http://thefader.com/blog/articles/20.../freak-scene-8
It’s also been awhile since I checked in on my pals
Magik Markers, who return with another CDR entitled
The Real McCoy on drummer Pete Nolan’s Arbitrary Signs imprint. Seems like this disc is a mix of live recordings and scrapped studio sessions if I had to guess. The joy of the Markers is that of a completely improvised rock band and the excitement of never knowing what your gonna get. Do you have to put up with a lot of crap along the way? Well, sure and certainly on the CDR recordings. The live sounding stuff represented is pretty standard fare for the band, twisted guitars, free drums, and non-linear proclamations from singer/guitarist Elisa Ambrogio. Track four is a piano/guitar amp duo bummer jam which kinda rules. Track five is an accapella bad dream lull-a-bye from Ambrogio, which is kinda spooky. Then it’s back to the rock, first with some energy, then an extended ten-minute crawl through wah-pedal moaning spittle, which is kinda bummer. There’s definitely the hangover, or worse when you realize that you are drunk enough to know you will have to endure a painful tomorrow. But despite their low moments it’s when Abrogio is ON that everything comes together. She can have a vicious delivery that is mesmerizing as it is polarizing. Not that she fuckin cares what you think. But like most Markers’ releases there is revelation, attack, regret, boredom, feedback, hatred and truth. Just like real life and its pretty great even when it’s shitty.