“Rockers” is an easy descriptor to throw in front of any band with drums and a guitar, but it would be hard to find a group for which the term is actually more appropriate than The Men. The Brooklyn four-piece hold nothing back, both on record and on stage, and over the past few years their heavy, guitar-shredding brand of rock has won the praise of critics and fans alike.
After self-releasing two albums, The Men broke through with their Sacred Bones debut, Leave Home, in 2010. Earlier this year, they followed it up with the equally superb Open Your Heart, which though still as heavy as previous releases, boasts a more polished collection of songs.
We recently caught up The Men in between gigs to discuss switching from a three-piece to a four-piece, expanding their sound and what to expect from their next album.
Paste: I’ve seen you guys play once, at a bike shop at SXSW this year, and I don’t know what happened, but at least a few of you ended up with blood all over your faces at the end of the set. Is stuff like this a common occurrence at your live performances?
Mark Perro: Not really. We do the best that we can when we’re playing. We bang our guitars around and stuff sometimes, but I think that was a one time deal.
Paste: You guys usually keep it pretty clean?
Perro: Well I don’t know about clean…
Paste: Blood-free then, at least?
Perro: Yeah, I’m not trying to bleed or anything.
Paste: Have you noticed a difference in the types of crowds that are coming out to see you guys now as opposed to when you were touring for your first two albums, before you were as successful?
Nick Chiericozzi: Yeah, more people seem to know about us over the past few years. That’s been really cool.
Paste: A lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to peg your influences and compare you to this band or that band. How would you describe your music?
Chiericozzi: We have a lot of influences, but we don’t think we sound too much like anyone else. It happens, but I think that’s just so people can relate to [our music] who are just picking up a magazine. It helps when you can pick out influences.
Paste: You’re pretty straightforward and don’t seem to associate with any particular scene. What do you think of the state of music today?
Chiericozzi: I like it. I’ve only really known [this era of music]. I don’t really know a lot about [other eras], but I feel like that one of the good things about the Internet is that it allows everyone to kind of have their own personal imprint and do what they want. Things have sort of flattened out, and I think that’s pretty cool. I certainly think that we’re doing what we want and we like being on our label, so it’s been good for us.
Paste: What have you liked about working with Sacred Bones?
Chiericozzi: It’s been real cool. They’re friends of ours and they pretty much let us do what we want. They give us the opportunity to put out records, so it’s been totally great.
Paste: Are there any other bands playing today that you guys particularly admire?
Chiericozzi: Yeah! There’s a band called Nude Beach that’s from Brooklyn that we really like a lot. A band called Organs from Brooklyn that we really like. Another band from Florida called American Snakeskin. Those three, I’d say.
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