An (Official) Introduction to Marc with a C

Recently I wrote about how an artist called Marc with a C was crowd-sourcing the track list for his new album, an album intended as an introduction to his music for newcomers.

The day has finally come. The crowd has spoken and the album is released today—titled, fittingly enough, “An Introduction to Marc with a C”.

I’m not bitter that the final track choices do not match my own. As usual, the crowd has produced finer results than any one of its members. Here are a few highlights—some I chose, and a few unexpected gems…

He’s in love with everyone he knows

Marc (and Marc’s voting fanbase) could not have picked a better opener than “I’m in love with everyone I know”. This song alone is a great introduction to Marc’s music: innovative, interesting, odd, fun, funny, at times profane… but ultimately good-hearted.

“Except for Christian Slater. I don’t know him—he’s exempt.”

detrimental experimental fundamental accidental

I didn’t know “All my drug use is accidental” very well at all, but it’s grown on me fast. The chorus is super catchy.

“All my fans under-rate me.

Not all, Marc. Not all.

This World is Scary as Fuck… sort of.

The refrain of the song “Stuck With Me”—“This world is scary as fuck”—is a thought I try to avoid thinking, but sometimes that’s just how it seems. I recently heard entrepreneurship described as “a struggle to save your company’s life – and your own skin – every day of the week” which seems about right. A life of pure terror/excitement, even outside the world of Valley startups and venture capital.

“This world is scary as fuck, it’s big and it’s really mean.”

Towards the end of the album we also get “Life’s so hard”, which carries the same message albeit in a more sarcastic form:

“I’m so sad. I’m fifteen. Life’s so hard, life’s so hard for me.”

Two songs later we get my favourite rebuttal:

“When it all gets too much, that’s when I need a reminder that it’s all a test (if it’s all a test)”

I love “Love my little squiddy”

A sleeper from the Motherfuckers album. Certainly among the finest songs ever written about a giant squid god.

“The necronomicon made for one sleepless night…”

Final score

I was glad to find “RetroLowFi” and “No London in Brazil” in there too. If this had been a test of my predictive powers I would have scored 5 tracks out of 15. I like my compilation and I like the official one. Everyone wins.

The album ends on a slightly meta note, with Marc introducing a song about talking to the audience… by talking to his audience about one time he saw another musician talking to the audience. This makes more sense than it probably sounds like.

A Special Request

Rumour has it that Bandcamp report their download stats to the powers-that-be-in-charge-of-music-charts. With a big burst of downloads on the release day (September 3rd) there’s a chance Marc might actually get some degree of the exposure his music deserves.

So, if you like me (and/or my music recommendations) please do me a favour – download “An Introduction to Marc with a C” (for free, or pay a dollar or ten if you like) from Bandcamp today.

Don’t just go there and listen on the webpage – please download the album.

And enjoy!