Since the turn of the century, few have stretched the rock ’n’ roll paradigm quite like The Men.
Through their own creative restlessness, the New York collective (Nick Chiericozzi – guitar/ vocals; Mark Perro – guitar/ vocals; Kevin Faulkner – bass; Rich Samis – drums) have explored everything from space-rock (Immaculada and Drift), country (New Moon), blues (The Hits) and metal (Devil Music) to everything in between (Leave Home).
It’s been a mixed bag in every sense – the era-defining New Moon, bestowing The Men to essentially rule the world. It never happened, but while some have waited almost 13 years since then, perhaps there’s still a possibility of that dominance on the back of their new long-player, Buyer Beware. Because make no mistake: The Men are back.
2023’s New York City saw The Men get back-to-basics in what now feels like a precursor to Buyer Beware. Once again working alongside recording engineer, Travis Harrison (Guided by Voices, Built to Spill), the songs from Buyer Beware were recorded direct to tape, and bristling with a raucous, frightening new energy, the results are there for all to hear and feel.
Take opening cut, Pony. There won’t be a better opening song in the guitar-based stratum this year. Something that sizzles the senses the only way The Men know how, with meaty riffs and roaring choruses that could move planets, Chiericozzi’s rage is fierce (“Your soul is fading / We’ve seen the truth / It’s disappearing”). The Men are rightly pissed off, but it’s nothing new – New York City’s God Bless the USA the gateway into this dark political landscape The Men find themselves in. And they don’t just treat it like a bone to gnaw on: they break clean through the marrow.
There’s no better example than Nothing Wrong – The Men at their ferocious best (“Everything is holy / But there is no Holy Grail / The serpents ate that breadcrumb trail … I walk with the shadow of death / There’s nothing wrong / But there’s nothing left”). Alongside earlier cut, At the Movies, this is stiff upper rockabilly blues with a hard metallic edge, and with the frenetic skeleton-at-the-piano type keys catapulting out of the speakers, it’s cranial overload.
The Men - Buyer BewareElsewhere, and for those who thought Funhouse was one track light, look no further than Buyer Beware’s eponymous track. With Steve Mackay-inspired skronk and Chiericozzi and Perro’s guitar combat like a lightning bolt from a stray storm cloud, the lyrics hit just as flush (“The muse got a lot to say / I like it that way / And if we should ever meet / My life would be complete”). Essentially, it’s an allegory of The Men in four verses.
The story turns to Fire Sermon, and it comes as advertised. “Now listen to me / Burn what you see / Burn everything,” spits Chiericozzi as flames spill over into Control – a balls-to-the-wall post-hardcore romp inspired by Minor Threat with added power and propulsion. So too PO BOX 96, where The Men trade in straight-edge glory for some Ramones worship with more guile and grit.
On Charm, they conjure up something certifiably golden, with jangle echoes brushing across plundering sonics that will serve them well in the future. So too Black Hearted Blue, but in a different way – Chiericozzi parting with one of his best lines yet (“Jesus in a manger / I’d fuck up a stranger / To get next to you”). It’s kind of street argot Mick Jagger would doff the cap to.
On Tombstone, The Men reach the ends of the earth, and as noise rattles along the fault lines at break-neck speed, the band professes to the world being on fire and questioning those who are questioning this very fact. The song reaching further political depths than The Men has ever reached before.
Which is why Get My Soul is the fitting end to Buyer Beware. At the earth’s end in all its scorched ruins, the bridge to the apocalypse awaits (“The future is caving in but I ain’t gonna live that way / You’re never gonna get my soul”). Hope against misery, and while many say it’s the hope that kills you, what else is there to do but die trying? The Men don’t walk across that bridge, instead turning around to fight fire with fire. The good fight. And in between this line of chaos and optimism, The Men return to their brain burning best.
Buyer Beware is out now via Fuzz Club. Purchase from Bandcamp.
