We've been waiting for Makeout Videotape's debut LP for well over a year, as the Vancouver-based fuzz pop outfit signed to Unfamiliar Records way back in 2009. But we didn't hear much else from the band until December, when they unexpectedly released a six-song collection called Ying Yang as a free download. Now, frontman Mac DeMarco has said that Makeout Videotape are aiming to put out a physical album in the spring, although it won't be the same one that they put online.
"We were just hanging out one day and decided to put all the songs on the Internet before sending them out to Edo [Van Breeman], who runs Unfamiliar," DeMarco tells Exclaim!, speaking on the phone from his mother's house in Edmonton, AB.
The reason for the sudden release, he says, was to break the long period of silence that followed the band's summer tour. "We didn't make very much money and I was just broke and tired, so I came back and lived at my mom's house for a while and didn't do much of anything," he explains. "I just felt like telling the Internet we didn't die."
Making the release even more baffling is the fact there are two different versions of Ying Yang -- the six songs on Bandcamp and a 13-track set that DeMarco sent around to friends. As the singer explains, he never intended for listeners to view the collection as an official album. "With Bandcamp," he said "I just uploaded those ones and people started saying, 'EP? Full-length?' I was like, 'Ah, whatever.'"
If you want to hear the whole thing, you can check out videos for each track on YouTube. For a free download of the entire 13-song package, you can email DeMarco directly at mdemarco@gmail.com. On the extended version, you will find winners like the ultra-catchy "Island Groovies" and the woozy, experimental "Brian." The whole thing is steeped in lo-fi fuzz and reverb, although the fidelity is distinctly clearer than the band's murky early work, with the hooks coming out sharper and more distinct.
DeMarco hopes to have an official album out by May. By then, he and bassist Alex Calder will have relocated the band to Montreal -- a move that will take place in February. "We're taking the old Ford Escort across the Prairies and the Shield," he reveals. "Every time we've played there [in Montreal] it's been really fun, and people seem to like us there, so I think it'll be an okay time living there."
Even though the projected release date for Makeout Videotape's official debut LP is only a few months away, the prolific DeMarco still isn't sure what it's going to sound like. "The last couple days I've been doing these bossa nova, kind of deep-voice sexy songs," he laughs, "so who really knows."
"We were just hanging out one day and decided to put all the songs on the Internet before sending them out to Edo [Van Breeman], who runs Unfamiliar," DeMarco tells Exclaim!, speaking on the phone from his mother's house in Edmonton, AB.
The reason for the sudden release, he says, was to break the long period of silence that followed the band's summer tour. "We didn't make very much money and I was just broke and tired, so I came back and lived at my mom's house for a while and didn't do much of anything," he explains. "I just felt like telling the Internet we didn't die."
Making the release even more baffling is the fact there are two different versions of Ying Yang -- the six songs on Bandcamp and a 13-track set that DeMarco sent around to friends. As the singer explains, he never intended for listeners to view the collection as an official album. "With Bandcamp," he said "I just uploaded those ones and people started saying, 'EP? Full-length?' I was like, 'Ah, whatever.'"
If you want to hear the whole thing, you can check out videos for each track on YouTube. For a free download of the entire 13-song package, you can email DeMarco directly at mdemarco@gmail.com. On the extended version, you will find winners like the ultra-catchy "Island Groovies" and the woozy, experimental "Brian." The whole thing is steeped in lo-fi fuzz and reverb, although the fidelity is distinctly clearer than the band's murky early work, with the hooks coming out sharper and more distinct.
DeMarco hopes to have an official album out by May. By then, he and bassist Alex Calder will have relocated the band to Montreal -- a move that will take place in February. "We're taking the old Ford Escort across the Prairies and the Shield," he reveals. "Every time we've played there [in Montreal] it's been really fun, and people seem to like us there, so I think it'll be an okay time living there."
Even though the projected release date for Makeout Videotape's official debut LP is only a few months away, the prolific DeMarco still isn't sure what it's going to sound like. "The last couple days I've been doing these bossa nova, kind of deep-voice sexy songs," he laughs, "so who really knows."
Makeout Videotape – 'Only You' from Evan Prosofsky on Vimeo.
