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Album review, Mac DeMarco, matthew danger lippman — 0 comments

Album Review: Mac DeMarco - Salad Days

NOTE: This review was written immediately after returning from a Mac DeMarco concert in Cleveland, in which he and his touring bassist licked me in the face (I gave Mac a Valentine and asked for a kiss in return. He obliged me.) and then I talked to him and essentially stared at him as he smoked outside the venue. So what I’m trying to get at is that this may not be the most objective review. But does objectivity have any place in rock criticism anyway?

Mac DeMarco has had a busy year. The Montreal-born, Brooklyn-inhabiting indie rock prankster (who has described his sound as “jizz jazz,” a mix of surf rock textures, jangle pop guitar tones, and soft-spoken crooning) found himself an indie sensation after releasing debut album 2, working with Tyler, the Creator, and developing a beloved live act, known to feature spontaneous nudity and bizarre, profane covers of played-out classic rock chestnuts like “Tears in Heaven” and “Takin’ Care of Business.” His fanbase has grown immensely, and yet he still dresses like a janitor. He has generally become known as the lovable, immature slacker king of indie pop.

Which makes his new album Salad Days all the more surprising. It is an album of maturity and wisdom, with lush textures and reflective lyrics on aging, feeling lonely, and accepting responsibility. The eponymous, image-obsessed subject of “Blue Boy” is told gently to “calm down, sweetheart, grow up.” The Kinks-y title track reflects on a man who, at age 23, is “acting like [his] life’s already over,” before shaking it off with an assured “act your age and try another year.” The music is about as smooth as bedroom pop can get, with his distinctive guitar tones filled out with melodic basslines and lurching synths.

Of course, it is all delivered with the good humor and easiness that Mac is known for. In modern music lexicon, “mature” is often synonymous with “maudlin,” which DeMarco does not once dip into on Salad Days. For all his newfound maturity, he is still a devoted pop connoisseur, which means that even the heaviest moments on the album are delivered with breezy swagger and irresistible melodies. Album centerpiece “Passing Out Pieces” reflects on the toll his popularity has taken on his private life, with Mac reminding himself that “nothing comes free.” But the song is anchored by a mammoth synth horn line that gives the song a Bowie-esque groove. The catchy melodies of “Goodbye Weekend” make Mac’s requests to not “go telling me how this boy should be leading his own life” sound outright joyous. For all its more serious topics, Salad Days is first and foremost a pleasurable and fun listening experience.

Salad Days is an absolute delight to listen to. It is stacked with assured, gorgeous pop songs infused with the good nature and humor that Mac has become known for. The man once known for his ironic sensibility and bizarre humor has quickly become the most genuine figure in indie rock.

(And he licked my face last night. Frantically. I just wanted to mention that again.)

Grade: A-

~ Post by Matthew Danger Lippman

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Mac DeMarco Releases Single From Salad Days

Tacky Vancouver heart-throb Mac DeMarco has unleashed his first single "Passing Out Pieces" from the album Salad Days, scheduled to drop April 1st. I have not been disappointed by the man yet, but I gotta say, his promo vid skeezes me right the fuck out.

bjork, frankie rose, joanna newsom, Mac DeMarco, mikal cronin, pitchfork music festival, sknapp — 1 comments

Pitchfork Music Festival: Day 1 Preview

With the American festival scene currently flourishing, it seems that there is a gathering dedicated to nearly every genre and musical niche. For music fans looking to catch the next wave of young buzz bands as well as established indie legends, Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival offers one of the most eclectic, genre-spanning lineups. This year's edition is no exception as thousands will descend upon Union Park for performances from acts like Mac DeMarco, Parquet Courts, Solange, Phosphorescent, Bjork, Yo La Tengo, and R.Kelly. Festival goers will also be eager to check out amenities such as the CHIRP record fair, poster shopping at Flatstock, or the opportunity to bid on memorabilia at the Rock for Kids charity tent.

With a full weekend of music ahead, here's a look at the sets were looking forward to most on opening day:

Frankie Rose- 3:20pm (Blue Stage)

The Brooklyn singer-songwriter formerly of garage rock bands Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls brings her new blissful, synth heavy sound to the blue stage to open the festival. After releasing her well-received debut LP, Interstellar, last year, she has been able to seamlessly change artistic direction. For fans looking for heavenly vocals paired with dream-pop melodies reminiscent of Beach House, look no further.

Trash Talk- 4:15pm (Blue Stage)

At a festival full of experimental performers such as Bjork, Joanna Newsom, and Julia Holter, a California hardcore punk band will undoubtedly stand out and deliver a set full of some of the heaviest, most intense music of the day. The Sacramento band formed in 2005 and released their debut full length in 2008 with Chicago producer Steve Albini. Since signing with California rap collective Odd Future's record label and touring with Tyler, The Creator, they have seen a significant rise in their profile, becoming known for their stage presence that holds true to hardcore's founding ideals.

Mac DeMarco- 4:35 (Green Stage)

Everyone's favorite Canadian goofball, Mac DeMarco, bring's his light-hearted slacker rock to the green stage in what is sure to be a perfect late afternoon setting for the Montreal songwriter's breezy, summery tunes. His latest album, 2, released via Brooklyn's Captured Tracks label, is one of the best guitar-pop releases in recent memory with instantly memorable melodies on track's like "My Kind of Woman" and "Ode to Viceroy". From touring in an old Volvo station wagon, to crashing on couches, and generally crude and unpredictable stage behavior, he has gained a reputation as indie's most lovable sleaze with a surprisingly strong pop sensibility.

Mikal Cronin- 6:15pm (Blue Stage)

The San Francisco garage rocker and Ty Segall band member released his second solo effort, MCII, earlier this year, a strong effort featuring some of the best melodic power-pop of the young songwriter's career. The usually heavy fuzz rocker made the transition to a lighter, straightforward pop song incredibly well and fans will be eager to catch a glimpse at the artist's change of pace since performing with Ty Segall at last year's festival.

Bjork- 8:30pm (Green Stage)

Always imaginative, and notoriously avant-garde, the Icelandic artist will close out the day with what is sure to be one of the weekend's strangest, most ambitious performances. Expect the classics like "All is Full of Love" and "Hyperballad" as well as her newer, more electronic leaning work. Fans should be in store for a celebration of the groundbreaking singer's 20 year career.

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Picking Up The Slack For MTV: Mac DeMarco

One of indie rock's goofiest characters, Mac DeMarco, recently released an appropriately absurd video for the song "Dreamin" from his well received 2012 album, 2. The video, shot in the suburbs of Quebec, features Mac wandering around in 17th century apparel, guitar in hard, smoking his beloved Viceroy's. Things get significantly stranger when the singer/songwriter sits smiling as green slime and red wine are poured over his head. The gross imagery set to the easy going vibe of the track allows Mac to pull of the charismatic dirtbag surprisingly well, proving that the deranged antics of a suburban slacker can be oddly entertaining.

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buffaBLOG's Best of 2012: Staff Picks - Mike Torsell

Well, I am sitting here listing to the Charlie Brown Christmas album on repeat, which means one thing...it is the end of the year. And, with it being the end of the year, my overlords at the blog demanded an end of the year post from all of us. And, with me having sold my soul to this blog over the summer, I oblige. So, what can we say about 2012? I mean really? Mac has a gun to my head for this post so I should really say something...help?

2012 offered a lot to be enthused about with great new releases throughout the year. Whether it was already established artists like Grizzly Bear, Flying Lotus, Jens Lekman, and Spiritualized or new ones like Grimes, Tanlines, and DIIV, there was no shortage of great music. For me, this year was marked by moments where I genuinely began to feel like I was hearing something new - artists taking earlier genres and styles and recombining them in ways that felt fresher than they had in a long time, without feeling like a simple pastiche. Narrowing down a top 5 was difficult, but here are mine:

[Note: This was also a great year for album art, so somehow my favorite albums musically linked well with some of my favorite albums visually.]

Cult of Youth – Love Will Prevail: This may be one of the most underrated albums of the year and a reminder that folk music could be something other than the nostalgia and saccharine fueled mix of recent years. Combining psychedelic elements with darker, more ambiguous lyrics, Cult of Youth created a diverse and challenging album that was willing to blend the discordant with the pastoral in a very satisfying manner.

Grizzly Bear – Shields: Shields feels like the realization of everything Grizzly Bear has been doing to date. Where Veckatimist felt like somewhat of a step towards something, a step away from the quieter/sparser Yellow House, Shields feels like a synthesis of the two. Grizzly Bear creates haunting and atmospheric music, music that builds until its catharsis seems inevitable. They key may be that they often hold out that catharsis for just a little longer than you expect. This is music built around an emotional core, around anxiety, a sense of being resigned to fail, of never being able to begin in the first place. Yet, in a way, and through these moments of release, which hit all the more intensely because they are delayed, it offers an almost ritualistic offering of all these feelings into something greater. There are moments here where your hair stands on end. Seeing them live in Toronto was a definite highlight of the year concert-wise.

Mac DeMarco – 2: While nothing on the new Mac DeMarco would sound out of place on an early 80’s release from Postcard Records, there was still something so undeniably great about this album that I had to include it. It might be how effortless everything sounds; DeMarco comfortably turns out brief, catchy, pop songs with jangly guitar and a sauntering backbeat. The whole thing comes together unbelievably well.

Wild Nothing – Nocturne: Dream pop has been everywhere this year and there were certainly some excellent examples of the microgenre, but Wild Nothing transcended that label and made one of the year's strongest albums. In fact, if I had to pick an album I enjoyed the most this year, it would be this one. There is something so appealing to me about Wild Nothing’s aesthetic that I found it hard not to react to this on an almost naïve level. Each song, draped in reverb and a buzzing echo, is tightly composed and deftly layered. It was one of several examples of acts following up an excellent debut with an even more accomplished 2^nd record. Maybe the sophomore slump is a myth after all.

Laurel Halo - Quarantine: This had to be one of the most unique and interesting records to come out this year. Spacey and effecting, Halo composes challenging, ethereal songs that seem to take on spatial dimensions as the album progresses. The instrumentation and vocals mix in such a way that Halo's vocals become spectral, literally haunting the cut up compositions. There is definitely something new and exciting about Halo's work and I am excited to see what is next.

Honorable Mention:

Father John Misty - Fear Fun

DIIV - Oshin

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes

Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't

Sun Araw/M Geddes Gengras/The Congos - Icon Give Thank

Album review, Mac DeMarco, ntorsell — 0 comments

Album Review: Mac DeMarco - 2

The hype for Mac Demarco’s 2, released on hot-shit label Captured Tracks, began when “My Kind of Woman” was released as a single this past summer. The song is an immediate mix-tape staple that saw Demarco doing his version of a prom song. It’s a messy track that wants to break apart with every drawled out syllable, but instead tapes together verses and choruses into one of the best tracks of the year. 2, like “My Kind of Woman,” is a beautiful mess, another descendant of Slanted and Enchanted’s slacker doctrine.

2 isn’t the first Demarco release this year, that was the much creepier and sleazier Rock and Roll Night Club. An even more fucked album then 2, Rock and Roll Night Club features Demarco screwing his voice into a lower register. The songs are good, but most seem half-formed, and he’s admitted he finds most of the songs “very funny” in interviews. There’s a stronger sense of the stories he wants to tell now, starting with the first track, “Cooking Up Something Good.” It presents a dysfunctional family alongside a jaunty guitar line. There’s Mom cooking drugs in the kitchen and Dad passed out on the couch. Demarco does his best to keep a lid on the seeping frustration of not being able to escape this home in stasis, “Oh when life moves this slowly/oh just try and let it go.”

That dissatisfaction is flipped in “Freaking Out The Neighborhood,” an apology to a very different Mom than the one appearing in “Cooking Up Something Good.” This time Demarco is the one “up to no good,” claiming he’ll be the same when he gets home after gettin’ in to who knows what kind of trouble in the big city while his Mom’s worried about him back home. Demarco’s not afraid of his guitar, and you can hear quite a bit of Alex Chilton and Jonathan Richman in his guitar lines. It sounds like a second vocal track on “Freaking Out The Neighborhood,” meandering around his empty promises to his Mom.

Demarco’s got the usually enviable reputation as a crooner because of the low affected voice on Rock and Roll Night Club, but Demarco is adamant that it’s a misnomer. Interviewed by his friend in an unguarded interview with Hearty Magazine, he claims, “I don’t want to write sexy music, I want to write sweet music…I have had a girlfriend for two years, so I’m not interested in making people swoon.” It seems “Annie” and “My Kind of Woman” work as companions, love songs to his sweetheart. “Annie knows how I’m feelin’/and gives me a healin’,” Demarco sings on “Annie.” While the catchy merry-go-wrong sound of “My Kind of Woman” repeats the song title, after he croaks half-defeated “And it just don’t make sense to me/I really don’t know/why you stick right next to me/wherever I go.” After the demented pop of Rock and Roll Night Club and an excellent film-noir(y) “Ode to Viceroy,” it’s surprising to see Demarco get serious. Yet, these are the most assured songs in his catalog. They’re made for slow dances in grubby basements, slowly swaying over stale beer and cigarettes.

Grade: A-

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Listener's Digest: September 28 - October 5

This week's selection suggests a definite shift in mood from the bright and sunny music I was posting during the summer. This brings me to the connection between our musical choices and something as banal as the weather. I often come back to how the weather can shape my desire to listen to certain songs and seek out certain styles and sounds. This tendency, which I imagine is a common on, points to something unique about music in comparison to other forms of expression and something especially unique about music in the 21st Century. When technology has made it so accessible and pervasive, we really can take music anywhere and that definitely changes how we listen to music and what we listen to. Having, in a relative sense, the ability to completely dictate when and how we listen to music as we go about our daily lives, we use it to color our experiences, adding this element that becomes integral to how we remember certain times and places. As such, our tastes can be equally shaped by what is going on around us, the weather being an obvious example. With the relative ability to choose what we listen to, we are often more conscious of matching our mood and the outside world to our choices. This is a rather long winded way to justify myself for picking slightly more gloomy tracks this week. Enjoy!

Myths - "The Horizon (Grimes and Majical Cloudz Remix):" Currently touring together, Grimes contributed vocals to this remix of Myths' "The Horizon." The result is stripped down and smooth with Grimes' vocals drifting through and winding around the dreamy melody.

Black Moth Super Rainbow- "Gangs in the Garden:" A complete 180 from the Grimes/Myths track, Black Moth Super Rainbow have released another single in preparation for their forthcoming album. "Gangs in the Garden" is a short burst with a driving groove. While sounding decidedly less ethereal than older Black Moth Super Rainbow, this song still features the familiar heavily treated vocals from previous albums, now in response to a more abrasive computer voice.

Girls Names - "The New Life:" A gloomy track featuring downtrodden vocals over jangling guitar and ominous synth tones that swirl in and out intermittently, Girls Names have provided a perfect track for gloomy autumn afternoons. The song takes a surprising turn at the end, switching to a long instrumental and atmospheric coda where dissonant guitar feedback replaces the earlier vocals.

Foxygen - "Shuggie:" The constantly changing song alternates between melancholy and swaggering, finally ending with a coda that seems to drunkenly march off into the end. Jagjaguwar will put out Foxygen's newest album in early 2013.

Mac DeMarco- "Ode to Viceroy:" Mac DeMarco once again heavily channels the bands of Postcard Records (Scottish post-punk from the early 80's) on his latest release. "Ode to Viceroy" is a down-tempo song driven by jangly guitar. As I noted, this track is heavily indebted to acts like Orange Juice, Josef K, and Aztec Camera; however, DeMarco uses his influences well and the song manages to not sound derivative.

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Listener's Digest: September 13 - September 20

I think it was Dylan Thomas who said, "Do not go gentle into the Friday night/pent up peeps should rage hard at close of day." Obviously, the Welsh poet was talking about going hard in the paint on a Friday. So, before you go rage at one of the many awesome things going on this weekend, here are some new great releases from the last week.

IO Echo - "Carnation:" IO Echo teams up with Jonny Pierce, lead singer of the Drums, for this anthemic song off of their debut EP, which is set to be released later this fall. A shift from the driving Ravenettesque "When the Lillies Die," "Carnation" is a short burst of stirring guitars and vocals.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark):" Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who released a single as part of the Adult Swim Singles Series earlier this summer, have put out a new track this week. Short and catchy, Unknown Mortal Orchestra's distinct style, melodic rock with distinctly out of tune guitars, is on full display here.

Mac DeMarco - "Freaking Out The Neighborhood:" Captured Tracks seems to be on a real roll lately. Having released both Wild Nothing and DIIV's near perfect records, the label seems to have found and released some great stuff this year. If this new song from Mac DeMarco is any of how his new album, "2," will be, then the Brooklyn label has another winner. A shimmering, quick paced song, "Freak Out The Neighborhood" is reminiscent of Orange Juice and Joseph K.

Diplo feat. Jahan Lennon - "About That Life:" An interesting mellow track from Diplo. This heady psychedelic song featuring vocals from Jahan Lennon seems like a distinct shift from the seemingly ubiquitous artist's previous work. Then again, it comes off as being a response to the sentiments expressed in the Major Lazer song (one of the year's best singles by the way), "Get Free." Apparently, we're free now and spacing out...or something, I am still in an office wearing a tie.

AC Newman - "Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns:" A new tightly crafted power pop song from AC Newman. This is, of course, nothing new or a shocking change of direction as Newman, whether solo or with the New Pornographers, has been releasing great pop rock tracks for years now. Still, another excellent song from AC Newman is always welcome. This is off his soon to be released album, Shut Down the Streets.