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Ep. #80: Mac DeMarco

Mac DeMarco is a Brooklyn-based musician, songwriter, and multimedia artist who is quite popular among people who enjoy cool songs that sound awesome. Originally from Duncan, British Columbia, DeMarco also spent time in Edmonton and used to present his work under the name Makeout Videotape. He began using his own name with the 2012 EP Rock and Roll Nightclub and later that same year, the acclaimed album 2. On April 1, Captured Tracks will release his excellent new record Salad Days and he will tour the world extensively, including Canadian stops in Wakefield, Sherbrooke, and Montreal in April and also NXNE in Toronto in June. Here, Mac and I discuss loving Brooklyn and not loving Montreal, the TV shows Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Girls, Minor Threat, Shakespeare, and the expression ‘salad days,’ how his jaded perspective was measured by reflection on his new songs, how touring can be a springboard into adulthood, how Mac’s songs are primarily about him and his own life and that he’s on something of an “insane egomaniac ride,” his upbringing in Edmonton and how the local scene there inspired him to start playing music, his love of the Beatles, the Gories, and Beat Happening, how John Lennon and Harry Nilsson shine through in his work and why young people dig it, his future recording plans and a unique Record Store Day treat, his collaboration with Tyler, the Creator, a guy named Chas, his live band, the song “Chamber of Reflection,” and more.

Related links: capturedtracks.com macdemarco.bandcamp.com/ vishkhanna.com

Mac DeMarco Cigarette Heaven

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News Podcast

Ep. #72: Marie LeBlanc Flanagan of Weird Canada

Marie LeBlanc Flanagan is the executive director of Weird Canada, a music site, whose mission statement is “to encourage, connect, and document creative expression across Canada.” It has earned renown for its curatorial acumen in promoting obscure, challenging music made across the country and for serving as a space for enthusiastic contributors to pay tribute to the artists who move them. Speaking of moving things, Weird Canada is launching Wyrd Distro, a means of distributing the physical manifestations of the music they love to people who want to buy or sell it. Wyrd Distro launch parties take place all across Canada on Saturday Feb. 15. Here, Marie and I discuss travelling across Canada, the wonders that are the people of Edmonton, what Wyrd Distro and Weird Canada are all about, how they serve musicians and music fans, why a Canadian music site like CBC Radio 3 would poll its users to name “Canada’s Best Music SIte” and what it means that its users voted for Weird Canada, how Weird Canada sustains itself with grants and an inheritance, why it needs to be volunteer-driven, a planned accessibility project in the works that aims to figure out who is and isn’t permitted in given spaces, how a capitalist ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality applies to outsider art and Weird Canada’s methodology, why it might not matter if Weird Canada is sustainable, how listsicles are impacting the coverage of artists and the consumption of art, how a change is coming, why mainstream media outlets seem less concerned about earning cultural capital these days, what the Wyrd Distro parties across Canada on Feb. 15 are going to be like and how people can best utilize the service, the song “Real Talk” by Dan Galway, and more.

Related links: weirdcanada.com vishkhanna.com

marieleblancflanaganweirdcan

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