials (even sounding like "Wild Night"-era Van Morrison at times) and is steeped in 70s boogie as well as classic CCR and a bit of country rock (in a Gram Parsons sense of the term). It certainly sounds like a contemporary of The River, even if it doesn't sound like the Boss himself.
Big Star deserves a mention, of course, via the cover homage, and seems to be an inspiration (in that band's least Beatlesque part of their career) and Exile on Main Street seems obvious as well. The band does have a lot of Exile riffs, but it's hard to make this comparison as well, as that usually evokes images of the Black Crowes (Maybe if the Robinson Bros. grew up on Sonic Youth records).
It's truly Southern and truly loud, but it's hard to pigeon it in with any band that fits those descriptions. Kings of Leon? My Morning Jacket? Nashville Pussy? No, not really any of them, but it is truly Southern- as much indebted to the James Gang as it is to Daydream Nation.
So, I can tell you a dozen things that it doesn't sound like, but I still can't come up with anything better than saying it sounds something like a nice 70s record discovery you might find in a garage sale. Still cooler than Bad Company or Foghat, but maybe more AOR than Punk.
Of course, the real question is it any good? Since Leave Home, the Men have been pegged as the 'next big thing', and though their albums are enjoyable, they always seem to be something lesser than their idols.
They have moved from "No Wave" and SST/Dischord reverence to a band with a sense for tunes and more indebted to Westerberg than Thurston Moore or Steve Albini. In that particular trajectory, it is the logical next step, perhaps, a big budget studio album.
Unfortunately, Tomorrow's Hits doesn't really clear up any of those answers. Truly, they are a chameleon and with all expectations set aside, this is quite an enjoyable album. Unfortunately, it is the weakest of the albums since Leave Home in quality and effect. Surely, this keeps them up near the top of the list of most interesting bands on the planet, while still falling a bit short of their idols at least this go around.
2011's Leave Home was where I first picked them up, and it and their next two albums (2012's Open Your Heart and 2013's New Moon) easily made my year end Best Of lists.
Leave Home was a gloriously noisy album and I joked that they took the best of American 80s college rock (Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Big Black, Husker Du, Fugazi, all things SST) and made an album of it. Lineup changes and evolution led to me to joke that on Open Your Heart sounded like they remembered to add the Replacements and in 2013, that they had just remembered REM.
This is where they remember the dbs and the Violent Femmes.
No, not really. I have to kill my joke as it doesn't sound that much like those bands, but it's certainly a southern album and certainly a traditional rock album in ways that only The Men could be.
In fact, I am hard pressed to find a comparison for this record. Every single review I have read has mentioned Neil Young, and though this band certainly loves the art of noise, and Crazy Horse probably married Southern rock and feedback as well as anyone, it's not an obvious comparison.
Similarly, Springsteen shows up in reviews as well. This has some solid FM rock credentials (even sounding like "Wild Night"-era Van Morrison at times) and is steeped in 70s boogie as well as classic CCR and a bit of country rock (in a Gram Parsons sense of the term). It certainly sounds like a contemporary of The River, even if it doesn't sound like the Boss himself.
Big Star deserves a mention, of course, via the cover homage, and seems to be an inspiration (in that band's least Beatlesque part of their career) and Exile on Main Street seems obvious as well. The band does have a lot of Exile riffs, but it's hard to make this comparison as well, as that usually evokes images of the Black Crowes (Maybe if the Robinson Bros. grew up on Sonic Youth records).
It's truly Southern and truly loud, but it's hard to pigeon it in with any band that fits those descriptions. Kings of Leon? My Morning Jacket? Nashville Pussy? No, not really any of them, but it is truly Southern- as much indebted to the James Gang as it is to Daydream Nation.
So, I can tell you a dozen things that it doesn't sound like, but I still can't come up with anything better than saying it sounds something like a nice 70s record discovery you might find in a garage sale. Still cooler than Bad Company or Foghat, but maybe more AOR than Punk.
Of course, the real question is it any good? Since Leave Home, the Men have been pegged as the 'next big thing', and though their albums are enjoyable, they always seem to be something lesser than their idols.
They have moved from "No Wave" and SST/Dischord reverence to a band with a sense for tunes and more indebted to Westerberg than Thurston Moore or Steve Albini. In that particular trajectory, it is the logical next step, perhaps, a big budget studio album.
Unfortunately, Tomorrow's Hits doesn't really clear up any of those answers. Truly, they are a chameleon and with all expectations set aside, this is quite an enjoyable album. Unfortunately, it is the weakest of the albums since Leave Home in quality and effect. Surely, this keeps them up near the top of the list of most interesting bands on the planet, while still falling a bit short of their idols at least this go around.
