Man Forever is the drum ensemble formed in 2010 by John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions), better know as Oneida’s drummer and founding member. The Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer founded Man Forever to perform his experimental drum compositions. He was inspired by the New York classical band Fireworks Ensemble’s performance of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music.
Here’s what John Colpitts wrote about how the project came to be:

“A few months ago I went to see Fireworks Ensemble perform Metal Machine Music, I read the liner notes for the show, listened to the original record and learned how the piece was originally recorded and discovered Ulrich Krieger’s transcription process. During the performance I was inspired to record an album right away. A conversation I’d had a year or so ago with Brian Chase (from the YYYs) about just intonation tuning with drums popped into my head and I realized I could do something with acoustic drums inspired by the “noise” of electric instruments. I visualized a monolithic recording that would utilize the rich tonality of carefully tuned acoustic drums, played powerfully and multi-tracked at different speeds onto the Ocropolis (Oneida’s Brooklyn Studio) 16 track 1” tape machine. I asked Brian Chase to come to the studio and help me tune my drums so I could capture my ambition for the piece. Richard Hoffman (Sightings) added some bass to the final mix. The tempo is something like 180BPM. The piece moves fast at an almost imperceptible rhythm. It feels overwhelming and fluctuates constantly.”

Man Forever’s self-titled debut album was released on June 22th 2010 via Secretly Canadian vinyl-only imprint St. Ives. Last year Man Forever followed up this first effort with the release of the Learned Helplessness in Rats LP also on St. Ives.  (September 6th).

Today Thrill Jockey announced the addition of Man Forever to their roster and we can already start to eagerly anticipate a new release.

You can stream below Learned Helplessness in Rats performed live.