Queer rock duo Man On Man‘s sophomore LP Provincetown was named for the famous LGBTQ destination in Massachusetts where most of the album was recorded and where members Roddy Bottum (Faith No More, Imperial Teen) and Joey Holman had their first home together. Provincetown is about as out as you can get, lyrically, with songs about appropriation of gay culture by straight dudes, their mixed relationship with hookup apps, and more, all delivered with their signature sense of humor. There’s real heart there, too. Musically, though, Provincetown is a decidedly louder and more upbeat album then Man on Man’s debut, blending the kind of ultra-catchy indie rock Bottom made in Imperial Teen with shoegaze and dance music. Adding to the volume is J. Mascis who offers up some signature ragged guitar heroics on closing track “Hush.” It’s a terrific album and you can listen below.
Roddy and Joey were nice enough to give us a guided tour of Provincetown, track by track, telling some great stories along the way and shedding light on their songwriting process. Read that below.
MAN ON MAN – ‘PROVINCETOWN’ TRACK-BY-TRACK
“Take It From Me”
Roddy: We liked the double entendre of ‘take it from me,’ in a know-it-all kind of way and then ‘take it from me’ in the literal sense of things being taken from us. What’s being taken, what the song is ultimately about, is the culture and style and flair and inherent sensibility of our queer community, appropriated and monetized by brands and businesses in the straight world. Or a simpler example, a straight man who has sex with gay men, only taking at no cost to him. It’s powerful to conjure up a stance or an attitude in a song when we can protest something. It feels rebellious and real, even political, to defend our queer rights. At one point we had an entire verse written about Freddy Mercury’s mustache and how it’s been appropriated by straight hipsters.
“Showgirls”
Joey: This is one of the last songs we wrote for the record. I had this drum beat in my head almost the whole summer, but we had so many songs to work on, it felt overwhelming to start yet another new one. We eventually addressed it, and once we figured out the structure of the song, we wrote the lyrics and melodies fairly quickly. Fun fact: this is the only song on the record that has synth bass.
“I Feel Good”
Roddy: This song was all about Joey. He wrote an early draft of it, keyboards, guitar, singing, all of it. Then he turned on it. I pushed and pushed for it. I did an early take with my verse where I was really showboaty and animated. It was too much, I was feeling like a cheerleader and so I did it over and toned it way down. That worked a lot better. We wrote the lyrics for the third verse together and then sang it together. Joey eventually came around.
“Haute Couture”
Joey: Lyrically, the front half of this song is a culmination of the last few years of playing shows with MAN ON MAN. Where we’ve been as a band, the crowds we’ve played in front of, the people we’ve meet — it’s been an experience that has left us bewildered by what we’ve been able to accomplish, while being equally confused by the taste of what the gay community wants (spoiler: most of them just want to see drag queens and skinny pop artists). Is there room in the gay scene for a rock band? Or do we just do our thing, outside of Gayland, and if people like it, they’ll come along? These are all questions we’re reckoning with in “Haute Couture.”
“Piggy”
Roddy: We’ve got a complicated relationship with the hook up apps. We use them to promote our shows when we tour and sometimes we use them to meet guys to possibly hook up with together. It hasn’t happened much but it’s fun to reach out and meet new people. The faceless profile pics, the ones of just a torso or a body part, these are insane. Dudes on the DL, afraid to show their faces, it’s ultimately kind of sad. We try not to judge but honestly we’re like, ‘be proud, be you, own it.’ That’s what the chorus of “Piggy” is about. We get that it’s not easy for some guys to be open about being gay but the shame of it all is disheartening. We’ve been there so again, no judgment. Or just a little judgment.
“Kids”
Joey: Last spring, Roddy was going through his Voice Memo app and was replaying a song that we had played around with in early 2021. We both liked it enough, so Roddy readdressed it and started to demo it. The way it began is very different than how it turned out, but the vulnerability in the lyrics, our vocal performances, and the music style remained from start to finish. It was probably one of the harder songs to track vocally, because most of the new record is really upbeat and loud. So pulling back and being delicate was a hard pocket to get into. Overall, to me, this song just points to the genius of Roddy Bottum and his ability to compose songs.
“Feelings”
Roddy: Oof, this song. It took a lot to get it done. We couldn’t get the vocals right. At one point I started singing through a vocoder-auto tune kind of thing, yknow, the thing that Cher used in “Believe.” That spurred some inspiration. I kept referencing MGMT and Tom Tom Club but the song sounds like neither. It took a distinctive direction with the vocoder and the message of kind of optimistic pep talk. The suggestion to be vulnerable and ‘get comfortable with your feelings.’ Joey’s verse is super sweet and I love the breakdown when we say ‘fuck lots, stay cool.’
“Gloryhole”
Joey: This was one of the first songs we wrote after our first record came out in 2021. Most of the first record had really downbeat, quiet, acoustic-y songs that were, in all honesty, just really hard to pull off live. We needed some louder songs that Roddy and I felt more comfortable playing, so we wrote “Gloryhole” as an addition to our live set. To me, writing and performing “Gloryhole” was sort of the entry point into how we would start building the soundscapes of Provincetown.
“Who Could Know”
Roddy: It’s funny for me to write about this one, it’s completely Joey and it’s the one song that we get quiet in. The guitar is really lush and I love the bendy quality of the keyboard line. I’ve been looking for a way to work the bending of a note into a song for a long time. Feels mournful and metropolitan somehow. There’s a car honk buried in the mix in the intro. The message of the song is hopeful and optimistic, it encapsulates a familiar place, a place where love is directing us out of the pandemic.
“Hush” feat. J Mascis
Joey: It’s not ironic that Hush is the longest song on the record and it took us the longest to finish. There were so many ways it could go. But we eventually settled on a structure, on our guitar and synth parts, and started to chip away at what we wanted to do lyrically and melodically. There was a long section in the bridge that I had assumed Roddy would just go off on with a synth part, but we kind of just left it unaddressed for a while. Skip to, J Mascis and his wife Luisa visit Provincetown every year, and Roddy’s known J for a long time. One day, J asked us if we wanted to play with him at Showgirls (the host and founder, Ryan, asked him to perform a song; J chose “Rocking in the Free World”). We did that performance with him, and I think it was the next day we asked if he wanted to play on one of our songs, and he said, “Sure.” He did like 3 or 4 takes, all amazing. J is king.
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Man On Man will be on tour supporting Provincetown this summer, kicking off with an NYC show on July 1 at Bowery Ballroom celebrating Roddy Bottum’s 60th birthday and featuring his other groups Imperial Teen and Nastie Band. Later that month they’ll open a few shows for old friends Le Tigre. All dates below.
Man On Man — 2023 Tour Dates
07/01 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
07/09 – Provincetown, MA @ The Red Room – Bear Week
07/13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb’s
07/15 – Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed # [SOLD OUT]
07/17 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater #
07/18 – Millvale, PA @ Mr Smalls Theatre # [SOLD OUT]
07/20 – Asheville, NC @ Static Age Records
07/21 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records – The Blue Room
07/22 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade – Purgatory
07/24 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
07/25 – Miami, FL @ Gramps
07/26 – Tampa, FL @ New World Brewing
07/28 – Durham, NC @ Pinhook
07/29 – Washington, DC @ DC9
09/18 – Montreal, QC @ Casa del Popolo
09/19 – Toronto, ON @ Baby G
09/20 – Detroit, MI @ Third Man Records
09/21 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
09/22 – Urbana, IL @ PYGMALION Festival
09/23 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
09/25 – Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
09/27 – Boise @ Neurolux
09/28 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall Show Bar
09/29 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall
09/30 – Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
10/03 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
10/05 – San Diego, CA @ The Whistle Stop
10/06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
10/07 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Beast
10/10 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk Insdoors
10/11 – Denton , TX @ Rubber Gloves
10/12 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
10/13 – New Orleans, LA @ Santos
10/14 – Pensacola, FL @ Handlebar
* w/ Nastie Band, Imperial Teen
# w/ Le Tigre