Men, Women & Children

Spearheaded by former Glassjaw guitarist Todd Weinstock, New York-based Men, Women & Children came together in March of 2004. Serving up an exuberant dance mix of post-punk, funk, disco, and electro beats, the group cites influences that range from Kraftwerk and Talking Heads to Prince and Giorgio Moroder. The band originally started out as a semi-joke between Weinstock and friend Nick Conceller (a bedroom DJ from St. Louis), who wanted to get away from the serious side of rock to instead make music that was fun to listen to and a spectacle to watch. Weinstock began working on some tracks with drummer David Sullivan-Kaplan, sending the unfinished pieces to Conceller in Missouri to add in keyboards and programming. Six months after starting the process, Conceller moved to New York as the band was actually becoming a reality. Weinstock's childhood friend TJ Penzone soon joined on as vocalist, recruiting his multi-instrumentalist brother Rick for bass duties. Men, Women & Children completed some touring — including nationwide dates with Gang of Four — and the group was later solidified with the permanent addition of touring guitarist Jay Giummule. Work on their full-length took over a year, since three versions of each song were written and three different producers had a hand in the project. Their dynamic self-titled debut finally appeared in March 2006 on Reprise. A string of tour dates followed, including shows with Metric, Motion City Soundtrack, and the Format.