How to Avoid Noise Pollution : The Line of Best Fit meets The Men

16 March 2012, 11:00

A band with one of the most google-unfriendly names you’re likely to come across, apart from perhaps The The or as a certain member of our editorial team discovered last week, the name of up-and-coming chanteuse Fanny, The Men return this week with a brand new, ferociously engaging record entitled Open Your Heart.

It’s four sets of very tired eyes that greet us as we catch up with the Brooklyn post-punk four-piece, busy unpacking their gear in a migraine-inducingly bright CAMP Basement. As the band indulge in a bit of quiet time before the evening’s festivities commence, the phrase ‘calm before the storm’ has never felt as relevant as at this particular moment. Perfectly charming, yet indubitably knackered, the band’s show at CAMP Basement tonight will mark their final European date before heading home for a few weeks’ well earned R’n’R.

“It’s been long. 34 shows or something? 37 shows? It’s been long but it’s been good, it’s all been good,” explains vocalist and guitarist Mark Perro. “There have been a lot of good shows in good cities… We go home tomorrow, then we’re home for like, 12 days. Then we’re doing a two and a half week tour in the US down to Austin and back for SXSW. Not much of a break, but it’s all right,”

And exhausted they will be. 34 (or 37, whichever it may be) shows is an impressive feat for any performer, and an even more impressive achievement when the band is reputed for pouring every inch of their spirit into each show. It’s their kinetic, rugged performances that have earned The Men their current status as one of the most galvanizing forces on the live circuit, and you don’t get accolades like that if all you do is turn up and mince about the stage.

“Athens was a really wild show,” says drummer Rich Samis of a favourite show from their latest stint of gigs. ”It’s a really wild place right now. To be there at the time we were was pretty cool - the next day there were these protests and riots. And we played with some great bands there too, this band called Acid Baby Jesus who were really good. They’re really cool people and a really cool band.”

Heralded for the energy and ferocity of their live show, the band are equally as applauded for their albums, the latest of which dropped this week via Brooklyn based Sacred Bones Records, also home to Zola Jesus, Crystal Stilts, Woods and Moon Duo. Mention of the new record ignites a spark in the band, who brighten up at the mere thought of finally being able to share their newest effort with their fans. “I’m anxious for it to come out already so we can stop being in this middle period…” says Perro. ”I mean, we recorded it a year ago, so it’s a long wait to have all these people talking about your record that haven’t even heard it yet. It’ll be nice to have it out there and stop it being this mysterious thing that no one knows anything about.” Have any of the new tracks made it onto the latest setlist? “A bunch, four or five songs.” And have they gone down well? “Usually! If we’re not too tired!” says Perro through a burst of apologetic laughter.

Open Your Heart marks the third full length record from the Brooklynites, and appears just eight months after its predecessor, 2011′s Leave Home. “We recorded it with this guy Ben, who’s actually – once Tia finishes this tour – going to start playing bass for us full time,” explains Perro. ”He actually recorded Leave Home as well and he used to run a studio in the basement of this Catholic school in Brooklyn that has since closed down. So we recorded there with him over the span of six or eight sessions, not too many times. The first day we got completely shut down because they were shooting a film upstairs. We turned on our amplifiers and the producers all came down and said “No… not going to happen.”” Suggesting that you weren’t providing a suitable soundtrack to the scene they were shooting? “No, I guess not! Apart from that, it was a pretty normal recording session I guess, I mean nothing too difficult or strange. We had a pretty good idea of what we were trying to do and we had most of the songs pretty together and formed before we got there, so we just banged them out.”

The Men have certainly had an eventful last 12 months. Having spent the earlier days of their career cruising along at a relatively modest pace, last year’s release of Leave Home saw the band catapulted into a tempo of touring and working that they’d not experienced before. So how has that been? “Things have definitely changed. We’ve been busier, that’s for sure – there’s a lot of things to do outside of the music all of a sudden which is not something we’re used to. There’s more people involved, more people have an opinion over what we’re doing and have ideas about what we should and should not do, so that’s different. And not necessarily in a good way. But sometimes in a good way, so in that sense, it’s really different. Musically, you’re still going to be doing the same thing, it’s just that the world outside of the music has become a lot more complicated. Which is good and bad. It is what it is.”

This grounded attitude has served The Men well over the past 12 months as the band have embarked upon intensive tours alongside the likes of Iceage and Milk Music. They have a refreshingly blunt, no nonsense, no bullshit approach to the business pressures that have tried to increase their hold over The Men throughout the past year, yet the band continue to retain a sure sense of steadiness and direction as to what is it they want to do, rather than what, according to some, they should be doing.

“There’s a lot of people that are involved in our band and outside of the band that try to put us in all sorts of different situations,” Perro explains. “We try to weigh each one and avoid being all over the place because a) that’s stressful for everybody involved, b) within the band that’s stressful and then on top of that, you don’t want to be all over the place because it’s all oversaturated. To see “Oh yeah, Rich had a croissant this morning!” on the internet. Who wants to see that?”
“…How do you know that?!” asks a slightly disconcerted Rich.
“You told me you had a croissant this morning!”

Oversaturation certainly is an issue in modern day music. ”Yeah we try to avoid that,” Perro expands. ”We think about that. I think it’s a lot easier to put yourself out there now so I think people really use that. But I think we need to be careful not to do that. Anybody can have a website and a Twitter and Facebook and all this other crap. Is all that stuff really necessary? Or is it just overcrowded pollution? Noise pollution.”

After a quick jaunt through the influences over Open Your Heart, (“Cheap Trick. Big Star. 70s rock, country. We listen to everything”), the story behind the title track of the album is broached. “I just came up with it in like, two minutes on the couch.” says guitarist and vocalist Nick Chiericozzi. ”It was real easy. It reminded me of a Tom Petty and Frank Black song called… something about the moon. And it sounded good! It’s one of those things, those are usually the best songs, the ones that take the least amount of time.”

And that’s exactly what makes The Men so endearing. There are no media led marketing ploys, they’re not constantly striving to break down barriers. They’re creating music spontaneously, passionately and honestly and with the pressure and nature of the current musical climate, that’s probably one of the hardest traits to retain. Exhausted as they may be, fatigue does nothing to hinder the thunderous performance that rouses and rattles CAMP Basement later in the evening. A packed out crowd quivers into a swaying, sweaty mess as The Men unleash their decisively intense, yet surprisingly accesible set to a riff hungry crowd. This level of acceptance might not be what they had in mind at the offset, but this band might just turn out to be exactly what we’ve all been waiting for.