After the early 1999 proto-hip hop project ‘The Captain $ Syndicate’ (bootleg that shit, baby), members Nap-illustrious (aka Naproxen, Simon Tenders, King Magus, George Footstrong), Richard Townley (aka Rapscallion, Turgenev, Robert Thanes) and Gentle Thomas (Captain $, Stupid) soon started working with ssy the Aural Oracle of the Jizz Jars, with significant early musical contributions from The Box, of Dying Ape Productions, Chrisy Gavin, Peter Parravano and Jameison F. Senate.
The first three years of production were mainly recorded on a Tascam 4 track, spawning the 90 minute mix tape ‘Attacking the Wind’ and the CD ‘The 3 City Dieties ep’ given away as a promo at a Living Room show. Material from this period can be found on ‘The Snake-Horse Anthology’.
2002 was the most prolific year in our recording history, when much of the learning process and demos of the previous time coalesced into the albums ‘Flame is Fire and Fire is Flame’ and ‘Let Prayers Carry On and Words Fall Like Rain’, as well as the Nap-illustrious solo album ‘16 Views of the Industrial Trust’ and Gentle Thomas’ ‘Wild Beasts and Angels’. 2003 saw ssy’s ‘Twilight’ and ‘The Red Thread’.
In 2004 MOL began a working partnership with Flashbacks From Tomorrow’s Vincent Sickly for a series of shows. Townley Industries provided the studio space for recording the album ‘Between Earth and Heaven’. Gentle Thomas’ ‘Sunshine Sexkiller’ and ssy’s ‘electric beauty body lines’ and ‘w/yr.lv’ followed in 2005.
2007 brought the introduction of menofletters.org, the very web-page you’re reading- the archive of past and future music, writings and visual work
After the previous run of material, it wasn’t until 2008 that saw the completion of the most recent MOL album, ‘The End of the Word’, perhaps the definitive statement on what we have to say. Two important branches of the MOL family tree also formed: the synthetic stylings of Richard Townley and Paul Leddy in Orcabeat (joined by Nap-illustrious in 2009) and the heavy voodoo ensemble the Rumrunners, featuring such past MOL supporters and collaborators as Paul Leddy, Peter Parravano, Vincent Sickly and Jay Mayoh.
2009 saw the debut of ssy the aural oracle’s ‘Come, Hell or Highwater’, the Rumrunners ‘Afrofire’, as well as a return to live performance after a 4 year lapse
2010 was the end of the Rumrunners and Men of Letters- an eleven year run wasn't that bad. Townley is a famous syndicated cartoonist, Gentle consults with kings and crooks, Nap is trying to get some sleep, ssy is dead ("...go home, all i was was a meat machine- let me rot far from the sight of your cruel laughter. good night...").