New album Salad Days due April 1st via Captured Tracks
"As I’m getting older, chip up on my shoulder..." is the opening line from Mac DeMarco’s second full-length LP Salad Days, the follow up to 2012’s lauded Mac DeMarco 2. Amongst that familiar croon and lilting guitar, that initial line from the title track sets the tone for an LP of a maturing singer/songwriter/producer. Someone strangely self-aware of the positives and negatives of their current situation at the ripe old age of 23.
Listen to Passing Out Pieces, watch the album's promo video and pre-order the album on iTunes. Don't miss Mac in concert in Wakefield on April 4th (at Blacksheep), in Sherbrooke on April 5th (at Boquébière) and in Montreal on April 6th (at the SAT)! See all tour dates below.
Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule (which picked up all over again as soon as the LP was done), Salad Days gives the listener a very personal insight into what it’s all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format. The lead single, Passing Out Pieces, set to huge overdriven organ chords, contains lines like "...never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me..." Clearly, this isn’t the same record that breezily gave us Dreamin and Ode to Viceroy, but the result of what comes from their success. Chamber of Reflection, a track featuring icy synth stabs and soulful crooning, wouldn’t be out of place on a fantasy Shuggie Otis and Prince collaboration. Standout tracks like these show Mac’s widening sound, whether insights into future directions or even just welcome one-off forays into new territory.
Still, this is musically, lyrically and melodically good old Mac DeMarco, through and through. The same crisp John Lennon / Phil Spector era homegrown lush production that could have walked out of Geoff Emerick’s mixing board in 1972, but with that peculiar Mac touch that’s completely of right now. Brother, a complete future classic, is Mac at his most soulful and easygoing but with that distinct weirdness and bite that can only come from Mr. DeMarco. Treat Her Better is rife with "Mac-isms", heavily chorused slinky lead guitar, swooning vocal melodies, effortless chords that come along only after years of effort, and the other elements seriously lacking in independent music: sentiment and heartfelt sincerity.
We’re only at Part 2 and 1/2 (one EP and two LP’s in) into Mac’s career. As you read this and as you hear the album on April Fool’s Day of this year, he’ll probably be on tour, or preparing for one... or maybe already writing new music. A relentless work ethic is something to be admired in today’s indie music scene, but when it’s of the quality Mac is giving us time and time again, it starts to turn from admiration to awe.
TOUR DATES
03/14 Santiago, Chile // Ex OZ
03/15 Buenos Aires Argentina // Vorterix
03/19 São Paulo, Brazil // TBA
03/20 São Paulo, Brazil // TBA
03/21 Porto Alegre, Brazil // Beco 203
03/23 Santa Ana, CA // Burgerama Festival at The Observatory
03/31 Cleveland, OH // Beachland Ballroom *
04/01 Oberlin, OH // Dionysus Club (the 'Sco) at Oberlin x
04/02 Chicago, IL // Empty Bottle + (early show)
04/02 Chicago, IL // Empty Bottle x (late show)
04/03 Detroit, MI // Magic Stick *
04/04 Wakefield, QC // Black Sheep *
04/05 Sherbrooke, QC // Boquébière *
04/06 Montréal, QC // Societé des Arts Technologiques *
04/07 Cambridge, MA // Middle East Downstairs *
04/09 New York, NY // Webster Hall !
04/10 Durham, NC // Duke University Coffeehouse +
04/11 Atlanta, GA // Goat Farm Arts Center +
04/12 Baton Rouge, LA // Mud and Water +
04/13 Austin, TX // Mohawk Outside +
04/14 Fort Worth, TX // Lola’s Saloon +
04/15 Oxford, MS // Proud Larry's +^
04/16 Nashville, TN // Exit / In +
04/17 Asheville, NC // Grey Eagle Tavern +
04/18 Philadelphia, PA // Underground Arts +
04/25 New Orleans, LA // Tulane University
04/26 Bronxville, NY // Sarah Lawrence College (Solo Set)
05/15 Amsterdam, AN // Melkweg
05/16 Paris, FR // Trabendo
05/17 Nantes, FR // Stereolux
05/18 Brussels, BE // Nuits Botanique at Botanical Cultural Center
05/19 Brighton, UK // The Old Market
05/20 Glasgow, SCT // Mono
05/21 Manchester, UK // Sound Control
05/22 London, UK // Koko
05/23 Cologne, DK // Electronic Beats @ E Werks
05/24 Berlin, DK // Bi Nuu
05/25 Moscow, Russia // Bosco Fresh Festival
06/18 Ste-Thérèse-de-Blainville, QC // Bar Le Cha Cha
06/20 Toronto, ON // NXNE Festival
06/21 Toronto, ON // NXNE Festival
06/23 Minneapolis, MN // First Avenue and 7th Street Entry
06/24 Winnipeg, MB // The Park Theatre
06/27 Edmonton, AB // Starlite Room
06/28 Calgary, AB // Republik
07/01 Vancouver, BC // Vogue Theatre
07/02 Victoria, BC @ Sugar w/ Calvin Love
07/04 Trois-Rivières, QC // Festivoix de Trois-Rivières
06/06 Ottawa, ON // Ottawa Bluesfest
07/08 San Francisco, CA // Great American Music Hall
07/09 San Francisco, CA // Great American Music Hall
07/10 Big Sur, CA // Loma Vista
07/11 Los Angeles, CA // The Fonda
07/14 Denver, CO // Bluebird Theater
07/15 Lincoln, NE // Vega
07/16 St. Louis, MO // Old Rock House
07/17 Columbus, OH // Skully’s
07/18 Buffalo, NY // Tralf Music Hall
07/19 Washington, DC // 9:30 Club
08/01 Montreal, QC // Osheaga
08/02 Happy Valley, OR // Pickathon
08/03 Happy Valley, OR // Pickathon
08/08 Gothenburg, Sweden // Tradgarn
08/09 Oslo, Norway // Oya Festival
08/10 Helsinki, Finland // Flow Festival
08/15 Wales, UK // Green Man Festival
08/17 Hamburg, Germany // Dockville
08/21 Paredes de Coura, Portugal // Paredes De Coura
& RSVP Show w/ Puro Instinct (Red Bull Sound Select Series)
* Amen Dunes & Juan Wauters
! Amen Dunes, tonstartssbandht
x Amen Dunes
+ Juan Waters
^ Dent May