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Mean Man


Band: Mean Man

Members: A.J. Shue (drums), Kurt Golden (guitar), Tom Traina (bass)

Who we talked to: Traina, 40

Where'd your nickname, "Tonar," come from? Actually, from a dog, to be honest. We were playing paintball one day, and I ran into this guy's dog. It was a cool dog and I said, "Hey, what's his name?" He said, "Tonar." I said, "That is a cool name."

The band's vocal sound is very guttural and sounds like the singer is gurgling water. Doesn't that start to hurt after a while? This Mean Man theme, it's a wonderful name. . . . We almost try and personify it. We do that with the vocals. . . . I really do use my diaphragm quite a bit so it is guttural, and I try and be very powerful and try and demonstrate a mean presence. . . . Believe it or not, no, (it does't hurt).

Last three albums you listened to? Alice Donut's "Fuzz" is a good album. I'm digging that. "The Pick of Destiny" is an excellent album if you're a Tenacious D fan. It's an incredible rock album. And I'm pretty heavy on the Frank Black, "Fast Man Raider Man." It's kind of portrayed as mellow acoustic, but after you listen to it the first eight times, it's like any of his other albums - solid songs.

Worst song of all time? "We Built This City," Jefferson Starship. Maybe it's the fact that you wind up singing it when it's over, and when you're singing it, you're like, "What is going on here?" It's a weird song. It has sticking power, but you have no idea why.

Who is your biggest musical guilty pleasure? A new found one, Devo 2.0. (It's) children singing and playing Devo songs. I stumbled on it and turned my son onto it, and he's digging it, and I'm digging it.

What songs do you like to cover? Not that we do it publicly too often, but (The) Cult. Anything off of "Electric" is killer. If you can kick those songs out, you're definitely in for a good time.

List a few songs that would be on the soundtrack to your life: I'd tend to go to the Zeppelin side. I don't want to be a downer but, as a kid, "Trampled Under Foot," but that could be that it was just such a great song, too. Black Sabbath is another that comes to mind. Anything from "Sweet Leaf" to "War Pigs."

Plug one other local band: Via Satellite. I like their vibe.

What do you guys need to work on as a band? We need to work on getting shows at this point. We've been pretty dedicated to rehearsal. We've been banging out our songs pretty good, but we're not good at the self-promotion.

Shoutouts: Shoutout to Horsecop and Waitin' on a Train. They're good friends. Just like to say, "Hey."

- JASON COX, FLIPSIDE STAFF