Originally formed in 2007 as a DJing side project by JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, two thirds of fiercely energetic femme-pop-punk trio Le Tigre, MEN has mutated into a proper full-time project. However, Fateman has semi-retired from the group to start a family, and is now billed as a non-touring ‘consultant’ member alongside artist Emily Roysdon. Michael O’Neill and Ginger Takahashi of Samson’s other group Hirsute have been drafted in to complete the live trio.

‘We’re an art band,’ says Samson. ‘We put on a live show, but we like to bring multimedia work and other artists into our shows wherever possible. There’ll definitely be a conceptual costume element going on.’ MEN also continues Le Tigre’s overtly lesbian-feminist lyricism. ‘Our new album’s called Talk About Body,’ says Samson. ‘It’s a lyric from our song ‘Credit Card Babie$’, which is about how much it costs gay and lesbian couples to have babies. I get frustrated by the way my friends can just decide to have children, but that for me (as a lesbian) it has to be that much more of a planned thing.’

As for Le Tigre; ‘We’re putting together a live DVD documentary for next year, and there could be an album from that, I don’t know. We worked with Christina Aguilera on her last album [Bionic], which was really interesting. But I don’t see us recording any of our own material in the immediate future.’ Why not? Because, she points out, ‘my head is in MEN world right now.’

Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 28 Oct; Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Fri 29 Oct