mac demarco

i really like this.

it sounds like it was recorded directly to a maxell C-90. sort of feeble sounding. yet with a kind of whippy spank to it. it has started to get its hooks into me somehow. Mac Demarco!

the guy is hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTz2JgYFb_8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2_r94MwW18&feature=player_embedded

his first lp grew on me after i initially thought it hipster twaddle

know nothing abt him but this songs great

i was trying for a long time to place the weird rhetoric about this "strangely sincere" new album. for a long time i could not believe that a person this chaotic could be sincere in the least - figured mac demarco 2 was lil b-level trolling upon trolling. anyways, i just found this rambly but sensible blog post now, and it helps a lot putting this weird relationship with sincerity in perspective.

http://jasondillisdead.tumblr.com/post/33697840146/mac-demarco-2-captured-tracks-2012

antics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GMGia5B-mU

I couldn't get past the Mink de Ville-alike of the music on 2 to get to the lyrics. Came as an enormous surprise to me when I realised how many people really rated him as a writer.

this album rules imo

yeah i've really come around on this guy

I love this album! A few songs on the album remind me of jj cale's 'let me do it to you'. the last song is terrible though.

classic record

2's so good they took it off spotify! I was really enjoying it, 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1xWkVQDlk

the lead guitar bit in the chorus of viceroy is classic

dry, modest and absolutely great "small" record.

Sherrill is his best song imo.

except for being a great songwriter he has a talent for creating awesome guitar lines. Sherrill is the best example of both.

That song reminds me of Women.

the band or the gender?

I cannot stop listening to this musical artist.

Salad Days: new album , new single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lk3NFWw9Fg

not sure about the keyboards but the tune is quite nice

yeah i dig. saw his live show recently, the very lengthy covers medley at the end was fucking dreadful

what were the covers?

taking care of business and enter sandman were two, struggling to recall the others

Ugh, sounds awful

i actually found the covers quite entertaining - when i saw him i was just a festival punter though, didn't know his music outside of "ode to viceroy" so maybe if i was more invested in him i'd've been more disappointed by a whole lot of covers.

had a briefly v confusing conversation with a dude abt this guy thinking he was talking about roc marciano

New song sounds great.

I got a few more spins on this but did not pull the trigger on the iTunes preorder yet because, well, can anyone point me to a more humane way of preordering something?

Anyway, this is Mac Demarco's "I Am the Walrus" or something—so I predict good things.

so this guy's gig is basically "the uninteresting ariel pink"?

loveable dirtbag, imo

xpost -- That's not so much setting the bar low to start with as burying it in the ground.

can't see the resemblance, but i like them both.

Ariel Pink is the Frank Zappa of Mac Demarco impersonators.

yeah the music is kinda lo-fi and warped sounding like AP but thats where the similarity ends. i love his breezy laid back toonage a lot. maybe hes the dirtbag jonathon richman.

he is somewhat of a one trick pony, but i still like it. who knows how long will it last

i wouldn't bother seeing him live again, but the new stuff still sounds good

the song that goes "mamas in the kitchen cookin up somethin good" is great

it is, though nothing beats viceroy for me yet

his best song imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp1Xnfaalps

great songwriting and underrated guitarist

homeshake, his guitarists band, are pretty great imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XzvoAJ8DU

new album is kinda underwhelming, missing those tasty licks

yeah,sounds like the previous record only with weaker, lazy melodies.
it is still good enough though.

Changed my mind:I like it.

No opinions about the new album?

The best songs are where indulges in keyboards and synths specifically Chamber of Reflection, Passing out Pieces and Johnny's Odyssey.
Hoping these songs are a reflection of where he is headed next.

first listen and i have to agree that its like the previous one but not as good. maybe it needs a few more spins.

So how come no one talks about how AWESOME the Makeout Videotape record is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUdZ6cLc3Mg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1xWkVQDlk

Those are awesome links nostromo.

I mean nostormo.

All the tracks on the new one are good but are all the same tempo, I wish there were a few uptempo songs like "Freaking Out the Neighborhood" on II. Also I wish the last track had lyrics, because then it would be one of the best tracks on the album.

this new album is a nice, easy listen. and it's got that traditional, rockist guitar-rock vibe that still resonates with me (which makes sense, since i'm about to qualify for AARP membership).

i love the guitar tone on this, so... rubbery? woozy?

watery.

It reminds me of the Eccentric Soul series being played by white Pavement fans. The majority of the Eccentric Soul master tapes were, I believe, rescued from flood-damaged basements in cities like Miami. Literally watery.

So at the end of the last track on the new one he seems to give his address and invites the listener over for coffee

https://www.google.co.kr/maps/place/68-02+Bayfield+Ave,+Arverne,+NY+11692,+USA/@40.6848217,-73.8077639,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c2686320cd86e1:0x5ef582da659951ba?hl=en

https://twitter.com/denhamsadler/status/619112906668404736

Another One is my favorite thing he's done, maybe the only one i really like (aside from some pleasant demos and the instrumental toss-offs on Some Other Ones). its sameyness is cozy and hypnotic, a good bit like the Green Album (hate to mention that twice on these boards in a month but i really don't know many pop records that do anything similar), and it's even more compact (like, Wild Honey compact). nice, convenient album

He seems like an affable dirtbag.

on stage last week he just looked dirty

I can't even believe this dude is so desperate to maintain a fanbase that he has stooped to inviting strangers into his home for coffee

wait yes I can

maybe he just likes meeting new people

such a hoser bro

he has a pretty huge fanbase IME, don't think this is a desperate attempt to maintain it

yeah ive missed out on two of his shows because they sold out way before the date :/

his mass appeal has mystified me and friends for a while now. i like him plenty (especially after his new one and the instrumental bonus record), but seems like a strange thing to be hip among the kids in 2015

why?

the explanation behind his mass appeal is that he's an unpretentious, charismastic guy who actually puts himself out there unlike most of the ultra fey brooklyn alumni his label has had a hand in making huge over the years.

i've kinda gotten tired of his shtick as of late (get a drummer, man. seriously) but he's definitely written a few excellent songs over the years

why?

because he's making indie rock, or maybe '70s singer-songwriter rock, which doesn't seem to be a very popular thing these days? i've only heard a few of his songs, and they're nice, but i'm also mystified as to why he's the guy. he does seem like a charismatic dude in interviews.

Party at mac's house tonight who's in

He has a personality which for some reason makes him stand out.

so whats the address?

68-02 bayfield avenue queens ny

(soyrev linked to the GIS of that address upthread)

i'm on my way.

@hackshaw you've confused me. his records have drums. the one live video i went and checked had a drummer. i remember seeing a video two or three years ago that had a drummer, too. am i missing sth?

also yeah it's just the type of music he makes, the image he projects, etc. i guess there's a big market nowadays for a guy making albums that could very well be early r. stevie moore homespun jobs while looking rough in press photos with a finger shoved three inches up his own nose, and i'm not against that by any means (well, except the nose bit – ew), it's just surprising

i mean:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301461891087

i get that it was for charity and that might've upped the ante, but we now live in a world where at least two people are willing to pay upwards of 20k for the rotten trainers of a kid who's just a few years into a career of pleasant and totally inconsequential mid-fi pop albums. how did we get here? did bands like beach fossils and real estate set the stage for him to be the singular front-and-center oddball character of a recently trending BK sound that none of his predecessors could be, or was it something else altogether?

Tossed-off soft rock jams with good production/arrangements. Count me mystified too. Maybe that is why he is a world famous musician and I am playing Dark Souls for a 4th time.

It is his personality.

I have never listened to this man's albums, but I've seen him live twice at festivals and admit I found him extremely charismatic.

Whereas say, Real Estate, who are mining similar sonic territory, have been deathly boring the 2-3 times I've caught them live.

i kinda like Real Estate's "no frontman" vibe (despite having a pretty clear would-be frontman). i saw them once at a festival and the lazy haze they emanated was a neat sensory complement to all the sunstroke going round.

personality makes sense, i suppose there's a lovable everyman quality he's got going that goes a long way with a bit of stagemanship (which makes the invitation for coffee at his place perfectly on-brand). still a bit confused as to how that opens him up to a bigtime teen/young 20s audience when the other things those demos seem to be loving are FKA twigs, Jamie xx and Diplo, but now that i like a couple Mac records i'll try to catch him if he ever makes it to this part of the world.

i think he's written a bunch of memorable, poppy songs, and that his popularity is somewhat based on that, and is not that puzzling. it's also not like he's incredibly huge, he's playing here (vancouver - bear in mind that he's canadian and used to live here) at a venue with a capacity of under a thousand people. he's not selling out stadiums or anything, just regular, indie rock famous.

i feel like he's more than regular indie rock famous but obvs not full balls out celeb famous? like my youngest sister isn't really into anything "indie" but has his albums on her ipod

venue he's playing in mtl is over 2k capacity, surprised he wouldn't play somewhere bigger in the west coast

@flopson otm, it's not the size of his audience that surprises me as much as who's in it. nowadays i'd expect his shtick to be drawing at best 500 to 1k people in their mid or late 20s ands up, but he gets into spaces more than double that size and my friend's younger sister plays hookie with a bunch of her friends to be there (and they're kids who scarcely know or care about pitchfork or any music crit).

anyway. nbd really, and like i said it's pretty cool that it's happening. just something i haven't totally wrapped my head around

to put it simply:

i think kids just still relate to a dirty looking guy making cheap records in his basement and getting wasted five minutes before showtime.

can remember seeing mac well before his rise to fame (and before 2 came out) and he had everybody in the palm of his hands

it's something obtainable in comparison to the high-fashion publicity machine of something like FKA Twigs

If I was famous enough that it's not a hindrance to my daily life I wouldn't mind inviting fans for coffee for an hour or two every monday. I'm not a morning person though so people should visit from 11am to 1pm and leave.

You could even select them prior visit, just have them send you an email with their data and fix a date.

When I was living in Madrid I had an online profile at couchsurfing for people to crash at my appartment downtown for a night or two and I never had any problem. it was cool having strangers for dinner or a couple of drinks.

I wasn't dining them I was dining with them in case it was lost in translation.

pretty crazy that he's giving people an open invitation/free license, though. i foresee reading an interview next album cycle where he's complaining about the weirdos who kept showing up at 3am or whatever

This strikes me as a funny modern version of Dylan going out to meet Woody Guthrie after hitting New York. I guess they were the damn dirty hipsters of their day, weren't they...

to put it simply:

i think kids just still relate to a dirty looking guy making cheap records in his basement and getting wasted five minutes before showtime.

^ what made him a horror during Pitchfork Festival.

I wandered into his set at Bonnaroo while he giving a few songs to his goofball guitarist. Couldn't really make heads or tails of the whole scene. I stayed for a few of Mac's own songs too, and they were fine. Definitely seemed like he was selling this whole zany package rather than just the music. Like an indie-rock Primus or something.

Primus comparison is spot-on.

I enjoyed the last two albums, but his Pitchfork performance was embarrassing.

srsly with that shirt and his mannerisms he looked and sounded like the singer of a telenovela theme from the mid eighties

these are all things that imo further obfuscate his appeal, not explain it...just another of mac's many riddles that keep him in our hearts

Xp lol alfred

i played a shitty loft show with makeout videotape like 5 or 6 years and they were pretty wasted. i only saw him play as mac demarco once at a free show and the venue was packed to the gills with euphoric crowdsurfing teens. i left after 2 songs cause there was no oxygen and i felt old but the sound was perfectly fine and he seemed sober

makeout videotape was the best thing he did imo

feel like it had more of the Women-esque canadian noise rock thing going on. and then he switched it up to be in with the trends

anybody who likes his songwriting but wishes it wasn't so soft and lackadaisical,

check out "Ying Yang"

I like the last thing he put out, it was just a set of instrumentals, had a strong McCartney I vibe to it. It's funny because as trashy/dirty as his image is the songs always sound really clean and professional. It was just a bunch of 3-chord 3-minute demos like you do when you are writing and you just make up a chord progression and work on it for a few hours.

i find the recordings pretty sloppy actually. also re: the comment above that he should "get a drummer" he plays drums himself on the recordings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=195&v=ghGUZvcEHew

Funny dude. Strong Paul Scheer vibe. Probably cause of the gap teeth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=195&v=ghGUZvcEHew

here's an embed

or not

Last year's left me cold. This one, I like. Weird.

^ ditto. he's a great songwriter/producer

this dude is pretty cool, like funky west coast kurt vile. i'm down.

there's something good about this guy but there's also something about him I don't like, his smug mug and the way it comes through in his songs

a friend who knew him growing up in edmonton said he was kind of full of himself but ultimately a nice enough kid and a bit crazy

god, man. 2 is such a melancholic re-listen. also one of the best albums of this decade.

the one he put out last year, 'Another One', is by far his best imo. the songs are great but it's produced so well, dude is becoming a really skilled engineer... 2 sounds really thin compared to Another One... it augurs well for his next record. dude gets a lot of hate - friend of mine (gen x) derisively refers to him as the 'chillwave Billy Joel' - but even if you don't dig the songs, he's not only a meme or one trick pony...

yeah, i never thought of him as a meme or anything. maybe the personality plays into it? but when you have that much talent i don't think you can sorta just "sell things" on your personality. he's just a very talented songwriter at the end of the day.

apparently he just finished a new album. really excited for it.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/a13bbf712d363096c1b80f06ced2f59f/tumblr_nwygvvN8AG1slv4a7o1_500.jpg

he's a cartoon character, he can be identified thru silhouette: oxford shirt, floppy hat, cigarette. it's the most you could ask for in a career as a singer/songwriter. i don't think he ever put much thought into his 'look' w/r/t marketing, he organically became a fashion/lifestyle icon for younger millennials. i see people all the time that copped his style. and yes they do dig his songs. stoked to hear his new record

great style looking like a random dad at anytime in the 90s. or suburban parents having a night out at the baseball game. this is normcore, i take it? yawwwwwwn

anyways i thought his style was wearing a sweater under a pair of half-buttoned overalls?

overthinking plus generalizing, there. it's just a dude wearing some simple gear. unlike you know... ninety percent of frilly indie bands from the last decade in beards and ironed dress shirts.

kurt cobain was such a dad!

mac will be a great dad, one day. i think.

cobain was an anti-capitalist grandpa

mac demarco has had a similar effect on fashion proportional to his popularity as kurt cobain did. it's not just normcore, it's a very specific: shapeless baseball cap, cigs, fuckin long t-shirts, and vans. not knocking him, this isn't the sort of thing you can plan or work toward, sometimes it just happens. he's a meme by his own admission.

cigarettes being trendy i never thought i'd see the day.

yeah, i could make a bunch of comparisons between kurt and mac that would probably piss a lot of people off. but you know... non-affected-ness, genuine spirit. yadda yadda. of course people are gonna look up to the dude and dress like him. he doesn't gvie a fuck.

think he's pretty anti-capitalistic too for the most part. at least what i've gleamed from interviews.

(the baseball caps are dumb as shit on most people, i will add)

http://dontpaniconline.com/media/magazine/660x420/e0fa7bb4188914e6d3b127c3fe99a34f.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f367/SirDrexl/OriolesCap.jpg

im with you hackshaw, there are a lot of similarities, and a similar sense of intimacy/you feel like you know him...

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ezl_aqFdwbI/hqdefault.jpg

http://pitchfork.com/news/59230-mac-demarco-just-finished-mixing-the-new-disc/

who's that dude with him? looks like richard d james

That's shags chamberlain, part of a pink's touring band

oh word, is he the drummer that wears the big russian hat?

a more acoustic album would be so good, actually. there's a bunch of fan curated ones on youtube that are good enough though. killer vocalist even with the cigarette abuse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtQ7oXXykSM

the one he put out last year, 'Another One', is by far his best imo.

really? I couldn't make it through 2 listens. my gf, who really likes everything he did prior, didn't dig it either

love the title track of the new one, looking forward to this: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1430-mac-demarco-on-his-chill-new-album-this-old-dog/

http://thefader-res.cloudinary.com/images/w_760,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best/unnamed_1_jw9uhi/mac-demarco-this-old-dog.jpg

This Old Dog

01 My Old Man
02 This Old Dog
03 Baby You’re Out
04 For the First Time
05 One Another
06 Still Beating
07 Sister
08 Dreams From Yesterday
09 A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothes
10 One More Love Song
11 On the Level
12 Moonlight on the River
13 Watching Him Fade Away

looking fwd

he likes moving cities a lot hey

edmonton>vancouver>montreal>new york>l.a.

he probably had to leave new york because he gave out his fucking address at the end of his last album

i mean i doubt there's a mark david chapman out there for mac but damn dude... risky much?

😜😜😜

whew, relieved to find out the new mac demarco album is chill thanks pfork

haha

it does seem even more chilled than the last one, enjoying that sc stream

i haven't listened to the title track in weeks, and it's been stuck in my head all morning. i find his music very moving in spite of his irritating extramusical attributes/activities...

it's def some pretty emotional and romantic stuff, I think he pulls it off v well

yeah, really mature too- complete opposite of his public persona/caricature

a lot of his songs have an incredible emotional depth to them that a lot of people gloss over. but.. that's been the case since he started.

deep (and sometimes strange) melancholy hidden under sunny laidback jams

I find his goofball persona charming and don't mind the contrast to his songs, maybe I even respect the songs more because he doesn't do a lot of talking their content up

much prefer a goofball to a dickhead

surprised people still give a fuck about real estate tbh. they're the "less demarco" to me now

actually i guess it's not entirely comparable... since mac's music is very upfront vocally (sometimes with post-punk influences like on 2) and real estate tend to be tied to that shins/whispy white guy brand of indie rocking.

just got the new record in the mail, finishing my first listen now... it's kind of front-loaded and loses steam... but "This Old Dog" is probably the best song he's written yet, besides some of the stuff on Another One. feel like a lot of these songs might take a while to sink in, everything sort of blends together... the one that sticks out on side 2 is "On the Level"

not a lot of interest in ol' mac on ilx. i suppose there aren't that many teenagers here.

i haven't heard the new one yet. i like all his records but honestly think of rock'n'roll nightclub, 2, salad days as both a chronological and ranking order. that said i do like the direction of the new stuff - as far as i can tell form this old dog and my old man

love salad days and every single from the new one, looking forward to it!

(also I believe we agreed upthread that mac's lyrical content is indeed very mature, but even if that were not the case ilx has never been averse to music targeted at teenagers afaik)

yeah but ilx historically stans for music for teenagers that teenagers don't actually listen to or things that are chart hits

as in there are more people on ilx listening to the latest carly rae jepsen album than kids

he he

It's weird how different the guy's public image and persona is from how his music actually sounds. You'd expect irreverent, Dead Milkmen-esque joke punk from his persona, but he's really a classicist who loves gentle, lilting melodies and a good major 7th chord.

The new album is pretty good, there are a couple ballads on the back half that are as good as anything that he's ever done.

and he plays everything! and records and mixes his own records! and they sound fucking great.

what's with this "mini-album" shit anyway? in my mind, 'This Old Dog' is his fifth album.

but yeah, he's closer to a Jim O'Rourke than...idk, FIDLAR or Wavves or whatever shit you'd associate with "lol pizza 90s larfs." even Ariel Pink's personality comes out a lot in his music. but there's a total split w/ Mac's persona and his music.

i love his music, i get a mellow yacht rock vibe from it (with a hint of pavement-esque slackness and ariel pink warpedness)

he's very punk rock or indie rock in the grand scheme of things. (just listen to makeout videotape) it just so happens that his current vibe is making mellow music. but.. it's convicting mellow-ness and that's where he gets his thing. there's some sort of internal thing going on there that pushes it far and beyond what you think it is

always the sign of a good artist when you can't figure out what exactly the fuck they're doing

I can't tell if I like this guy or he bores the shit out of me

Is this guy still really into cigarettes? That's not a good example for those kids!

Everything on the new album is pretty good except for that one that sounds like "Landslide," which is at least short.

this album sounds great

It's weird how different the guy's public image and persona is from how his music actually sounds. You'd expect irreverent, Dead Milkmen-esque joke punk from his persona, but he's really a classicist who loves gentle, lilting melodies and a good major 7th chord.

― passionate plant-based athlete (voodoo chili), Thursday, May 4, 2017 9:40 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he used to live in vancouver and the city is filled with dudes like him

^^^^ this

western canadian hipster vibe

the record is sinking in, it's really wonderful. he's such a great producer/arranger. the bass & keys on "Baby You're Out"!

gonna admit freely here that 10-15 yrs ago when in that scene i hung out with a lot of those dudes and was kinda like that as well with a firm foot on another reality because of the diverse friends i had

mostly grew out of it once i moved permanently to la tho but i remember bussing through vancouver and bumping into friends and getting into character by pretending i didn't know them but making it obvious and akward on purose, exactly that exaggeration that makes it look goofy

idk maybe it's a weirdo vancovuer thing i never thought about where it comes from though

"Watching Him Fade Away" is really sweet and much closer to what I think of when I think of DeMarco, as opposed to the antics.

i love that his favorite album is John Lennon Plastic Ono Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_WGJScwjgg

s/o to mac for hipping me to this donald fagen penned song at the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJMelsJukC0

it makes a lot of sense that he loves the solo Lennon stuff--I'd imagine that stuff like Isolation, or Jealous Guy, or the acoustic version of Watching the Wheels are major influences on his writing

This dude is very chill

😔

smth about his phrasings on tracks like "This Old Dog" reminiscent of Albarn on Think Tank - so I'd recommend this to anyone into that record!

aaah, you're correct (not an albarn fan partic)

not sure if he is really worth a deep dive but on a superficial level i find his music really pleasant, great guitar sound, reminds me a lot of 70s lennon but definitely lighter. idk i also dug kurt vile for about 15 minutes before i got bored and slightly annoyed by him so we'll see but im enjoying this now

if you like the new one, you'll probably like Another One, too. My favorite release of his, the first time he mastered the studio. One of the best sounding records I've heard in years.

what a chill dude

http://standardcriteria.ca/cool-story/mac-demarco-filmed-porn-in-front-of-minors-and-me/

lol

not sure what's worse that article or a drunk dude filming his drunk friend masturbating

equally harmless

This past July marked the one year anniversary of the night that is forever embossed onto my mind’s eye. It has taken me until this moment to come to terms with the reality of what happened. At first, I was in awe that I spent almost an entire day with a fellow gap-toothed artist and his seemingly rad friends; prior to this I had only volunteered at venues and other festivals, never spending more than a few minutes with “the talent”. I thought that night was one of the best nights of my life, then I found a pinch of sanity. I occasionally think about the kids I met then – I wonder how they processed the events, if they think back to it as much as I do.

seems kinda awkward and vulernable here (not sure why.. net work television i guess)

love them high notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRxaATvzZk

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f0/01/16/f0011601abda507f24d793b18c2e5459.jpg

I was really surprised that that was his network tv debut, figured he'd already done everybody's show twice by now.

Wow, "On The Level" is a really ploddingly boring song isn't it.

no it's good, the whole album is good

otm

i keep coming back to the final track, "Watching Him Fade Away." far and away the most moving song he's ever written, just devastating... it makes total sense that his favorite record of all time is John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band... I love this performance of the song, especially when he hits himself in the head with the mic at 1:55... that's fucking real, not this beach ball chill dude stoner formless baseball cap shit that he's spawned/known for... I just got the new issue of Tape Op in the mail and there's a big interview with him about his recording process, can't wait to read when I get home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2T8BRbcybw

yeah it's an honest record, and he makes the prosaic thing work very well, the songs are quite relatable

diminishing returns for me. the last couple albums are a bit plodding to my ears. i like a few of the tracks on the new one a bunch ((my old man, this old dog) and like him over acoustic guitar , but i haven't gone back to listen to it since the first week it came on spotify.

I dunno if I can see what my most played albums of the year are but I'm guessing it's this one and the new Tinariwen

i wish i liked it more, i am a mac demarco booster for sure

Salad Days is what hooked me so I'm trying to get into the early stuff proper

is there a thread for "artists who you would never see live but love their records"? was thinking of starting one with Mac in mind. i've only seen him twice, once at a warehouse show in 2012 with like 30 people, and then a year and a half later at the 9:30 Club. sold out show, insufferable crowd, & Mac hamming it up. I didn't like Salad Days, but that show was so disappointing... it was all about the party at the expense of the music. also, a lot of his songs don't translate well live because of his recording techniques. "Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans" sounds so cool and creepy on that EP because he worked so much with tape speed. played in standard tuning, it was a pretty boring song. the best part about Another One was the way it sounded. This Old Dog has stronger songs that don't rely as much on production, so if he played here I'd see him again... but I ain't goin to DC again...

xp Rock 'n' Roll Nightclub is pretty good, like I said "Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans" is a gem.

i saw him once, it was an ok show. the band arrangements of some songs are a bit too straight ahead sometimes, i.e. freaking out the neighborhood is a lot "funkier" on record

yeah otm, the arrangements are very straight. the appeal of all of his records prior to This Old Dog was the way they sounded imo.

he does different shit with his vocals live, which i love. on record it's kinda in that lou reed mode... and then when he gets on stage it goes to some different places.

i like this better than the album version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWLe2_9a7Ps

sounds v good, interesting that it's slowed for copyright reasons

also interesting that there are plenty of fans interested in a live version of this song, kinda speaks to how he's somewhat positioned in rock history, personally I imagine that even though the recording techniques/studio gimmickry are interesting what'll eventually be his 'legacy' is that he wrote excellent songs

here's that tapeop interview, been waiting for something like this about Mac's recording techniques for years: http://tapeop.com/interviews/120/mac-demarco/

his work ethic is nuts, jesus.

also i love 2 (consider it one of my top five.. maybe ten favorite albums of this decade) and loved this antidote. just imagining the dude working those songs out alone while doing medical experiments and whatever other horse shit for petty tape reel cash is great.

"Sounds like a ton of work. Were your buddies doing this? Would you work for a day, and then go hang out with your buds and talk shop?

No, I closed myself off. The only person that really came in to see me was this guy living across the courtyard from my place. When I was mixing, he'd ask, "Can I come check it out? I'm a musician too." Other than that, Pierce came in and I almost had him sing backup vocals on "My Kind of Woman," but it didn't work out. I stayed at home for a month and figured it out. Now I can think, "Ooh, I want this sound." I'll go on Sweetwater.com, and it'll be here tomorrow morning. But, back then, it was like, "Fuck, this is all I have." I had no money. Even buying reel tape was like, "Fuck, twenty-five bucks!" Luckily there was a place across the street that had a whack load of weird shit."

nice interview!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw5JRwdlorQ

*listens to mac demarco once*
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JO_Tn9d9u1A/hqdefault.jpg

He needs to change his style for the next record otherwise he will be might be forgotten quite fast

i don't know about "forgotten" (he's made a bit of a mark here) but the enthusiasm will definitely decrease, i think.

I'm curious to see if his fans grow up with him & if he continues to gain new young fans. I think he could stay at the level he's at rn sorta like Animal Collective: his new records might get as much praise or attention, but he'll be fine if he can keep a devoted fanbase while continuing to bring in younger fans into the fold.

yeah... i was gonna say the strokes but then i remembered mac is a product of this era of music making and will never actually be "MAJOR LABEL MONEY" rich or whatever. he basically has a good set-up to do whatever the fuck he wants (maybe something amazing?) because he knows that none of this stuff isn't really that important. he's just doing his thing.

might not* i meant to say

because he knows that none of this stuff isn't really that important. he's just doing his thing.

i don't know about that, i think he's just free of the intense pressure & money involved in a major label/pop situation. selling out 1,000+ cap clubs & theaters and plateauing there is a pretty sweet position to be in imo. and yeah he has the freedom to potentially make something amazing, new, and unexpected.

he is free of it, and it's weird how he's like the only "indie rock star" currently (maybe car seat headrest a little now?) but still... he has a cool lane to continue progressing as an artist.

car seat headrest is a flash in the pan, dude is way too po-faced and impersonal to become a star like MD. he's essentially Father John Misty, but worse music and no sense of humor.

i'd put him above father john. teens of denial is pretty damn good in places. but yeah i definitely am not as excited by it as i am (and were) by mac's stuff

i don't care for either of them, but in terms of establishing a devoted fanbase that will follow you thru time, you've gotta get their hearts. MD admitted as much in a recent interview, it was sometime this year, that he did "a lot of internet stuff" at the start of his career. im sure he meets and talks to a lot of fans at his shows. he put his address at the end of a record and invited them over for coffee! it's a personal connection & also an audience that skews younger than CSH & FJM - that's important. the kid that fell in love with your record as a teenager will probably be at least peripherally aware of you the rest of their life.

definitely. but also car seat has a bunch of twitter fanatics into his music similar to mac. father john misty is of a different generation/time of indie music and combats that with cynicism and being a freaky hippie guy or whatever.

i could compare mac to paul westerberg omg

Struggling to think of a more jarring image than this pic.twitter.com/ZVeZl1WynS

— Nicky Smith (@MUGGER1992) October 23, 2017

lmao wearing a cross colors coat on charlie rose

mindlessly clicked my updated bookmarked threads and thought that was michael moore tbh

Old Dog Demos album is brilliantly enjoyable (if you like Mac)

I’ve no idea why he released this new record, this is the aural equivalent of not giving a fuck and it’s not nice, sir.

only heard a couple singles so far but man did he sound like he was phoning it in

Yeah this is mostly terrible, I don’t get why even release it. Unless he was being pressured by the label to release something, I think he might be seriously depressed.

Unless he was being pressured by the label to release something

Here Comes the Cowboy
Studio album by Mac DeMarco
Released May 10, 2019
Recorded 2019
Studio Los Angeles, California
Length 46:32
Label Mac's Record Label

mac demarco has released something half-assed? say it isn't so

i question mac demarco's giddyup

Oh if you thought the previous records were half-assed you ain’t hear nothing yet

Yeah, despite his image I never thought his records were half-assed. Particularly Another One and This Old Dog - those album sound great and the songwriting is really strong.

This guy is the definition of overrated

dunno, i think mac's a good guitar player, and the songs on 2, salad days, another one and this old dog have stood up quite well. not heard new stuff

I prefer his earlier stuff, think it's been diminishing returns since 2 which is prob my favourite thing he's done. Listening to the new one now, I'll give my thrilling opinion when I'm done

Part of his fame is obviously for extra musical reasons (he has charismatic star quality)

But that's hardly uncommon in popular music

My verdict: seems much of a muchness to me. Obv the opening track and choose choo are throwaway but other than that I dont think it's some huge outlier. I do think it confirms I am not really into his newer stuff and can probably cease to pay much attention to him

He lost me after Salad Days. Minus the heavy sleaze I don't find him all that compelling.

A lot of my dismissal of Mac isnt exactly his fault -- it's just that letting YouTube know that, once, you looked up "mac demarco live" means you forever get every innately possible bit of channelings straight into your recommended videos, forever. It's like the algorithm has a particular penchant for bands that encourage seeming fanaticism, and think they're doing the right thing in assuming you probably also fit the bill.


I loathe him just on basis of how much sheer content and editorial is given to him. Undeserving to an extreme. Seems like a fun guy to go camping with. Our American idol.

He's Canadian

well i'm not going camping in canada so

Seems like a fun guy to go camping with.

So otm.

he truly is A. S. M. R. Cale on this new one

"nobody" is one of his best songs & one of my favorites of the year

the rest of the album doesn't really stick sadly even tho it's very well produced & nice to listen to. i don't think it's a question of being half assed...

'nobody' is beautiful

I wish this troubled teen would just apply himself

/thread

for real tho mac worked a lot of hard graft shitty jobs before he ended up playing music for a living.

Brando was a ditch digger

but he became The Duke in His Domain

and mac is chewing spaghetti in japan on this album

choo choo!

Came back to Here comes the cowboy the other day (was looking for slow songs with rock beats to teach primary school kids, forgive me world) and damn, I actually like this the most of all his stuff? Real soothing, sounds great, overall a fan of most of the songs. Bummed he started the album with that horrible track because its all pretty great from there. The dudes at his best when he is “normal”, not bouncing of the walls crazy imo

my fav is probably This Old Dog but yeah, Cowboy has a lot of similar appeal

I think he was always good at writing little ideas, feel like he's an underrated songwriter (as in people often sell him as vibey which yes he's also)

"Nobody" is a highlight for me

haha Five Easy Hot Dogs

he's a funny guy

enjoyable if slight instrumental album, miss the vocals

wonder if it will work well on some playlists, like instrumental hip hop study music

#423 in the world on Spotify, wonder if any other self-released indie artist is doing better (but then some of his biggest hits are released through indie label Captured Tracks)

Gualala 2 paid for Chrono Trigger ost rights I assume.

It’s pretty much a cover of this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ao-KkI--sc

His version would probably make a great sample btw

was not familiar with that great tune, cool!

Gualala 2 paid for Chrono Trigger ost rights I assume.

would not assume this given his history of uncredited interpolations like this - see "chamber of reflection"

What? Chamber of reflection doesn’t give credit to Shigeo Shekito?

i mean maybe there's a behind the scenes deal there but it was never credited anywhere, in liner notes or publishing, though he has acknowledged it

mac was SO big amongst my generation! bigger than any chart record shows.
this thread is a great record of what happened.
he seemed to get less interesting with each release and he didn't learn how to vary things and people really did stop caring.
I think i'd still like 2 if I listened to it now but there is now something very naff about mac.

damn, 199 track "album" up today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQZVg4nTfk
20200817 Proud True Toyota

interesting move

there's some good stuff in there

Wow. The last two albums finally made me a fan, though admittedly in more of a "lo-fi chill beats to study to" manner. Seems like he's going the Sam Gendel route, ie 'fuck getting on a playlist, I'll be your whole playlist.'

"lo-fi chill beats to study to" is up there for my most hated trend in modern music. That said, love the last two albums as well. He's so much better without the spectacle and "wow whacky" personality breathing into it all, much better when he's just producing something relaxing and melancholy to listen to. Bossa Nova feel to a lot of his recent stuff. Listened to 30 seconds of this new one so far, but know from that 30 seconds i am going to enjoy biting into this

wow. i didn't think there was anything that could get me re-interested, but this will do it!

He's so much better without the spectacle and "wow whacky" personality breathing into it all

otm

good interview here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dn1fgVQIbM

Good interview. I like older 30’s Mac. Same charisma, subdued vanity/whacko. Not just talking about the character, but it’s reflected in the music too. Review scores have gone down as he has got older, but fof me I think he’s got better with age

"This Old Dog" is the only thing I really like. The stuff after put me to sleep. But maybe I should give it another go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8IVVV7ERo

mac's vocals are really nice on this throwaway gem but perhaps the best part is ryan paris' recollection of the session:

Mac came in my summer house in the evening. We have decided before it comes that we wanted to write a song together. And I was dreaming to write this song in the way like John Lennon & Paul McCartney did together in the ’60s.

So the next day we woke up, I went to make some swimming, Mac did some exercises than we had Italian coffee and we went in the studio.

I had very early in the morning the idea for the title of the song: “Paradise.”

But I was thinking that it was too simple for Mac so I just said to Mac : “What do you think about “Juicy Paradise?”

Mac started right away to compose music with a Fender Telecaster thinking about “Juicy Paradise.”

Than we went in the garden and I started to think that I wanted that he had to feel free and not blocked in a title that I made.

But Mac was really happy about this way of working.

Then we came back in the studio and something changed.

Mac started to play the guitar as Mac DeMarco style, and I started to improvise something with the voice.

What I was singing and also what he also was singing remembered me the English group Simply Red.

So, I said: “What do you think about the title “Simply Paradise?”

Yeahhhh, the title we loved right away.

So I start to sing in my Italian spaghetti English singing nice melodies but words without sense.

And I was very happy that Mac was writing the funny with no sense phrases and he putted in nice English and he was also singing and we used some of my singing and some of his singing. And than came the idea to make like Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney in the song “The Girl Is Mine.” There we really started to have big fun and we finished the song in few hours. It was really fun, ahahahah.

Love to see a couple dorks having fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMOYPwg6UFw

another Paris collab, quite enjoyable, Ryan's age makes it kinda... moving?

Yeah both these songs have been great 👍

Playing all of his current Guitar this morning after seeing it as Blackbird Spyplane’s #1 album of 2025 and possibly never having heard him before. Good mellow stuff!

I've been enjoying it a lot too.

sounding pretty good, thanks!