Coming April 1st, Salad Days, is Mac DeMarco’s follow up to his Polaris Prize nominee, 2. The guy is 23, has two albums and an EP (more in side projects), and is a Polaris Prize nominee: feel like a slacker? Better still, he has an absolutely original sound, which could be described as Al Tuck on a whole bunch of euphoric drugs — the end product is a swinging, swirling breed of psych-tinged pop quite unlike anything you’ve heard. Mac self-describes the sound as “jizz jazz.” He remains relatively undersung, given the quality of his music, but the nod from the Polaris Prize in 2012 certainly helped him garner a wider audience: a European magazine or two even gave this BC native a little press for this forthcoming album.
Here’s the title track, “Salad Days”
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The album was written and recorded around his hectic touring schedule, and captures the sensation of stumbling into both adulthood and a career in music simultaneously. As one standout track croons, “I’ve never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me.” His sound on this album shows remarkable strides in confidence and craft from his last, and his last was a great album (hence the Polaris nod).
“Blue Boy”
I feel like this is a missed opportunity for you to promote a not so well known band/artist “from away”. Mac Demarco isn’t hurting for press or promo, and is pretty much one of the new “it” bands/artists for pitchfork and many other music sites and blogs. I’ve heard bands downtown cover his music, and I’d say most indie bands downtown are pretty well versed in his material. I know there’s no guidelines for this column that say it has to be kept to on a certain level, and it might be hard to find lesser known acts to promote, but it’s always nice when a smaller band get some press and write-ups. Just like the locals here who get a little write up in a blog/site from the mainland. It’s a nice nod
I absolutely agree, but this Come from Away Thursday bit (Like the CFA Album of the month in our print issues) is focussed on new albums as they come out, or, mentions of bands coming here. So, new albums people can find to buy, or bands that are coming here, so people can decide if they wanna go see them. It’s Mac Demarco today because this feature idea was conceived just last night, and his brand new album happened to be playing during the epiphany. And, well, it’s great. I am with you 100% for the record. It’ll be a balance of Mac DeMarcos and lesser known bands, but I’d argue that people outside of the downtown music scene would not know of Mac, and we’re trying to cater to a wider audience than those of us who spend their weekends at The Ship (like me), dancing Thom Coombes (Newfoundland’s answer to Mac DeMarco?). The one hundred of us in the downtown music scene might know the guy’s music, but, we’re only a fraction of the 2,000 regular visitors of TheOvercast.ca. It ultimately does more for the promotion of good music not to get caught up in popularity, both ways (if you’re a new and obscure band featured in a series that also features Arcade Fire and St. Vincent one week, and a brand new, unsigned band the next, it carries more weight — the series is branding itself as “Good music featured here” versus “Bet you haven’t heard of them!”). I do entirely agree with you. We’re on the same page. But it’s tricky as an editor, I’ve already gotten two emails, “Who the hell is Mac Demarco, way to be another hipster rag promoting your weirdo music.” Not trying to please everyone: the goal is promoting good music regardless of popularity. Anyway trust me: The Overcast is all for shining a light where it can help most. I’d say Mac could do with a few more album sales: making a living off music, as in no dayjob — like he’s trying to do — is almost impossible. Thanks for the note!