Marmoset is one of those bands who’ve been around for so long and are so unique that when they come across the desk of a someone perfectly suited to be a fan of theirs (me), who’s never heard of them, it’s this weird revelation where you go Uh Why Didn’t Someone Inform You of This Earlier and you march around your office smacking secretaries on the ass demanding answers and chain smoking. They started in Indianapolis in 1995 and instead of splitting up or changing genres every few years like Blonde Redhead they continue to make a very similar brand of odd, shouty, ominous indie rock to what they did back then. But far from that being a negative (except for the secretaries), it’s fantastic. We get to go back through their catalog going OOO and bobbing heads along to the catchy Kinks parts and nodding stoned along to the Sebadoh parts and cocking it quizzically during the Roky Erickson parts and generally acting like a SciFi nerd who just discovered that they make TV in England and who is this Doctor? They have a new and slightly more tuneful album called Tea Tornado where Jorma the singer sings like a Bond villain about various pastries and the drums spatter and meander rather than bash and the structures pretend to be pop songs until you let them in and then they bite the shit out of you.
When we asked them to do a listening party for us in anticipation of their show this Saturday at the Velvet Lounge, I was hoping for some insight into this perfectly uniform sensibility, or the spiritual ritualistic process of entering the fucked-up astral plane that they seem to be on when recording, but instead Jorma wrote back with a nice note and some brief statements about his music. (SPOILER ALERT THEY ARE ABOUT GIRLS).
strawberry shortcakes was written in new york when i lived there. the lyrics were completed on my return to indianapolis to record what would become ‘florist fired’. the bulk of the lyrics were written by guitarist dave jablonski. it is one of my favorite songs we’ve ever done.
peach cobbler was written about a girl i dated in new york. her brother was/is an artist on secretly canadian whom we had played quite a few shows with. if you’re out there julie, this one’s for you! the song is one of my favorites, whenever i pick up an acoustic, it’s the first thing i play.
you blueberry muffin started out as two completely different songs, eventually brought together (before recording) in some cosmic allegiance. i have to credit lonpaul ellrich for all the editing and mixing he did for this one. musically, i kinda hear early xtc (especially in jason caven’s drumming), which pleases me.
run away, teri, written and sung by dave jablonski, was recorded at queensize studios here in indianapolis, by lp ellrich. additional overdubs and mixing were finished by dave jablonski at his home studio, calamity kit. i wish this song were 10 minutes long, but alas, it’s a cool hot minute. the lead vocal is a sped-up jablonski, something that thrills us to no end.
Live they are awkward in the best possible way (think Stewart Lupton on mescaline) so come out and jump between cars like a frog in the popular Atari video game: Frogger.
