Man at Arms is a noisy rock band from the Midwest. Its members are Eric and Ted who, respectively, play guitar and drums. Both of them sing. Together they make music that has been called "The most masculine thing I've ever heard," "articulate" and "like Primus" (which they sympathize with, but are reluctant to understand). A gracious critic once wrote of them: "Fuck you America, this is what you should be listening to."
What might appear on the surface to be solipsistic or psychotic about Man at Arms, we here at Joyful Noise feel to be highly original and radically innovative. The name of the band recalls the popular 80's action cartoon, "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." Here Man at Arms is the father of the much lusted after cartoon vixen, Teela, who routinely wore metal-bikinis and knee-high boots into battle. Man at Arms references the head of this militia; but their name, like so many other aspects of this band, is weird and has nothing to do with anything else.
The band, shown here valiantly pointing toward new territories, began in Grand Rapids, Mich., in the spring of 2002 as a three-piece. After self-recording and releasing an album in spring 2003 and contributing four songs to The Lake Effect: A Four-Way Split on Friction Records, Man at Arms parted with founding member and bassist, Jason - continuing the MAA tradition as a two-piece. The band's new incarnation went into the studio that spring to document their new sound, releasing the Being and Commerce EP for Friction in June 2005, followed by tours of the Midwest in August and November. During this time, Joyful Noise Recordings and friends the Abner Trio approached the band about releasing a split CD. The band set to recording the following spring, and after a tour with ari.ari. in summer 2006, saw the release of Abner Trio & Man at Arms on Joyful Noise and the Digital EP The Foreseeable Future on Friction.
In the last days of 2007, the band set to work recording A Waste of Time and Space, the band's most accomplished output to date. The band's debut full-length manages to simultaneously capture the essence of the band's raucous live sound with more polish than any of its previous efforts. Expanding in all directions, the band continues in its musical explorations of repetition, concision, dynamic shifts and stagnancy. Heavy-handed as this all may sound, you can rest assured that it also is, but also is not. What we mean to say is that beyond all of the cosmo/music-ology this album contains, it is still fucking punk rock. And therefore a lot of fun to listen to. 
NEWS MAN AT ARMS' "SWAMP THINGS" VIDEO (February 24, 2009) |
