DeMarco is a weird guy, from the twang of his guitar that’s always a bit out of tune sounding, and his “I can pretty much sing” vocal attitude. And with more oddball activities like inviting everyone to his home address for coffee, holding a contest for a prize of $0.69, throwing a barbecue release party, or somehow comprising a band full of people with surname prefixes (though that might just be hilariously coincidental), Mac DeMarco is anything if not an interesting character.
In his early days, before his music became successful, DeMarco actually worked on a road paving crew and subjected himself to medical experiments for money to tour with the Japandroids in Vancouver. It all worked out for him when he got signed by Captured Tracks in Brooklyn, NY, the guys behind Wild Nothing, Perfect Pussy, DIIV, and, well everyone who kind of likes the same guitar tones as Mac DeMarco from the Brooklyn area.
Another One is a short record, only about 24 minutes long. He calls it a mini-LP. I like his music, and his style, he’s just so “out there”. He writes these highly relatable love tunes with his twangy guitar and light drums, and I’m sure he’s a really nice guy, but he just seems so strange in real life, so unapproachable. I mean, just look at the images he took for his cover story interview with Pitchfork. Is it all just a facade to stand out, be a goofball?
His material is so innocent – songs about young love and break-ups, but his personality is that of a guy who offers up $0.69 as a grand prize and calls his style of music, “jizz jazz.” It’s hard to take anything he does seriously. Nonetheless, I really enjoy this record, so it’s a conflicting feeling, but in all actuality, really not that conflicting. There’s been plenty of musicians making great music who are even odder than DeMarco. Ozzy Osbourne ate bats on stage for god sakes. Besides, his oddball nature hasn’t caused a negative impact on his music as of yet, it’s just made Mac DeMarco more of an interesting character. He’s the kind of guy to not only name his record Another One, but then follow it up with Another Two. As far as we know, that’s not the name of his next record, but the point is that I wouldn’t put it past him, and that’s what I like about him.
Listen via Apple Music and Spotify.