Marmoset on 45

A band like Indianapolis’ Marmoset are hard to get super excited about – basically because it takes them six years to put out successive records and when you finally get around to listening to them the group goes crawling back into the basement panels soaking in wormwood for another half-decade. Last year’s Florist Fired was a major triumph/epic bummer depending on your perception, and the strength of those druggy, iso-pop songs has kept them in this head of mine. So you could imagine my surprise when I found, digging through the record store, that Jajaguwar had re-released their 2001 masterpiece-in-gloom Record in Red. Huzzah. I was going to smoke until the eyes watered and the sediment of those heady times finally caught up with me, on wax.

Long story short – I’m prone to reading the Dusted everyday, ‘cause they do a good job explaining jazz and avant-composition to me in a way Wire (the magazine) can’t. Every Friday they have my favorite column, Listed, where it’s usually some unknown up-n’-comers listing what makes them happy. Two weeks ago the guest was some white rapper from Indy, whose name I forget, but he kept talking about listening to records on 45 even when it didn’t call for it. The one he couldn’t get off his turntable was Marmoset’s Record in Red, because it was so fucking good on 45. I tried it out first thing, and now I may not ever listen it to it at normal speed again. He was absolutely correct. This is poppier and brighter than some amazing lost Kinks record found between Face to Face and Village Green – I’m not kidding. How did this guy discover such a treat?