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Monday, 14 August 2006 03:36

Men, Women & Children kind of just happened. What began as something to do for fun between Todd Weinstock (ex-Glassjaw guitarist) and Nick Concellor (St. Louisan Bedroom DJ) turned into a full-fledged band over the course of a few short weeks...one that has toured with indie-rock legends Gang of Four and the hugely popular Panic! at the Disco. It took MWC over a year and a half to record their debut, a self-titled album released in March. They worked with several different producers on the much-hyped project, including Mike Mogus (Bright Eyes), Josh Abraham (Slayer), Raine Maida (frontman for Our Lady Peace). Now, the trio is on the road promoting the record, touring with Rx Bandits and getting ready to join Brand New for a slew of sold-out dates. We got a chance to talk with keyboardist Concellor on a rare day off in New York.

I hear you guys "misplaced" a member of the crew recently...

Oh, yeah. (Laughs) We were in Atlanta and our friend didn't show up for bus call, or van call; we don't drive in a bus. He was missing for about 24 hours; we all thought he was dead. We called his mom, all his friends, his sister; no one heard from him forever. Then about 25 hours later, his mom called us and said he was in California. He had ended up eating a ton of mushrooms and had no idea how he had got there. It was like the most insane thing that's ever happened on tour.

The album's been out for three months now. How'd the crowd been reacting to the music?

It's been great. We started touring last August and every tour it just keeps growing and growing. We played New York last night; it's our hometown. Not my hometown, but the band's hometown. Kids were going nuts. Baltimore, Philly; it's been awesome. Even in Florida, kids are coming out and it's cool to see. The kids get really excited to come to the shows and it's growing organically, I think, the right way.

You're getting ready to go out with Brand New, right?

Yeah, we're doing two weeks with Brand New in July. I think their whole tour is sold out or close to it. They're good friends of ours, so it's gonna be fun. It's cool when you get to be on a tour where, on the first day, it's just like a mellow vibe. Some of the tours we've done, you get there and you get attitude from the headlining band and they don't treat you like you would treat them. So, we're doing that and then we're doing Head Automatica after that, so it's just gonna be a bunch of fun for the next few months. It'll just be all friends and no egos.

Who's your favorite group so far that you've had the chance to play with?

We went on tour with Gang of Four; it was like our second tour ever. Just watching them play and seeing them every night... I mean, Andy Gill pretty much invented indie rock for me. They're like 45 years old and they killed it every night; it was really inspiring. And then we got to tour for a week with Metric and the Islands. That was a lot of fun; they're great bands.

And you guys are huge on MySpace...

Yeah, we're getting a lot of love on MySpace. We actually went to England with Panic! at the Disco a month and a half ago and we killed it over there. Kids over in England are just all about it. Every time we send a message out on MySpace, they're all like, "Please come back, please come back." It'll be fun when we get to go back over there. Kids over there are way into American bands, and especially Panic!; they're like a phenomenon. We would come out right before them and kids would just go nuts. They had never even heard of us and it was like we were the Beatles or something; the whole crowd was just going wild. Over there they are just way more into music; it's their whole life.