MAGIK MARKERS ANNOUNCE NEW RECORD, SURRENDER TO THE FANTASY, OUT 11/19 ON DRAG CITY
Harlan Howard said country music was three chords and the truth, Colin Harper said Mahavishnu Orchestra was 403 chords and the truth. Here we say Magik Markers are no chords and the truth - but to tell the truth, there are some chords, because just as them Markers never change, they always change, because change is Magik! And if you believe in Magik, then you'll Surrender To The Fantasy.
STTFkicks off with that hoary old trope of punk records, the song about the Chesapeake Valley Runoff and the mating cycle of crabs. After that kind of in-your-face Attenborough-core, where could the record go? Nowhere but everywhere, all the creepy outposts of American detritus from other times, when hitchhiking and h-bombs were still hot, viable new ideas and on beyond zed-bra.
In place of the old netherworld thump of detained and de-tuned long lost third MarkerLeah Quimby (but darned if ain't do something near as unfathomable as her rubber-sharked percussiveness) is the precision bass of John "The Saw" Shaw. With monolithic presence, Shaw has been helping shape the Markers sound since way back, but started up musically and live with them in 2009. A legendary founding member of bands like Son of Earth and The Believers, this is John's first full length with Magik Markers, and boy, what a reveal. He likes first dates, and thinking about stones making music..........clunk, thud, clatter. David Crosbyasked why can't we go on as three, and Magik Markers answer: we wouldn't have it any other way. The Magik Markers are and will continue to be: Elisa Ambrogio, Pete Nolan, and John Shaw.
To each his own chimera, said Baudelaire, and we (and they) concur. Surrender To The Fantasy is out 11/19 on Drag City.
SURRENDER TO THE FANTASY TRACKLISTING
1. Crebs
2. Acts of Desperation
3. Bonfire
4. Mirrorless
5. American Sphinx Face
6. Young
7. Empire Building
8. Screams of Birds and Girls
9. WT