The Tin Men

IT was a Friday afternoon in late October, and the narrow lanes of the French Quarter were quiet. Fresh paint — pale green, robin’s egg blue, canary yellow — adorned the low, tidy Creole cottages, and the wrought-iron railings of town-house balconies shone blackly in the sunlight. The streets were free of litter, the air unpolluted by the musky odor of all-night parties. But as I wandered the beautiful Quarter, one question stuck in my mind: Where was everybody?

Only in New Orleans could an album featuring jazz guitar, washboard, and tuba—and those instruments only, save for an occasional short-order cook’s “order up!” bell—be most notable for its songwriting

CD Release Party
The Big Top, 1638 Clio St

Freaks for Industry, the self-released second album from New Orleans' Tin Men, seems improbable. The trio of Alex McMurray on guitar, Matt Perrine on sousaphone and "Washboard" Chaz Leary on washboard was an unusual band configuration from the outset, but McMurray's move to New York City last October after falling in love with a New Yorker sounded like the band's death knell.

The album, though, features the band at its irrepressible best. Recorded...

Our official all music bio

I felt pride for New Orleans as Tin Men dropped city references in songs like "Location, Location" and "Uptown Girl." On "Uptown Girl," vocalist/guitarist Alex McMurray spelled out subtle differences between those below Claiborne and those above it. Differences only a local can fully appreciate. This talent is probably one of the reasons everyone I've talked to about Tin Men have expressed nothing but love.
Sousaphone guy Matt Perrine and washboardist Chaz Leary rounded out the band at a...

The Tin Men trio of New Orleans should for sure not be mixed up with Tinmen, a house music mixing outfit, or T.I.N. Men, a rock band that made one album in the late '90s. Putting aside the small pile of tin entirely, few groups have a sound as nifty as this one.