After four long years, Mac DeMarco announced a new album entitled FIVE EASY HOT DOGS via its homepage. The special thing about it: According to the musician, it is a purely instrumental production. The 14-track project will be released digitally and on CD on January 20th, followed by the vinyl edition on May 12th.
Since HERE COMES THE COWBOY (2019), DeMarco has released several singles in collaboration with other artists, including “Moving Men” featuring Myd and “Rolled Up” in collaboration with Benny Sings. DeMarco has kept his fans waiting for an entire studio work, although (spoilers) this name hardly does his new announcement justice.
“A few mics, an old Model D and a TX7”
In January 2022, after a live show in the San Francisco Bay Area, DeMarco set out to record his next work. “I had my guitars with me, a bass, a weird little drum kit with a kick drum we sawed in half in Golden Gate Park, all the stands and cables I needed, a couple of mics, an old Model D [Mikrofon-Modell von „Behringer“] and a TX7 [Drumcomputer]’ he recalled in a press release. “I gradually gathered a few things to make it as travel-friendly as possible.”
DeMarco traces his past
Every song in the production was recorded and mixed in the city named in the title. The track listing reflects the chronological order in which the tracks were produced, beginning with “Gualala” and ending with “Rockaway”. “The plan was to go north and not come home to Los Angeles until I’d finished a record,” he explains. “It was like a tour, only there were no concerts and otherwise I would have wasted money. (…) Some places I’ve visited longer than others, some I knew from the past, others not so much,” DeMarco continues. You can find another of our indie insider tips here.
“I was trying to do something all the time. If I didn’t know what was going on in a town, I would just walk around until someone recognized me and then move on. I’ve met a lot of interesting people that way and had some cool experiences.” DeMarco continued, “The nature of traveling and recording isn’t for sitting around and planning or thinking about what I really wanted to do. I never had a sound in mind or a theme or anything, I just started recording. (…) Luckily the recordings from that time all shake hands, they have a common musical identity. I was right in the middle of it while working on it and the album is what came out of it, exactly as it was. This record sounds like what it feels like to roll around like I did. I hope you have fun with it.” How the album title, in German “Five simple hot dogs”, came about and whether there is a story behind it, he has not (yet) revealed.
The tracklist for “FIVE EASY HOT DOGS”
- Gualala
- Gualala 2
- Crescent City
- Portland
- portland 2
- Victoria
- Vancouver
- vancouver 2
- vancouver 3
- Edmonton
- Edmonton 2
- Chicago 1
- Chicago 2
- Rockaway
His current work HERE COMES THE COWBOY can be heard here: