The Men - Open Your Heart

they are good, I wanna hear the new one

heard they played Tommy's Tavern in Brooklyn over the weekend

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uB-0D-gV8mY/Sln41wXZCHI/AAAAAAAAWlU/mAarYCa7dAM/s400/the+men

I really like Leave Home, but I love this album so far.

also every music critic calls them ungooglable, but their website is the first result for a search of the men.

Well, you would think so.

"The Men" was an alias of the Human League

"Open your heart" was a single by the Human League.

Is somebody cheating here?

Love this album. For some reason it makes me nostagic for a certain chunk of 90s indie rock in ways that Yuck might be supposed to but fails at. (Not suggesting The Men sound like Yuck)

Immaculada was very good.
Leave Home is a classic.
Open Your Heart, so far, sounds really boring - I'm so hoping that impression changes soon

The Men should collaborate with the original The Men, because that essentially reunite the original Human League.

also every music critic calls them ungooglable, but their website is the first result for a search of the men.

― mizzell, Monday, March 5, 2012 11:39 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this thread is pretty hard to search for, at the very least

Good record.

I keep wondering how long its gonna take for music writers to stop going "The Men NO NOT THE JD SAMSON AND JOHANNA FATEMEN FORMERLY OF LE TRIGRE ELECTRO PROJECT THE WE ARE ALSO FAMILIAR WITH"

this record reminds me a bit of foo fighters, but doing a better job of aping husker du, if that makes any sense.

the last record blew my mind and was one of my top records of the year. i'm warming up to this one, but it's not as immediate. interviews like this sure don't help:

http://youtu.be/9hr48ETxQUw

what's wrong with that interview?

it assumes that people want to watch 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the Men sitting at brooklyn bar talking about how they just make music and dont think about it too much?

what's wrong with making music and not thinking about it too much?

I'm missing the sludge of Leave Home, but warming to the country twang. I'm liking the longer songs, which have a transcendental Endless Boogie/Neu! monotony.

there's nothing wrong with them not thinking about their music too much, but it's pretty tired when they insist on it. not trying to nitpick, but i'd rather hear them talk about what thought does go into recording. sure ok, they're doing it for fun or because they enjoy it or w/e but if they don't think in terms of genre, then how do they think? do they just record everything they write or is there some sort of honing/editing process they go through? what gets left out? why? everything they do is based on conscious decisions they've made, not some bullshit "the must flows through my hands and into the guitar and amp maaaaaaaaaannnn."

what's wrong with making music and not thinking about it too much?
--flopson

I'm saying when a band says that (and they ALL DO), I edit it out of my interview instead of put it on YouTube, ymmv

xp i see what you mean but like, i feel like so many interview with young musicians i've read the past few years are so self-aware, especially in terms of their influences and trends, and in that context their recalcitrance is refreshing. i agree that questions about process are interesting though

so the problem is with the person who edited the video/conducted the interview, not the band themselves?

i was asking borntohula who seemed to indicate the interview was keeping him/her from enjoying the record

(and they ALL DO)

this is interesting, imagine a lot of the time this is not perfectly true. i've never not thought about the music i've made a lot, but i see why it's an attractive thing to say in an interview, seems cooler

don't mean to say that whiney shouldn't answer

The ruthless taxonomy that Facebook, Amazon, AllMusic etc impose makes that chatter a requirement.

aw man, the men! i like the new one but i'm just getting around to listening to other stuff from Leave Home (other than Bataille, which obviously rules) and it's so amazing. THINK

I'm saying when a band says that (and they ALL DO), I edit it out of my interview instead of put it on YouTube, ymmv

whiney otm

like when i was watching that i was like "are they really gonna linger on how these dudes don't recognize 'genres'"

flopson: more or less.

mizell: the video isn't ruining my enjoyment of the record. it's just not making me like them any more.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn: i don't believe for a second that the "ruthless taxonomy of Facebook" etc is what they're responding to here. it seems more a reaction to how critics championed their last record for its effortless shifts in styles, and how they've been asked a lot already about the notable "softer" sound on open your heart.

It's like this thread has intersected with the Magnetic Fields one.

this album is cool, but i wish there were less instrumental tracks... sorta feels like an outtakes/b-sides collection to me or something

i'm skeptical of anyone who likes this album but not the last against me! album

this album is cool, but i wish there were less instrumental tracks... sorta feels like an outtakes/b-sides collection to me or something

or No Age!

(whom I like)

How does the Against Me! analogy work? These guys so far show no interesting in Saying Anything beyond formalism.

i was basically trolling... it doesn't make all that much sense

but yeah anyone who hats the last Against Me! record is a turnip.

or hates it

yeah, no age is a good comparison actually. i kinda wish no age sounded more like the men tho.

i kinda wish no age sounded more like the men tho.

Legit.

i'm getting a strong Dead Flowers vibe from the song Candy. elsewhere i'm hearing a lot of the Replacements. this is clicking with me a lot more than, say, the Cloud Nothings album from this year did.

i'm skeptical of anyone who likes this album but doesn't plan to vote mitt romney for president

i'm skeptical of anyone who likes this album but doesn't like sauteed broccoli rabe

i'm skeptical of anyone who likes this album but doesn't own "This Old House: the Complete Bob Vila Years 1979-1989" on DVD

i'm skeptical of anyone who likes this album and is wearing pants right now

i like this album fine but don't really get what's special about it and why it's getting so much attention

brooklyn

nice guitar work, nice mix of genres and sounds, some catchy moments, some 'epic' critic bait tracks, this is pretty much the definition of the kind of rock album that gets lots of attention.

this and the Cloud Nothings are a nice pair. as someone who has listened to a lot of amateurish garage rock the last couple years (and many of CN's and the Men's influences growing up) it's good to hear those sounds packaged into something a bit more adult and professional.

skip otm, but also because its fits into the nice narrative of, "the last album was really good, but this is bigger! more expansive!"

I love this cover for a live cassette they put out, nice Cluster reference:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tawD_LRlJVE/T1bMtpfOFpI/AAAAAAAAAHM/ipIYy4vzkD0/s320/DPLIVE.jpg

huh i don't really hear it. it's a really good-sounding rock album but doesn't really have much in the way of songs or structure to my ears.

as much as they're kind of weasel words crit-wise, it doesn't seem 'bigger' or more 'expansive' than 'Leave Home' to me - that 'My War'/Swans molasses hardcore tempo that some of the songs have def strikes me as 'big' when it's done well (which this v much is imo), likewise 'Bataille' and whatever the song was called w/ the Spacemen 3 ripoff bit in it

I mean I understand why an album that doesn't have any blown out 10bpm sludge tracks on it is getting more mainstream luv than one that does, don't get me wrong

so far I think Leave Home is better but I'm definitely liking this

damn, now yr really making me miss the sludge.

"leave home" is definitely better but this is good imo, the really explosive rock cuts are great, like half of the slow twangy stuff is super boring

i've already cooled on this album, think i was swayed by Candy, which is still awesome. most of the other songs are good not great.

i like this a lot, but its also pretty much a guided trip through (not ilxor's) some dude's record collection

whats wrong with that?

nothing, as i said i really like the album, i just also get why people might not

I didn't think "Candy" would be the keeper...

ok. i asked cause you said "but".
xpost

less instrumentals would improve it for sure

yeah i was just trying to describe it, i think its p awesome and i actually love even the country songs

Candy could've been be a Replacements song imo

yeah, the sound and songwriting are replacements quality imo

like combining country-tinged Stones with garage rock and krautrock is pretty much a key to my heart anyways

Replacements,Sonic Youth,Dinosaur Jr.,Stooges, Ramones, Wipers, etc - each song/different influence.

that little section after the chorus (i think) where it locks into a krauty groove is great.
xp

i need to come back to it. i listened to it once and got pumped, and immediately backtracked to Leave Home, which i've been listening to on repeat ever since pretty much.

I like this. Cloud Nothings and The Men constitute a mini indie guitar revival for old people.

yeah, only that Cloud Nothing's influences are better than them
and The Men are as good as them

I like this. Cloud Nothings and The Men constitute a mini indie guitar revival for old people.

― kornrulez6969, Friday, March 30, 2012 8:43 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah kinda but i feel like it's "opening bands from 97" or something

As someone who stood through many opening bands from 1997, I'll take it.

Side project: let's list the big indie opening bands of 1997.

Helium
Railroad Jerk
Strapping Fieldhands

Any more? Come on old people!

versus?

Asha Vida?
Trans Am?
Gravitar?

Dissolve?

p sure i saw trans am headlining by that point, i think pole opened for them

i guess i meant just the random local bands thrown on national bills (which was the custom here in mpls not sure abt elsewhere)

The L.A. go-to opening band in 1997 was Strictly Ballroom, who eventually became Dntel and Beachwood Sparks.

when i saw them live they didn't play anything off leave home, really disappointing. i don't hate this album or anything but it's pretty remarkable how much more boring they became between albums

if you could describe something as "shitty" but have it be a compliment it would be this album

Dwayne "King Shit of Splash Mountain" Johnson

http://media.avclub.com/images/articles/article/58/58117/rocksplashmountain_jpg_627x1000_q85.jpg

album covers waiting to happen

Except for its tempo, that song above would fit comfortably next to "Working for the Weekend" and "Two Tickets to Paradise" on classic rock radio.

reminds me of Love As Laughter quite a bit in parts. Turn It Around almost sounds like an intentional rip of something from Sea To Shining Sea

the new one, New Moon, has leaked. just started listening to it. lots of acoustic guitar on this one!

I was at this show - it's funny how the camera person tries to make it look like it was maximum carnage in there (there was a sort of half-ironic pit for a while, but the room is too tiny to really do anything THAT wild). Anyway, I like this tune; looking forward to the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11kuxpMtmM

It's time to leave home and open your heart to a New Moon - the new record by The Men