[Moshe]

Backn to the subject:

http://www.prefixmag.com:80/blog/tra...ers-taste/6676


Track Review: Magik Markers “Taste”

August 9th, 2007 4:57 pm by Jeff Klingman

download

 

As all of my previous attempts at getting into Ecstatic Peace signed noiseniks Magic Markers have resulted in a furrowed brow and a punished ear, this mean little track from the upcoming Boss was quite a revelation. When produced by obvious ally Lee Renaldo, the band’s sheets of white noise are shoved to the back of the mix, dancing around the committed kick drum. It’s Elisa Ambrogio’s track, however. She takes full advantage of the streamlined song structure, singing in a bluesy drawl that’s almost intimidatingly cool . In the lyric she deals with the common theme of us boys doin’ them girls wrong, but lines like “he shook her little bobby socks until the thrill was gone,” keep it continually sharp. It’s hard not to respect artists toiling on the edges with wild sound (and with a Thurston Moore run label that’s to be expected) but when sonic bandits come back from the brink to drop something approaching universal, they’re usually much easier to love.

[greenlight]

Axis Mundi, what a great track.

[Everyneurotic]

i started hating the markers when a) most of what i've heard didn't come close to blues for randy sutherland, which is superb, and b) when i saw them live and were such a talentless bored waste of time; in fact, they always seemed like they were just bored and trying to seem noisy and chaotic but were just in a "good enough" plan; i even posted lenghtly about how much they sucked in the old board, because they did.

but the i heard road pussy, something they did right after leah left the band and eliza probably thought she needed to actually give a crap about what she was playing to fill out their sound and, by baphomet, they did it, they had riffs, chaotic structures that drifted and returned cyclically, everything in their maelstrom style, it's like they finally arrived at deep substance.

again, i'm kinda disappointed they didn't chose to explore that side of them as they are...i was going to type that they were talented for it but talented is definitely not the word, the really inspiring thing about the markers is that they have absolutely no talent, but once they give a shit and put their hearts into it (like they did in randy sutherland and road pussy), they could find an amazing voice of their own that sounded a few levels up in the punk chaos noise department, you know, what makes so many bands so inspiring...as i was saying i'm kinda disappointed in that but maybe this new album is something good and might even incorporate the road pussy vibe to more developed songs.

also, how many "noise" bands can you say are really experimental? the markers are and that's something to be recognized.

[Concrete Abutments]

Originally Posted by Everyneurotic

i'll listen to their new rtx-style album when it comes out.

personally, i wanted them to explore the sound the started to do in road pussy, i love how out of their racket, they could build this amazing riffs and random rhythm patterns that worked amazingly well...oh well, at least i'm glad they didn't just sit back, turned on their amps moan some dumb poetry about big boobs and get praised just because they are cool.

ED: this thread is getting funny, it's on its way to become the "sonic youth sold out to the man! and now they kill third world children thru starbucks" "fuck you haters!! i'm proud they are joining paul mccartney in starbucks; in fact, now i'm going 5 times a day to my local starbucks, buy the most expensive drink there and ask when the sonic youth album is arriving. sonic life!!"

Road Pussy was definitely the disc that came closest to the vibe I experienced with them LIVE several times! I too wanted a lot more of that sound and was hoping for them to go down that road also. There is a new disc out that's just titled "Unreleased Album from 2006" which is a bunch of tracks from those Road Pussy sessions. Including the whole track that's behind the faux advertisement at the end of Road Pussy. Thank CHRIST I have that at least. I think the Road Pussy sound is over for good!

[racehorse]

i think the markers are fantastic, and i will pick this up as soon as possible.
panegyric is my favourite, followed by road pussy, followed by sada jane followed by feel the crayon, followed by I trust my guitar etc... also love the live in belgium LP.

[Concrete Abutments]

Originally Posted by Concrete Abutments

Road Pussy was definitely the disc that came closest to the vibe I experienced with them LIVE several times! I too wanted a lot more of that sound and was hoping for them to go down that road also. There is a new disc out that's just titled "Unreleased Album from 2006" which is a bunch of tracks from those Road Pussy sessions. Including the whole track that's behind the faux advertisement at the end of Road Pussy. Thank CHRIST I have that at least. I think the Road Pussy sound is over for good!

Fusetron is advertising that Road Pussy outtakes disc now. I have it but don't see the title "The Real McCoy" anywhere on it. Anyhoo, this is what they say about it.

*Artist: MAGIC MARKERS
Title: The Real McCoy
Format: CDR
Label: Arbitrary Signs
Country: USA
Price: $12.00
"This is the lost mid-period Markers record which was partially issued
last year as "Road Pussy". This is the studio summer jam in all its
glory. Swings from very strange songs and rotten summer garbage - the
road to Markers studio knowledge that paved the way for the forthcoming

"Boss" album."

[Moshe]

Fall Tour

9-30 - New Haven, CT - Sundazed @ Bar
10-1 - Brooklyn, NY - tba
10-2 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
10-3 - Detroit, MI - Bohemian National Home
10-4 - Chicago, IL - Schuba’s
10-5 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador
10-6 - Dude
10-7 - Denver, CO - Rhinoceropolis
10-8 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
10-10 - Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
10-11 - Portland, OR - tba
10-12 - Arcata, CA - tba
10-13 - San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
10-14 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
10-15 - Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts
10-17 - Oklahoma City, OK - Convergence
10-18 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
10-19 - Houston, TX - tba
10-20 - New Orleans, LA - tba
10-21 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
10-22 - Dude?
10-23 - Philadelphia, PA - The Vacuum
10-24 - Boston, MA - tba
10-25 - Bennington, VT - Bennington College Student Center
10-26 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory

[koolthing78]

I never even gave them (or the existence of this thread) a single thought until I went to Ecstatic Peace's myspace to hear a whole Thurston song about 20 minutes ago. But it only took about 10 seconds of hearing "Taste" before I added it as my profile song. And about the Black Angels comparison (if you call "not a million miles away from..." a comparison), I totally agree. Though I know absolutely nothing about the Markers, and only slightly more about the Angels, "Taste" gave me the same feeling as when I first heard that song "Black... oh, fuck. What was it? "Black Tar"? "Black Asphalt"? Anyway, it was "Black [something that's either a road surface, something gooey, or perhaps both]," and I ordered the Black Angel's e.p. (this was before it came out on their proper album, which I never got around to buying) from Amazon. Very droning, hypnotic and sinister. Can't wait for this!

[Lethrneck4]

Originally Posted by jon boy

one of the best bands i ever saw or heard ever.

wow, you must not get out much, if ever.....i see better bands on any random night at local clubs around here...and thats not saying much

[koolthing78]

"Black Grease"! (sorry) (ps: If you look up just "Black Angels" instead of "The Black Angels" on Myspace music, the first thing you get is some really terrible white girl "hip-hop" group from Arkansas. I won't make *that* mistake again.)

[follow.blind]

"Boss" is good record. "Actual songs" sound (suprisingly) fine...Better choice than upcoming Thurston's solo.

[Moshe]

http://lineout.thestranger.com/2007/...agik_markers_b

Song Illegal Leak of the Week: Magik Markers, Boss Posted by Sam Machkovech on August 14 at 12:34 PM

 

Used to be, you had to trip at least a few balls to dig what Magik Markers were smoking. The immature sludge, noise and cackling that composed the Hartford, CT band’s limited releases on such labels as Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace was certainly better suited for a sweaty stage than the home hi-fi. And even then, their buck-wild performances didn’t exactly make up for Jandek-ian guitars and histrionic yelps.
Last week, my most trusted stoner-droner of a buddy insisted over IM that I give the Markers’ new leaked record a shot, assuring me that Boss “actually has songs.” And wouldn’t you know it—my buddy was sober for long enough to type the truth. The material on this album is so captivating, I’ve barely touched the other candidates for leak of the week, choosing instead to sit with my hi-fi and dwell in the psych-drone cave of singer/guitarist/pianist Elisa Ambrogio.
Sonic Youth comparisons will come by the dozen with Lee Ranaldo’s name attached as producer, and with Ambrogio’s talk-and-cry vocals sounding the faintest bit like Kim Gordon, but the two acts’ avant-rock similarities end there. Boss is a neo-psych zig to SY’s art-punk zag, and the spare sound of Ambrogio’s guitar compositions, occasionally supplanted with thudding piano and lingering, background feedback, lends her poetry an appropriate sense of isolation. Nine-minute opus “Last of the Lemach Line” unravels by the minute, starting with somber singing and effortless strums and eventually descending into an explosion of feedback, cymbals and strained cries that make Ambrogio sound like she’s been pinned to a cross—“My mouth is open to show I’m hungry, all that peace just aches for the enemy, I stare crazy at things like they don’t see, I’m going to eat them up before they eat me.” Unlike similar, Velvet-loving groups of late like the Black Angels, this duo casts drone apathy to the side so they can heap on tension and make the noise tell a story of its own.
Mark your calendars for their October 10 show at Neumo’s; something tells me the duo’s sloppy, buck-wild nature hasn’t gone away yet, but at least fans will have actual songs to request.

[Moshe]

http://thefader.com/blog/articles/20.../freak-scene-8

It’s also been awhile since I checked in on my pals Magik Markers, who return with another CDR entitled The Real McCoy on drummer Pete Nolan’s Arbitrary Signs imprint. Seems like this disc is a mix of live recordings and scrapped studio sessions if I had to guess. The joy of the Markers is that of a completely improvised rock band and the excitement of never knowing what your gonna get. Do you have to put up with a lot of crap along the way? Well, sure and certainly on the CDR recordings. The live sounding stuff represented is pretty standard fare for the band, twisted guitars, free drums, and non-linear proclamations from singer/guitarist Elisa Ambrogio. Track four is a piano/guitar amp duo bummer jam which kinda rules. Track five is an accapella bad dream lull-a-bye from Ambrogio, which is kinda spooky. Then it’s back to the rock, first with some energy, then an extended ten-minute crawl through wah-pedal moaning spittle, which is kinda bummer. There’s definitely the hangover, or worse when you realize that you are drunk enough to know you will have to endure a painful tomorrow. But despite their low moments it’s when Abrogio is ON that everything comes together. She can have a vicious delivery that is mesmerizing as it is polarizing. Not that she fuckin cares what you think. But like most Markers’ releases there is revelation, attack, regret, boredom, feedback, hatred and truth. Just like real life and its pretty great even when it’s shitty.

[Moshe]

http://densityofsound.wordpress.com/...boss-reviewed/

 

Starts with screeching then does that lovely lazy dischordant not quite singing half talking too cool but a bit paranoid but forgetting it all just now spacious groove thing that yer main men Sonic Yoot are so good at. Lee Ranaldo is on the desk and playing various things so I’m allowed that reference point so drop it yeah?. Is the first track going anywhere? I don’t care - it’s nice. All records should sound like this. Two chords good. Three chords bad. Ha punk… You got nothin’ on me with my crazy ways. It’s making me think of trainyards and kitchens and god. All at once.
God is a woman and she’s shouting and there’s banging and the guitar strings are stretching and they might break but they don’t, at least not yet. Albums should sound this live as a rule - it’s shouldn’t be a suprise to think ‘hey! it sounds like they are really playing their instruments and stuff’ apparantly it was recorded in a canyon. Therefore I think the Kaiser Chiefs should record their next album in a sewer.
Now we got hazy detuned guitar, like them crazy reggae men do but totally different. Seriously, it’s a detuned grunge dub guitar line with big looping drum fills and more streams of conciousness. This song is one big long bus ride and stuff keeps popping into view out window and everything is a little distant. I think it’s about god again cos she’s on about gardens and kingdoms but to be honest the words are shrill and musical and it all feels suitably brooding, so we won’t hold that against them. Actually it’s a little overblown here and there, but when you’re in a canyon who can blame you?
Empty Bottles suddenly turns the table and we’re into ballad mode, though on first listen it’s pretty forgetable though I temper this by saying it may be one of those songs that hits you…whallop and leaves you crying when you least expect it, like when you realise you have run out of screenwash for your car or something else totally stupid and it causes the whole of your life to collapse inwards like a big useless old cooling tower from an old powerstation. This track could be your saviour in this moment. For now though, bring back the guitars and that space…
Ooh! Empty highways - there we are! That’s a great reference point to start off Taste, which is all Polly Harvey, cocksure and leathery (the black sexy type, not the sun damaged dangly neck skin sort.) There is bass in strange triangle shapes and buzzy lovely rich sandpaper guitar, and I get it! That bass - it sounds like pylons stretching forever, impasive in the face of the heat, desert heat, sexual heat, this is, like 50 million times sexier than a diet coke advert.
Four/The Ballad of Harry Angstrom again has the cool two chord thing going on, with piano providing the rhythm this time and isn’t a ballad in any way I recognise - that is to say, isn’t fuckin’ awful*. It’s a white out of voices samples and feels like someone putting the record straight about something. With red paint, in an alarming metal room.
What else have we here? A big sprawl of noise from the future. It sounds like what swamps of dying robots sound like. An earie early morning song, all minor key and tired sad eyes. Finally we close with an industrial workout, a muscular automaton on a non stop ghost train ride. It’s called Circle.
The album is called Boss - it’s a cracker, it’s not as intensely manic as you’d expect, you can here that hint of Sonic Youth, but there is so much more here, it’s highly intriguing and eclectic and apparantly it’s about gorrilas or something, so say the sleeve notes. You can probably tell I ignored them.

[Moshe]

I don't think I've been more excited this year than when I slipped on my headphones to listen to the Magik Markers' new album 'BOSS'. I've been waiting for this for so long, by which I mean I've been waiting for a song-based Markers album since I first clapped eyes on them. Now, I don't prioritise songs over the Magik Markers usual violent improvisitional squall, but it's really nice to hear, and though it's important to note that this isn't some sort of year zero this-is-the-new-us affair (I'm guessing the song-based approach will just be another facet to their arsenal of sound), 'BOSS' is their most cohesive record so far, hanging together better than, say, 'Road Pussey' or 'A Panaegyric...'. Pete's drumming sounds fucking large here, and Elisa, well Elisa does groaning feedback like no-one else at the moment. There's a trippy, wasted vibe to the whole album, and is rarely provocatively noisy (in marked contrast to their previous work) - in fact, 'Bad Dream' is a gorgeous acoustic song underpinned by sweet ambient drones from Pete, and 'Empty Bottles' builds on the piano works explored on 'For Sada Jane' and the 'Last Of The Redstones' CDR. For the most part, though, it's dissonant downer blues. With tunes!

Ultimately, these are the psychedelic sludge noize jams we've been waiting for, and if there's a better album by the year's end, my mind will probably explode.

http://thewirewool.blogspot.com/2007/08/lemach.html

[greenlight]

Originally Posted by Moshe

Fall Tour

9-30 - New Haven, CT - Sundazed @ Bar
10-1 - Brooklyn, NY - tba
10-2 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
10-3 - Detroit, MI - Bohemian National Home
10-4 - Chicago, IL - Schuba’s
10-5 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador
10-6 - Dude
10-7 - Denver, CO - Rhinoceropolis
10-8 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
10-10 - Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
10-11 - Portland, OR - tba
10-12 - Arcata, CA - tba
10-13 - San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
10-14 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
10-15 - Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts
10-17 - Oklahoma City, OK - Convergence
10-18 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
10-19 - Houston, TX - tba
10-20 - New Orleans, LA - tba
10-21 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
10-22 - Dude?
10-23 - Philadelphia, PA - The Vacuum
10-24 - Boston, MA - tba
10-25 - Bennington, VT - Bennington College Student Center
10-26 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory

keep us updated with European tour (if any). can't wait. saw them @ ATP, would love to see them performing Boss album. there were rumours about the Dublin gig last summer, but it was really only a rumour.

[pbradley]

Fuck, it leaked?

ghey

[Moshe]

August 23, 2007

It's Not Like Me To Leave A Job Undone
http://www.fluxblog.org/2007/08/its-...ob-undone.html



When I first encountered the Magik Markers, they were opening up for Sonic Youth, and burning through a set that sounded a great deal like that band's earliest recordings, but with less aggression, and a charismatic vocalist who "shouted the poetic truths of high school journal keepers" like the punk rock girl from "Skip Tracer." They've released a few records in the time since, and though they were interesting, they weren't very successful in translating their improv-centric aesthetic to a proper studio recording until just recently. On the forthcoming album Boss, they've managed to develop discrete, structured compositions without sacrificing the spark of their performances. They dabble in punk and at least two cuts recall the grim atmosphere and gentle, cracked piano-based balladry of Cat Power circa Moon Pix and the Covers Record, but most of the songs are turbulent, gloomy dirges that showcase Elisa Ambrogio's cryptic lyrics and urgent, emotionally potent vocals. "Last of the Lemach Line" is the most sprawling track on the record, and though it seems to build up to a grand release, it consistently turns sideways or slows to a crawl whenever it feels as though it is about to reach its climax. (Click here for Ecstatic Peace's Magik Markers page.)

[Moshe]

Magik Markers Announce BOSS Fall Tour
http://assets4.pitchforkmedia.com/im...arkers-sm.jpg? Photo by E. Jason Wambsgans

Recovering noiseniks and current Sonic Youth BFFs Magik Markers have announced the dates of a fall tour in support of their forthcoming complete-with-actual-"songs" LP, BOSS.

The record comes out on Ecstatic Peace on September 25, and the tour begins five days later in New Haven, Connecticut.

Dates:

09-30 New Haven, CT - Sundazed
10-01 Brooklyn, NY - Death by Audio
10-02 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
10-03 Detroit, MI - Bohemian National Home
10-04 Chicago, IL - Schubas
10-05 Iowa City, IA - The Picador
10-07 Denver, CO - Rhinoceropolis
10-08 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
10-10 Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
10-11 Portland, OR - Backspace
10-12 Arcata, CA - TBA
10-13 San Francisco, CA - Hemlock Tavern
10-14 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
10-15 Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts
10-17 Oklahoma City, OK - Convergence
10-18 Austin, TX - The Mohawk
10-19 Houston, TX - The Mink
10-20 New Orleans, LA - Hi Ho Lounge
10-21 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
10-23 Philadelphia, PA - The Vacuum
10-24 Boston, MA - TBA
10-25 Bennington, VT - Bennington College Student Center
10-26 New York, NY - Knitting Factory
http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/im...gif?1182398738MP3: Magik Markers: Taste [from the forthcoming BOSS LP]

[Lethrneck4]

my main question is would anyone from this baord even consider liking this band if they werent on thurstons label....yup, i said it