The Men "Manhattan Fire - 180g Ultra Clear" 12"

Estimated Ship Date: November 15th, 2024

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Released as part of the 2024 Record Store Day, The Men's 'Manhattan Fire' is an early version of the 'New York City' album, recorded in mono and with a drum machine. Limited to 500 hand-numbered copies on 180g ultra-clear vinyl. 

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Alongside 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 on Fuzz Club last year and described by Pitchfork as “summoning the snottiest ghosts of the city’s punk past.” 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.

Chiericozzi says of the album: “Manhattan Fire is a recording of songs by Mark and I 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.”