Music

Published on May 10th, 2017 | by Craig Silliphant

Local Music Feedback – Man Meat

While Man Meat has the best band name around, it isn’t the pun you may have thought it was. It’s better. And they kick ass.

Man Meat is Nicole Sanderson (guitar/lead vocals), Amber Neal (bass/vocals), and Chelsea Martin (drums/vocals). They’re one of those bands that started as friends that wanted to make a bunch of noise in the garage, but holy shit — they realized they were actually pretty fuckin’ good.

Their album ‘Hail Nothing Eat Shit’ came out last fall and immediately put them on the radar of the Saskatoon music scene. It’s a sublime balance of melody with sheer noise. While they don’t inspire nautical imagery per se, their music is like a day at sea on a great, old ship. The waters are often serene and beautiful and you can feel the cool breeze on your face. But then, dark clouds gather, angry rain and wind pelt you furiously, and the boat tosses from side to side while you’re flung around the deck like a rag doll. Sometimes that’s the whole band slipping from a hypnotic groove into angrily bashing the shit out of their instruments. Sometimes it’s by just by the force Sanderson’s calling up an ear-splitting siren screech.

I got a chance to chat with Man Meat about their band as well as some of the music and shows that they like (or hate).

THE FEEDBACK SOCIETY: How did you get together?

We (Nicole and Amber) wanted to start a shitty punk band, we asked Chelsea to play drums and kinda just fuck around but we started writing songs we actually liked, we realized we were a bit better than just a shitty punk band and began to take things more seriously.

TFS: Where did the name Man Meat come from. I mean, besides the obvious? By the way, best local band name AND best album name for ‘Hail Nothing, Eat Shit.’ You guys win.

CHELSEA: The name Man Meat isn’t exactly a dick joke, if people want to see it that way that’s fine with us, it’s a subversive turn around, as if being an all-female identified band makes us meat on stage for men, but instead we’re angry and aggressive; also rather sweaty and super gross.

AMBER: Also made a great opportunity to make meat related jokes and rag on Nicole for her obsession with Ham.

NICOLE: My obsession Ham only became apparent after we started this band.

TFS: How would you describe your sound?

We all have varying tastes in music, one thing we have agreed on is that we want to be loud and aggressive. Some of us like complicated doomy things, some of us like more upbeat punk riffs and we kind of just make it work within our means. Throw in some weird heart wrenching shit and you’ve got yourself a song.

TFS: What are the reoccurring lyrical themes or ideas that run through the album?

CHELSEA: A reoccurring theme throughout the album, “Hail Nothing, Eat Shit” is the realization that it’s okay to be pissed. It’s okay to feel hurt and guilty about past experiences. Some of our songs describe some sort of trauma or the worst parts of a doomed relationship. We talk about and describe anxiety often, we try to make it relatable because it comes directly through the eyes of 20 something year old women trying to just exist.

NICOLE: People fucking up, people getting fucked up and ruining other people’s lives. Me ruining my own life. Relationship feels.

AMBER: Things that are totally relatable to poor, broke, sad millennials.

TFS: What is your process for writing?

We have more than one process of writing. Sometimes we write a song around a riff Nicole comes up with, sometimes we write a song around a bass riff that amber comes up with. We kind of do things differently every time. Sometimes we’re just dicking around at jams and decide we like whatever we were just playing and try to make it into a song.

We all kinda write lyrics, sometimes they just magically fit with the timing or strumming patterns, sometimes we have to stop and figure out how to make it all work. Most of the time when Nicole is writing lyrics she just yells or screams nonsense to try and figure out the cadence before putting actual words to the music.

TFS: What’s the best live show you’ve seen lately?

CHELSEA: Seeing Weedeater and Primitive Man is probably the best most recent show.

AMBER: Earlier this year I saw respectfulchild and Ursa at PAVED Arts and it was a pretty good date.

(Ursa’s – Prism System)

TFS: Who would be a bucket list show for you to see?

AMBER: Roger Waters.

CHELSEA: Cult of Luna. I’ve been so close to seeing them in the past but they dropped out of a festival I was going to because they couldn’t get their Visas in times. Also Nick Cave and Electric Wizard.

(Cult of Luna live)

NICOLE: Fugazi.

TFS: What is the album you can’t stop listening to right now?

CHELSEA: Collectively we’ve been obsessing over Houdini by Melvins, it seems like every time we’re in Nicole’s car together we’re blasting it. Lately I’ve been listening to King Woman’s Created in the Image of Suffering. It’s right up my alley, the instrumentals are so dark and heavy. Her voice (Kristina Esfandiari) really gets to me, her vocals are low and usually dissonant. It’s perfect.

AMBER: Pissed Jeans’ new album, Why Love Now, because it’s angry, it’s abrasive and catchy. It’s very similar to King of Jeans which is one of my favourite albums.

NICOLE: Blessed’s self–titled 4-track EP because it’s so catchy and a combination of really progressive heavy parts with dreamy melodies that seem to just grab you.

TFS: What is a song or band you can’t stand hearing.

CHELSEA: Grimes. I said it. Nicole likes Grimes though; it’s a point of contention between us. She also likes licking butts. I also think the list of bands I hate outweighs the list of bands I love. I fucking hate Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Nick Cave has a great quote about how much they suck.

AMBER: I hate that one Kid Rock song that sounds like its going to be Werewolves of London, but it’s not Werewolves of London, aaaand I really hate Kid Rock

NICOLE: Most pop punk or anything that resembles that My Chemical Romance bullshit. Papa Roach.

TFS: What is your favourite Saturday night record?

CHELSEA: The Great Sabatini – Dog Years. They’re one of the best heavy bands in Canada. I bought this record at their show and listened to it for two months straight.

AMBER: Andy Shauf – The Party. Either because it’s a low key Saturday and I have work Sunday morning or because it’s good to make out to.

NICOLE: Greys – Easy Listening, ‘cause it gets me amped up (Amp Energy plz sponsor me). It’s fun, catchy and heavy. It’s sort of poppy but not stupid. All great things. Anything by ToroYmoi because it’s chill and dancey and I like things that sound like they’re from the 70s or 80s. I’m really into their bass lines.

TFS: Your favourite Sunday morning record?

AMBER: Andy Shauf – The Party or Miles Davis. Post make-outs. Great breakfast making music.

NICOLE: Mac Demarco – Salad Days or Chad Vangaalen – Skelleconnection. Because I’m usually hungover and can’t handle anything else, it’s really nice and dreamy and doesn’t make me want to puke.

CHELSEA: Angel Olson – Burn Your Fire for No Witness or any album by Chelsea Wolfe. Both are the perfect mixture of sad and dreamy. I usually blast them while cleaning my room.

TFS: Who is your favourite local band/act?

CHELSEA: Adolyne, because duh. Chunder Buffet because Cass is a powerhouse, she’s crazy talented and works incredibly hard. Even if I didn’t know them I would be in love with that band. Switching Yard are pretty rad too. I guess I like Soul Mates.

AMBER: Owners, because they are everything I love about garage rock. Soul Mates.

NICOLE: I miss Sexy Preacher. I also really like Chunder Buffet and Soul Mates. I like that song Owners have on CFCR, I don’t remember the name thought. Waitress and Adolyne are sweet too.

We all like Dour — hey buds.

TFS: Shameless self-promotion time! What are you promoting right now? Upcoming shows? New stuff on the horizon? Anything I’ve missed you wanna mention?

Right now we are promoting our show at the skate park with Sightlines, happening June 20^th. It’s right before Sled Island, so I guess we should be promoting that too. We will be releasing a music video this summer as well, but that’s unrelated to Sightlines and Sled Island.

We have some plans to record some new shit in the relatively near future.

We have a secret thing coming up that we’re stoked to announce when we’re allowed to.

Aaaaaand we’re planning on touring out west again in September. It was great the first time so why not ruin a good thing while we have the chance. I don’t think they’re sick of us yet.

CHELSEA: Let it be known, I Chelsea Martin will do what it takes to get Palm Bay to sponsor Man Meat. Give us that Lucrative Liquor industry cheeeze. #PalmBaySponsorsManMeat2k17

Tags: hail nothing eat shit, local music feedback, man meat, saskatoon music, yxe music

About the Author

Craig Silliphant is a D-level celebrity with delusions of grandeur. A writer, critic, creative director, editor, broadcaster, and occasional filmmaker, his thoughts have appeared on radio, television, in print, and on the web. He is a juror on the Polaris Music Prize and the Juno Awards. He loves Saskatoon. He has horrible night terrors and apocalyptic dreams.