Provincetown, by MAN ON MAN

Provincetown

by MAN ON MAN

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jesu82 Album of the Year Favorite track: Kids.

BeagleBay Muscular and catchy sophomore album with some anthemic bits! Every song is gold! They put on a great 2-man live show, catch them wherever you can! Thank you guys, Orlando was honored to have you! Favorite track: Gloryhole.

Kirk Gauthier This album is an absolute delight. It really is. It’s a wonderful fusion of indie rock, alternative rock, stoner rock, and indie pop that I really and truly think everyone can enjoy and appreciate. There are elements of all the styles listed above as well as those elements that feel completely new to this release. Some serious album of the year contender material here, so don’t miss out on this banger! Favorite track: Hush (Feat. J Mascis).

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1.	Take It From Me 03:18 video	lyrics	buy track
Take it from me Poppers, disco 1980’s San Francisco Steve Lady, Bambi At the Crystal Pistol I liked it better Before you took it from me Take it from me Met a big boy in Illinois Beercan dick in his corduroys When we were finished fucking He told us he was married to a woman Take it from me You like to watch You like to listen But we’ll never let you in You’re not a part of us You’re not as smart as us But you take it over and over and over Take it from me You’ll never take it from me
2.	Showgirls 03:17 video	lyrics	buy track
Don’t say maybe Underrate me Conversational, masturbational ust the two of us We’re the stupidest Just an arsenal Nothing personal Once shy Twice bit Three strikes You gotta use spit If you wanna get used to it Don’t say maybe When you take me Turn an amateur To a connoisseur Take it easy kid Don’t be saving it Spend it while you’re here Buy a souvenir
3.	I Feel Good 05:03	lyrics	buy track
I feel good, I feel great In these United States I could go anywhere But I stayed anyway We turn water to wine We’re so good on the vine In the mirror, you and me We are looking divine I feel good I feel great In these United States My skin is aglow But I am fucking insane You tell me you got something To settle me down Yeah you know I’m alive When I open my mouth Okay? I’m best when I’m tested And put in my place But when you shut my mouth I got so much to say Yeah I’m proud to be loud And so up in your face But you’re looking real scared So I’ll stop just in case Yeah you can’t win ‘em all But you want so bad to And the winner in me Loves the lover in you See the trophy’s obnoxious I want it of course Try not to be toxic Just take it, it’s yours Okay? I feel good I feel great In these United States You wanna fuck it up Baby I can relate You and me all the time Still feels good when we ride Windows down Let ‘em see We’ve got nothing to hide I feel good I feel great In these United States What’s the purpose Of hiding and wasting away If they say they got something To tone us all down Step it up make it loud And just get fucking proud Ok! I feel good
4.	Haute Couture 04:09	lyrics	buy track
Baby wanna cigarette Wearing haute couture In a Dover Street basement We got robbed in a safe space They took everything Got drinks while we played Cause they’re waitin on the drag queens But it’s all the same I mean it It’s all the same to me We the people fuck in bathrooms And in backrooms They’re our classrooms Don’t like what you see? Don’t you fuckin’ look at me We’re good up here in the nosebleeds Even up this high, we see things Things you wouldn’t dream of Things you couldn’t dream of All talk, no show Big step, you know Fist up, be strong Backseat, singalong Sugar, cinnamon Unfit regimen And the way the words all sound again Wasted, lost and found Art show, shut it down Criss cross, applesauce Ponytail, lip gloss Sweet spot, Novacaine Show off, Daggett Lane Bye bye, see you
5.	Piggy 03:13	lyrics	buy track
Here piggy piggy You’re coming off sad You wanna three-way Really really bad I would say yes but You don’t go with our outfits Here piggy piggy We told you no Torso picture in your profile photo You gotta show more Is your face a foreign concept Hi, hi, hi, hi 70 times Still no response on the 79th Why don’t you take your phone And flush it down the toilet ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSandTUVWXandYandZ This is my reply Cause you sound like a fucking idiot You gotta first love you If you wanna fuck me Then we’ll talk about it Most definitely Here piggy, piggy we’re coming to town Huff and puff and we’ll blow your house down
6.	Kids 03:44	lyrics	buy track
I don’t get the references But I get the message This will go on and on Just like the questions What can I say? Can I say Take a minute To get with the pronouns Take a minute To listen to kids Cause the grownups Are kind of a letdown In a minute You’ll be happy you did I care about appearances Just a preference I basically like to be wrong Just with questions Can I say?
7.	Feelings 04:04	lyrics	buy track
Are you feeling sad enough When the credits roll Are there tears of happiness Do they fill a hole Pinch yourself till you can feel it Self medicate till you heal it Smiling now with us Do you get the joke? Cry lots, laugh more Get comfortable with your feelings Take a beat and listen When you listen then you grow Wanna fight back? You should give back I hear you talking tough Take a beat, take a beating Gotta know when enough’s enough Gotta tendency to underestimate Gotta tendency to overrate Take a breath in for a second You’ll know when enough’s enough Cry lots, laugh more Get comfortable with your feelings You gotta step up to the plate You gotta send that fucker home Live life, be kind Kick back, quit trying Fuck lots, stay cool Get comfortable with your feelings
8.	Gloryhole 04:36	lyrics	buy track
Beefcake motorcade Fixate, fixate Heels on halloween Fucking up the night scene “I’m dead” Straight girl motorcade Sashay, sashay You look serene But you just want content Lumped in, left out But I wanna look the same as you Punch in, punch out Sorry boy you’re not gettin’ through Gloryhole in the wall Baby, what’s the protocol? Kinda hard to feel it all Standing up against the wall
9.	Who Could Know 04:14	lyrics	buy track
Go out, stay in I wanna get stupid Oh no, here we go It’s not enough And I’m feeling low He looks good He looks back He smiles at me And I’m liking that No shirt, sweatpants Summertime romance Could we go back before Was it better Who could know Lie around, sleep in I feel so stupid Oh no, here we go Another year But I’m still in love No shirt, sweatpants Wintertime romance Buford, P-Town Oxnard, Los Angeles
10.	Hush (Feat. J Mascis) 06:32	lyrics	buy track
Tear it up Make a scene We could end up on the cover of a magazine Shake it up, me and you The thing that chases us is also what’s in front of you Play it cool, what the hell Walk away and let the orchestra conduct itself Take a pass, lose control Make the rules What’s behind the door What’s between the sheets If the walls could talk Then the walls would scream Whisper in the dark Tell me what you need No one’s gotta know Keep it just between us Hush Spit in my hand Wet the tip and Don’t let ‘em see what we’re doing at the drive-in We can play it loose But we wear it well Flight overnight shit-show luggage carrousel In the City, going home Is this a tunnel or is this a fucking catacomb? Don’t let ‘em see What we do Break the rules

about

You remember your pandemic project, don’t you? Maybe it was baking bread, cultivating a garden, or finally committing to Proust? But for Roddy Bottum and Joey Holman—back then, a new couple of longtime musicians, en route from New York City to California to care for Roddy’s ailing mother—it was writing songs, meant only to entertain themselves in those suddenly idle days. Joey, after all, had his guitar in the car; during the road trip west, they ordered a microphone, waiting for them in California where they’d live and work from a cozy beachside A-frame. They got to work but, really, to play, shaping a dynamic string of new-love songs about tender infatuation, the ache of all-consuming lust, and the excitement of a full future, together. “It’s so fun,” they cooed in content unison, “to be gay,” their own birds-and-bees ode to joy. Those songs stuck around, accreting not only into an album but into the band MAN ON MAN, lauded by Rolling Stone and loved for music videos that documented the real romance of two fully grown gay men. That pandemic project? Suddenly, a little hit.

MAN ON MAN’s triumphant and pop-powered return, Provincetown is the result of an accidental band moving with sudden intention and two once-new partners growing into a deeper relationship. Written largely in that tip-of-the-Cape haven that gives the record its name, Provincetown cavorts even as it poses complicated questions about what it means to be queer, alive, and in love in the first quarter of this anxious American century. There are peppy hookup-app blues, queer history lessons set to contagious electroclash, unfettered celebrations of sex and summertime fun—glitter bombs all, set off to light up these often-dark times. “Windows down, let ’em see/We’ve got nothing to hide,” they sing during the enormous and insistent “I Feel Good,” boldly answering the title’s refrain with “I feel great/In these United States.” It is, like all of Provincetown, a massive rainbow flag in the ground—not a statement of existence so much as a proclamation of defiant thriving. Cum, if you will, and take it.

If MAN ON MAN’s self-titled debut represented the start of their relationship, Provincetown—finished just as they neared the four-year mark—represents its steady maturation and the gifts therein. They now know what about the other makes them tick better. For Bottum, a veteran of big-time rock bands, Holman represented the first time he felt fully embraced by a collaborator, that he didn’t have to scream for his ideas to be heard. (And it’s not, mind you, because they share the same tastes. Holman loves Silverchair. Bottum is a Sparks superfan.) For Holman, meanwhile, it’s Bottum’s ability to reduce thorny ideas, whether lyrically or musically or emotionally, into more digestible notions.

That ability is key to Provincetown, which does not shy away from difficulty but delivers it always with pizazz and efficiency. Take opener “Take It From Me,” a fluorescent disco-grunge anthem about decades—no, centuries!—of exploitation of queer culture, from dudes who talk about their wives only after sex with a man to rising rents that push LGBTQ people out of spaces they helped make vital. It’s a doctoral thesis condensed into three minutes, then loaded with a defiant credo: “You’ll never take it from me.” And then there’s “Piggy,” a radiant rock strummer about the internalized self-hatred of someone too scared of being queer to show their face on an app, only their torso. “You gotta first love you, if you wanna fuck me,” they sing in a hook that would have been all over rock radio in an alternate and inclusive version of the ’90s. (By the way, speaking of guitars and the ’90s, yes, that’s J Mascis you hear roaring on closer “Hush.”) Those same sentiments curdle in “Gloryhole,” a monstrous shoegaze jam about the vexing contrast between being gay online and in real life, or between being ardent digital activists and meatspace meatheads. The good times and the good fight, Holman seems to say, must commingle.

There are, of course pure and unadulterated thrills here, songs that echo that rush-of-love esprit of MAN ON MAN’s debut. In fact, while touring those early songs, especially while opening for the dudely crowds of Dinosaur Jr., they learned how much fun they could have leaning into their livewire tendencies, a realization that shaped this record’s explosive sense of wonder. Named for Provincetown’s famous weekly variety show, “Showgirls” testifies to the pleasures of learning one another’s love-and-lust languages. Sexy, seductive, and dangerous, it’s a rock song about exploring and expanding each other. “Don’t say maybe/when you take me,” Holman sings. “Turn an amateur/into a connoisseur.” You want in on these lessons. All this wisdom funnels into the wonderful “Kids,” a soft, swaying dance tune about recognizing you’re no longer, well, a kid on the cutting edge of queer culture. But MAN ON MAN respects the advances the new generation will make and the fun they will have; they’re here to watch them party and change the world.

In their music videos, Bottum and Holman have made out under a deluge of honey, kissed while fully clothed in a shower stall, and deep throated a banana. On the cover of Provincetown, they are, again, barrel-chested and bare-chested, offering a rejoinder to the way we often see gay men in love. This is all playful and fun, of course, worth a wink and a chuckle. But MAN ON MAN is not a joke band, doing it just for laughs. This happy-sounding music explores serious and increasingly urgent topics in American life. “Cry lots, laugh more,” they sing on “Feelings,” a bit of cultural criticism that doubles as a thesis for their unabashed honesty. “Get comfortable with your feelings.” Provincetown is not only the sound of MAN ON MAN stepping fully into their shared lives and shared band, but also into their role as two singing seers of a current American concern—the ability to exist as yourself, to love who you love how you love them, with self-respect and dignity intact. And, of course, to have fun doing it.

credits

released June 16, 2023

All songs written, recorded, and produced by MAN ON MAN

Mixed by Steven Aguilar

Mastered by Ed Brooks

Additional guitar on “Hush” by J Mascis

Bass guitar written and recorded by Joey Howard

Art direction and artwork by Patrick Carroll

Photography by Bryson Rand

Packaging design by Christopher Schulz

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about

MAN ON MAN New York, New York

MAN ON MAN (M.O.M.) is a project started by boyfriends, Roddy Bottum and Joey Holman. It’s a collection of songs written and recorded in quarantine in Oxnard, California where the couple drove to from their home base of NYC at the onset of the virus. The songs deal with love, separation, fear, and isolation in the face of COVID-19.

MAN ON MAN is bold and sexual by nature - romantic & optimistic. ... more

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