The Get-Arounds "Get Around!" free album

Ricky from The Galactic Heroes spent all of November writing, recording, a whole album. It was part of the National Solo Album Month. Where musicians write and record an entire album during the month of November - all by themselves and they can only have one cover song. I think this is the challenge Ricky needed since he has been separated from Mike by distance and usually records with a collaborator that this encouraged him to go out on his own. Ricky has his own blog where you can see his comments during the month of recording. I know Ricky did a lot of work on this but I feel like his friends and fans real get all the benefit. It has been so long since there was a new Galactic Heroes' song that this such a joy to my ears.

Here is a quote from Ricky's blog about the album"I had already been writing songs as part of my song of the week exercise, but a 30 minute album in a month meant that I'd have to triple my current rate. What slows me down the most when I record is trying to figure out what to write songs about and my compulsive overdubbing tendencies (an old theory is that if you mask a crappy song with enough instruments it becomes good). To counter this I decided to pretend to be an oldies band with 4 members -- 2 guitarists, a bassist and a drummer. All four members could sing. This stopped too many overdubs (though I did add tambourine to almost every song and claps to a few). Also, being an oldies band meant that I could write every song about a girl."

I helped come up with the band name. Padgett came up with the title and Todd did the cover artwork. I would love to see a real live Get-Arounds band play these songs.

Here is a link to the album

Here is a link to his blog which includes way more info and bonus songs. Thanks Ricky!

The Owls - Afternoon Song

The Owls performs their version of "Afternoon Song" in the studios of 89.3 The Current. The song is part of the Songs From Scratch project by Minnesota Public Radio where Minneapolis area musicians were invited to provide their interpretation of a set of lyrics. Pretty awesome especially since from writing to recording this song was all done in a week. This song is unreleased.

more info about the Afternoon Song project can be found here

New Fred Thomas

Yeah thats right. I guess this has been a well kept secret. Fred Thomas who fronts the band Saturday Looks Good to Me has recorded a beautiful album titled "Flood". Magic Marker is releasing it deep into the year 2007. While we know this may keep it off of many year end lists but we feel like this is grower anyway. We have been big fans of Fred's work for awhile. His band's album "Every Night" is what first drew our attention and we pretty much have kept up with everything since. Fred seems to write more songs than most and has been writing them for years. Last years "Sink Like Symphony" was the first solo record that had any distribution. When Fred told us he had been working on the follow up we were happy to get involved. We posted one of the songs from the website. I really like this song but it really is hard to get the full picture of the album with 6 minute long pop/experimental sad songs. This is not the phil spectorish sound of Saturday Looks Good To Me this is much more raw and precious. Here is a traack form the album. Last One

New The Owls Video!

"The Way On" from our album "Daughters and Suns." It was directed by Todd Cobery. Produced by Brady Kiernan. Director of Photography was Wilson Webb. Edited by Joe Martin. Graphic Design and Creative by Scott Wenner

The Owls take Minneapolis

The Owls celebrated their cd release last weekend in Minneapolis. It has been quite a big to do since the city fell in love with The Owls from their last cd release four years ago "Our Hopes and Dreams". It almost one best local release as deemed by City Pages but then was trumped at the last minute by Atomsphere's new release at the time. So the city and music lovers welcomed them back last week. The cover you see to the left was for the free weekly City Pages and features the The Owls in a sailboat and The Story of The Owls. "Before they could take on the pop world they had to conquer stage fright and each other". So here is a story that follows.

They did the whole press junket. I have always wanted one of our bands to do a press junket. It seems rare that a whole city and I agree on music, especially music that we release so I have to say Minneapolis is one of my favorite places. The Owls appeared on Radio K on October 26th. Some of those songs can be heard here. They were also on Minnesota Public Radio with an in studio on November 5th here. I noticed that from the Radio K broadcast a bunch of new songs so one can only hope we won't be waiting for 4 more years for another release. Brian wrote that the cd release show was a complete success! I only wish I had been there to witness it. Anyway I am really proud on John, Allison, Maria and Brian and am glad they are being appreciated.

Tollycraft Yachts

I am terrible at blogging. I get ideas for posts but don't post them right away so then it seems like yesterday's news. This is a record label blog so maybe it isn't appropriate to post about things that other blogs are covering besides with our two new releases coming out at the same time I feel like I shouldn't cover anything but that. So here is another Tullycraft post.

I find myself spending lots of time in Thrift Stores looking for the usual things like old records, vintage clothing, hi-fi equipment... Last year I was shopping for Halloween outfits and I found this sweater. I couldn't believe my luck. Not only is it a Tollycraft Yacht article of clothing but it is a baby blue V-neck sweater that actually fits. I mean I just can't imagine anything more twee than that other than maybe that shirt that Courtney owns. If you have ever asked Sean where they came up with the name Tullycraft he will usually down play saying it is just a word they came up with. I originally thought it was a play off his last name Tollefson until I found out that there were wooden boats that were branded Tollycraft. So it seems like that is where Sean and Co got the name so I decided to check it out on Wikipedia. The wiki entry goes as follows:

Tollycraft was a US powerboat manufacturer which is no longer in business.

Tollycraft was founded in 1936 as a wooden boat builder by Robert Merland Tollefson (better known as Tolly). In 1962 the company switched to building their boats from fiberglass. Tollefson sold the company in 1987, and it was bankrupt by 1993. Although it attempted to resume operations, the company was dead by 1997.

Tollycraft was known to make high quality boats ideally suited to the waters of its home in the Pacific Northwest.

So this is speculation and Sean has never confirmed this or if he is related to "Tolly" but it seems like a pretty big coincidence.

Tullycraft have their CD release show this Thursday. I will be there wearing this sweater , dancing and singing my lungs out. Please join me. Oh here is "If You Take Away the Make-up (Then The Vampires, They Will Die)" from the new album.

New Single by The Owls!

Finally after over three years the Minneapolis band The Owls lets everyone in on what they have been up to. The Owls have three songwriters (sometimes four) and have finally finished their debut album "Daughters and Suns". The song we have posted here is written and sung by Maria May and opens with the prettiest harmonies. It is a charming piano song that reminds us of the heart aching hit song from the EP "Air" but a bit more playful. The Owls are the best at what they do, amazing harmonies with beautiful pop production. Brian Tighe, Allison Labonne also have their equal share of songs on this 14 song album. It has taken three years to get here so don't rush let The Owls seep into you. The Owls album Daughters and Suns will be released Oct 23rd and the cd release show is scheduled for Nov 8th at the Cedar Cultural Center.

The Owls "Peppermint Patty"

New Tullycraft Single!

We are very excited to announce a brand new Tullycraft song for download. "The Punks Are Writing Love Songs" is off the new album "Every Scene Needs A Center" which is due out Oct 23rd. Tullycraft have a cd release show planned on Oct 18th at The Crocodile with The Math and Physics Club and Patience Please. "Punks" is the lead off track to the band's upcoming album. I love the new Tullycraft and one of the reasons is the variety of styles and sounds on the record. It is a lengthy 14 tracks long and will surely not disappoint all the fans who have been waiting since "Disenchanted Hearts Unite". "Punks" has a huge hook and lends to fist pumping "hey"s. Corianton Hale of Tullycraft designed the JPEG to go along with this free download. Stay tuned to for a free download from The Owls later this week.

Tullycraft "Punks Are Writing Love Songs"

Hola Mexico!

After I married Molly, we risked possible hurricanes to spend a week in paradise known to some of you as the state of Quintana Roo or more commonly as the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. It was an amazing experience as for one I have never really had a relaxing vacation before. We spent hours watching the tide come in and catching up on our novel reading. We encountered sea turtles, spider monkeys, and countless number of crabs. We didn't really experience much of a music scene other than the cover band that played fairly late outside of our hotel room on the Isla de Mujeres. We did however bring the ipod and speakers and played my favorite mexican indie pop band Hello Seahorse! On their website they have 4 acoustic versions of some songs from their album available for download. I will post a link to one of their songs sung in English "Lost Cause Heart". They have their cd available everywhere via CD Baby and Itunes. I can't think of another mexican indie pop band but lets hope they are starting a trend.

Happy Birthday!

This is a photo of Mark. He and I run Magic Marker Records. This photo of Mark is when he had a beard and before he started riding his bike everywhere. I have known Mark since my junior year in college at Indiana University. We both worked at WIUS , the college radio station. Mark once had Bunnygrunt play his house with his friend's ska band whose name I am forgetting right now. In even bigger news is Mark is moving back from California back to Oregon very soon! I am so happy to have Mark back. Either way today is Mark's birthday and I am making a post about it. Happy Birthday Mark! I will include the fantastic video from Altered Images of "Happy Birthday". All so fantastic. As Mark may point out it was my birthday yesterday as well. Happy Birthday Mark ! I hope you are having a fantastical day!

Magic Marker Curt gets married presses 7"

On September 1st, 2007 I Curtis Kentner married Molly Anderson. It was truly the happiest day of my life. All our friends and family came to Portland, Oregon and had a grand ol' time talking, dancing, eating, drinking, and laughing. So many people helped make this such a special day and we love them all. To commemerate the occasion Molly and I asked Ricky of The Galactic Heroes and Dave from BOAT to collaborate to cover the Trogg's song "With a Girl Like You" for our first dance. We also asked Katy Davidson if she would cover the Zombies song "This Will Be Our Year" for Molly to walk down the aisle to. Here are those two songs for your enjoyment. We also had them pressed onto a 7". Depending on demand we have some left over. I will send them out for the price of shipping. Oh yeah this photo is from the photo booth that Ricky built himself. Amazing.

Just paypal me your request at info@magicmarkerrecords.com

In the US or Canada $1.50
Rest of the world $2.50

MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - KEEP IT COMING

Here is an update. The 7" singles were found. It turns out the British government wanted to hang onto them long enough to keep us guessing. So they are available in the UK as well as in the US. Here we have an actually video for an upcoming single that is due out in October on Lost Music Recordings.

where are the 7"s?

So we pressed 500 7 inch single/eps with The Manhattan Love Suicides. Featuring a new version of "Kick It Back" and 3 others including the song the Ronettes never recorded but should have "You'll Never Get That Guy". It is a fantastic piece of wax. A must to add to your collection. I sent half of the copies to Leeds to The Manhattan Love Suicides 3 weeks ago. They had an upcoming gig with And You Will Know Us By... they were hoping to have the hot new single for sale. It didn't show up in time for the gig. In fact we don't know where they could be. We only pressed 500 and are now down to 250. This could become quite the collectible if not found. I could have written the address wrong but I don't think I did. If that happens they would get sent back and I would not only have to pay to get them back but pay to then send them back to the UK. I mean 7"s are a money losing product anyway but this could be a wash. Well anyway I hope where ever they are they are safe and not broken or underwater. I will keep you updated.

DEAR NORA - Weird Cactus

Why wouldn't Katy tell me she made a video? I am not really sure. Anyway she made this video while on tour with Darren Hanlon who is playing in Portland tonight at the Mississippi Studios. Darren was quick to draw attention to this amazing piece of video made with a $10 budget in Meekathara a remote part of Western Australia.

Bears hit Portland

Last night I was treated to the fantastic sounds of all a things a midwest pop band, Bears. Charlie from the band let me know they were coming to town and I am glad he did. Bears on the recordings are breezy, pleasant pop in an Elliott Smith meets The Lucksmiths but live they were very energetic and upbeat even including a Hall and Oates cover. I know I missed out on seeing Ladybug Transistor across town but I have seen them before and felt rewarded for trying something new. They have a week or so left on their tour so please go see them or buy cd. Here is a song off their self released ep that came out earlier this year.

Bears - Those Years

Zombie Kid Likes Turtles

"All right you're a great zombie" so genius in its simplicity.

Boycrazy Album Spotted!

Here we have Tegan and Sarah posing for a recording photo shoot with Chris Walla from Death Cab For Cutie and making a guest appearance Boycrazy's album "Foreign Words". I saw this image up on Brooklyn Vegan and it made me happy. It appears as the album is being used as a prop for this photo as the plastic sleeve is still on the jacket. Boycrazy suffered from the fate that many bands do having played together for many years finally release an album only to break up soon afterwards. Here is an MP3 from that album titled Stark Street. Chris Walla once spent a weekend in the Magic Marker House recording what was to be the second Dear Nora single. As far as I know those recordings have never seen the light of day for whatever reason. Anyway it was nice to have a reason to think about Boycrazy again.

architecture in helsinki

hey all,
We started a blog to easily update you on things we are interested in and goings on around here. First thing I wanted to share is by a band that is friends of Magic Marker. Architecture in Helsinki made one of the most amazing videos I have seen in awhile. Architecture features Kellie Sutherland who was in the one off band The Best Friends Group on Magic Marker. Check it out.



Architecture in Helsinki - Hold Music from helsinkids and Vimeo.

SXSW here we come!

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