As a member of electro-punk groundbreakers Le Tigre, JD Samson established herself as an icon in the LGBT community. Having come out as a teenager, she’s been a voice for the community since the early 2000s. Le Tigre is now on hiatus, but she’s still bringing her message and sweaty dance parties to the masses with her new group, MEN.
This group might be hard to Google, but its presence will be hard to ignore when it storms the EARL on Sunday.
“We try our hardest to create a show that’s really powerful and strong,” Samson said.
Judging from her track record, it looks like she’s telling the truth — Le Tigre was renowned for its rambunctious performances, and “Deceptacon” is still at the top of many DJs’ playlists.
MEN has a dance-pop sound somewhat akin to Le Tigre’s but with a noticeable reduction in punk influence. The Talking Heads and Joan Armatrading are among the group’s chief stylistic influences, and when that’s coupled with the dance party beats behind real guitar and bass, it becomes a fusion of genres unlike any other.
Samson said MEN strives to connect with the audience on a personal level. The group has played Atlanta once before, and Samson said they are excited to return.
“People paying good money to come to our shows want to see something more than us just playing the songs from the record,” she said. “It’s really a conversation between us and the audience.”
The group has a semi-fluid lineup, so calling it a collective is more accurate. The project started when Samson and her Le Tigre bandmate Johanna Fateman began creating music together. The two eventually decided to merge with Samson’s other band, Hirstute, and thus the new MEN was born.
MEN’s touring lineup is Samson, Michael O’Neill of the Ladybug Transistor and Tami Hart. Fateman has stepped back to focus on her new child and hair salon. Ginger Brooks Takahashi of LTTR was also a member, but has decided to pursue a career in art instead.
Samson usually helms the synthesizer during performances, tossing in some vocal work as well, but the members switch instruments sometimes in their recorded material.
The members of MEN come from so many different bands that no one type of fan appears at a typical performance.
“I think there are Le Tigre fans come who want to see what’s going on, but there’s also a new generation of fans who don’t know that much about Le Tigre but have heard of MEN,” Samson said.
The band released its full-length, Talk About Body, in Feb. via IAMSOUND Records, and another is already in the works.
Le Tigre focused heavily on issues relevant to the LGBT community, and MEN is out to do the same.
“It’s just in our nature to write songs that mean something,” Samson said. “We’re usually thinking about what’s happening around us in the world.”
Samson and her Le Tigre buds recently co-produced the Christina Aguilera tune “My Girls” for her 2010 release, Bionic, a move that brought them even further into the spotlight.
“[Aguilera] is a really awesome vocalist and a hard worker,” Samson said. “She’s just really good at her job.”
So is MEN like Le Tigre? In some ways, they’re very much alike. Both create simple, energetic and charged tunes about LGBT-centric topics, and they both appreciate a good excuse to get down. However, MEN differs in that it’s a collective, which allows new creative input to be inserted into the mix at different points.
If you plan on attending this show, you’ll need to know some things. First, wear comfortable shoes — you’ll be dancing a lot. Second, don’t expect a show with nothing to offer lyrically, because the issues in these songs are as serious as it gets. If you want to meet Samson, look for the slender mustachioed woman in the Buddy Holly glasses. Above all, get ready for a stellar performance.
