Friday 09.17.10: CLUB UNDERGROUND with MEN @ echo

MEN || Listen

The DJ/production/remix team of JD Samson and Johanna Fateman used to make up two-thirds of Le Tigre, the Brooklyn band who now appear to be on hiatus even though they appeared to be entering their most exciting phase to date when it was announced last summer that they were going to be collaborating with Christina Aguilera.

MEN don’t actually represent a massive departure from Le Tigre, who themselves were a sort of funky Sleater-Kinney, riot grrrls in electroclash armour. As their name suggests, MEN have retained Le Tigre’s socio-political – or rather, sexual-political – sensibility, swearing allegiance to the LGBT community and “feminist genderqueer artist collective” LTTR. Inevitably their agenda bias is left-wing issues: their songs tackle such unexpected dance music topics as “wartime economies, sexual compromise, and demanding liberties”. One track, Credit Card Babie$, from their debut self-titled, self-released EP (they are as yet without a record deal), is about “how expensive it is if you have a baby when you’re queer” while another, Simultaneously, concerns “AIDS, cancer and sickness”.

They’re an indie/electronic supergroup of sorts, comprising as they do various members of Hirsute, Princess and Ladybug Transistor. And they have a fluid lineup that makes them seem like more than a mere “band” – Fateman is no longer a full-time MEN girl, having left to have a baby, but she and artist Roysdon, to name but two, continue to contribute as “writers, consultants, and producers”. Not surprisingly, MEN – who have recently toured with Peaches and the Gossip – describe themselves as an “art/performance collective”. – Guardian

with resident DJs spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam