You hear the sort of terms that music critics might throw around for a band like Men, and they might tend to sound over-inflated. Terms like electro-punk or dance collective. These sort of labels don’t really take into account that Men are a good goddamn time. The three-piece fronted by Le Tigre’s JD Samson was at turns hilarious, subversive, cool and flat out fun. Samson greeted the freezing crowd with plenty of appreciation and the band started to pull into gear. Men sounds like all kinds of crazy thrown together and twisted around. Halting, Kraftwerk style singing with some of the dance bounce and bravado of classic Devo or Talking Heads.
Samson and the band were clad in an array of color and strange outfits and appeared to have climbed right out of the carney sign behind them. Samson belting out lyrics like “I’m gonna make a baby / I’ve got plans for a new baby… it costs a lot to have a baby… I’m gonna fuck my friends/I’m gonna have a baby.” The crowd at first didn’t seem to know what to think of the band. They mulled around, bundled up under Factory Outlet American Apparel and nearly everyone sporting hoodies. Some seem puzzled trying to decipher JD’s sex (female, though she does have a mustache) others, going with the flow, spinning in their own world of dance. Men blast through a retinue of reconstructed pop songs and power anthems, all with fantastically blunt lyrics and pantomiming by Samson. Toward the end of the set Samson’s singing “I feel so free I could never die” over and over like some kind of loop in the insane last moments of Michael Jackson’s life.
Samson, the whole time strutting around stage, fearless like a French, gay Prince from the future. My notes have “cock-pop” on them, though I’m sure that’s not the most PC way of describing the music. Men are fearless and the only ones who seemed to have fun splashing about the shallows of pop music and culture, not trying to monetize it but trying to have a good time and broaden some minds.
Here’s the quick questions I put to Samson:
Tacos or BBQ?
Samson: Bbq
Who does she most want to see?
Samson: There’s a lot of people I want see that aren’t hear but I did see Camp Elberteen, Explode Into Colors. Those are pretty rad bands. (may need spelling on Camp E – I’m not familiar with that band)
Ultimate non-venue location for Men to play at?
Samson: We’re playing the art museum in Mexico City in August.
What’s something people don’t realize about this festival from the band’s perspective?
Samson: How hard it is to get your gear around.
Which came first, rollerskates or disco?
Samson: Probably roller skates.
Words by Jacob Cottingham, Photos by Courtney Dudley
