Aural Wes Presents: Mac DeMarco, Yeoman's Owen, and Featherwood Bee
Remember how much fun our launch party was last month featuring Prince Rama and Wesleyan’s own Bamenda, Guy Fridge, and Crook$hanks? Next Thursday we’re back with another Aural Wes curated show in Eclectic, this time featuring cigarette smoking Canadian crooner Mac DeMarco and your pals, Yeoman’s Omen and Featherwood Bee. I am predicting this show will set crowd surfing world records, so get ready to hang loose and ride a giant wave of catchy pop for a couple hours with us.
If you haven’t heard of Mac DeMarco, I recommend you commit an hour to exploring his discography and checking out his youtube channel. After signing to Captured Tracks earlier this year, Mac released Rock and Roll Night Club EP, where Mac’s deep voice perhaps unintentionally channels Elvis over some really catchy jangly guitar riffs. Mac DeMarco’s music is really simple, but really really smart. His music feels like it’s just so easy for him to make, but that only he himself could make it. Mac comes through with such a smirking confidence in his sound that it becomes utterly captivating. This last week marked the release of Mac DeMarco’s first full length titled “2”. In their review of the album, Other Music wrote, “We hear Mac's true laidback vocal tones supported by sweet, simple intertwining '50s pop guitar hooks, and a set of rather personal anecdotes from the heart…Mac DeMarco has achieved a unique and intimate sound summing up his persona: a sort of outsider artist quality with an added dollop of fiendish prankster genius.”
What makes this show especially exciting for us is the strength of Mac’s live performance. I saw him and his band twice this past summer in New York. The first time was at a Captured Tracks showcase at 285 Kent in Brooklyn with Aural Wes contributor and Wesleyan concert queen Chelsie Green. We had no idea who this goofy band was playing on stage, cracking jokes at the audience, taking their shirts off, and smoking cigs, but we loved it. The next time I saw Mac, Pitchfork was there too, and their writer captured the essence of what makes Mac's act so brilliant, “His bratty garage rock scream on "I'm a Man" was convincing on its own, but he still chuckled at us after he unleashed it, like he'd just told a slightly dumb joke. After the song ended, he told us it went out to "all the guys out there who have a cock up in their jeans." It sounds obnoxious, but somehow, it was charming.” I won’t try to do any more convincing here, but I do want everyone to have this same experience.
Featherwood Bee and Yeoman’s Omen are no strangers to the Wesleyan music scene. These Aural Wes favorites are the perfect guys to bring some infectious rock into Eclectic on Thursday before Mac DeMarco blows us all away.
