The Men - Manhattan Fire LP

Amongst previously unreleased tracks, ‘Manhattan Fire’ reveals early versions of the songs that would go on to make up The Men’s critically acclaimed ninth album ‘New York City’, released last year. Recorded in deep Mono with Paul Blackwell, it was made by founding members Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi – stripped-back and with drum machines – in late 2020 and shows an even more primitive side to the all-guns-blazing garage-punk of ‘New York City’. Ending up being shelved for the full-band, live-to-tape record that was released instead, this first version is now set to see the light of day.

“Manhattan Fire is a recording of songs by Nick and Mark from December 2020 during some pretty scary times for the planet. There are guitars, bass, piano, synth, drum machines, waves, birds, fires, poems and SM-57 vocals on this record. A lot of different sounds. A few of these tracks appeared on 2023's New York City. In fact, this record was somewhat of an accidental blueprint for that release. If there never was a full pandemic recovery, this would have been a new band. Thankfully, the end times didn't happen and the full band rolls on. Somewhere in the apprehension of death and recovery this collection was made.” - The Men