New 🎵: Hail the New Misandrist
UK DATES + “Against Men" now on Bandcamp.
We’ve just released the mini-album Against Men in full, exclusively via Bandcamp. It’s a co-release, our first in collaboration with our friends at It Records.
Official release on other services to come April 18 (we’d love for you to follow us on Spotify or favorite us on Apple Music ahead of the release — our SEO is fucked for life, but this small gesture might help give the algorithm a little nudge in our favor. Appreciate it).
LISTEN TO/PURCHASE AGAINST MEN
Many of the songs on Against Men began life as part of a stage show called Crying Music, which later evolved into a project called Comedienne. A collaboration between some of the usual suspects (Jherek Bischoff, Allie Hankins, Steven Reker, and myself), Crying Music was only staged few of times — at Redcat and The Getty Center in LA, and weird, one-off shows in Portland and NYC. This is an excerpt of the only existing footage I’m aware of, a clip of the song “Crying", taken from the second night at Redcat.
Like the songs on Minor Works, these songs remained unfinished, in hibernation, for a long time. Unlike Minor Works, the recording of Against Men was a fairly painless process — considerably less labored over, and hopefully more enjoyable for it. We’ll let you be the judge.
Popular Music Won’t Save You: EU & UK Tour 2025
It’s really happening. There’s a poster and everything.
EUROPEAN DATES! UK DATES! MARGATES!
May 9: Ljubljana, SI @ Radio Student Anniversary Festival - Info
May 13: Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory - Tickets
May 14: Jena, DE @ TRAFO - Tickets
May 15: Vienna, AT @ Rhiz - Tickets
May 18: Berlin, DE @ Tennis - Tickets
May 25: Offenbach, DE @ Hafen 2 - Tickets
May 27: Hamburg, DE @ Nachtasyl - Tickets
May 29: Kraków, PL @ Klub RE for Green Zoo Fest - Info
June 1: Leeds, UK @ Wharf Chambers - Tickets
June 6: Margate, UK @ Justine’s - Tickets
June 8: London, UK @ Shacklewell Arms - Tickets
There Are No Good Men (& I’m No Exception)
The title Against Men is a punchline,1 to a point. Normally, we’d opt for something punny, opaque, pseudo-literary. This time we looked at the lyrics, noted a common thread, and went with the obvious.
I’ve written a lot of songs from the perspective of terrible men doing terrible things. I can see how, to the ungenerous eye, this might read as a performative impulse — a strategy to distinguish myself from the unfair sex, the male feminist paragon of decency. I’ve harbored the same suspicion about plenty of sensitive dudes making sensitive art about the sensitivities of women, and I’ll continue to do so. But the songs were never about absolution. If anything, they’re an indictment.
My feelings about men aren’t fundamentally political, ideological, or even especially complicated. I do not understand them. I rarely sympathize with them. I generally do not trust them. If this bias stems from any one thing, I don’t know what it is.2 One thing that I do know: I count myself among them.
I appreciate that identity is, for most people, a negotiation — something to be felt out, revised, refused. And still: my misgivings about men and masculinity haven’t really made me feel like I might be something other than one of them. This might be because, for me at least, the mutability of identity has never really struck me as a means to self-actualization — to becoming the person you wish yourself to be. I don’t presume this to be true for anyone else. But I think there is a lot of value in the friction — in pressing up against the stubborn shape of one’s self, in reckoning with it. Begrudgingly. Ambiguously. Ambivalently.
There are a couple of layers of cognitive dissonance here, but it’s a paradox to which I’ve largely resigned myself. I don’t have the answers. I just write the words.
Anyway: be yourself, trust no man, and please listen to our “new” record. We’re really proud of it.
[editor’s note: A common debate at Popular Music HQ revolves around whether people don’t realize when we’re joking, or just don’t think we’re funny.]
The going theory is a childhood shaped by women, combined formative years spent in the blast radius of third wave feminism, but who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What are some of your inspirations for the way that you perform? I’m specifically wondering about your use of space and physicality. Also if you want to talk about it, costumes/clothing!