Marrow
San Francisco, California, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
article can be found here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/offtherecord/detail?entry_id=51430
I went to my PO Box and a package took up the whole space. When I opened it, it looked like a prescription refill. My first thought was, I have someone else's prescription, is it a downer? Old habits die hard.
In the package there was a pill bottle, T-Shirt and CD. I still thought it was a pharmaceutical company sending me junk mail. Before tossing it, I took a second look and realized it was a promo release from a band band.
Sunshine Enema by Marrow.
Getting past the cotton in the bottle was a large pill. Instead of swallowing it, I pulled it apart and it was a USB drive.
The USB drive had their band info, hi-res photos and more.
Brilliant.
They have various package options on their website including T-Shirts, etc.
Their music is an upbeat electro that could be the soundtrack to an action sci-fi film. They dip into cold wave guitar riffs between programmed bpms.
They're like a Top 40 Atari Teenage Riot.
It's good driving music, or don't talk to me I'm walking down Market Street and have been hit up for money 20 times today music.
Big props to this San Francisco band for the fun surprise.
Eat Your Fiber.
- SF Chronicle
Original Review found here:
http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2009/11/i-got-a-sunshine-enema-and-i-think-everythings-gonna-come-out-alright.html
Before you get unduly impressed - that's not really a suppository and it didn't make me its bitch. It's actually a flash drive that contains promo materials for Sunshine Enema, the latest release from a band called Marrow. I'd never heard of the band before but their press kit is so awesome I had to share it. And no, I'm not just blowing saline up their asses.
And yes, like their press release, this post is going to be chock full of butt and toilet jokes! Sorry, but I'm old and bored and this is how I get my fun.
The press kit, or Sunshine Enema Master Cleanse Kit as they call it, came in an envelope that looked like a prescription refill and stapled to it was one of those information sheets that tells you all the side effects. I don't know who wrote the copy, but it made me feel all rumbly inside.
Allow me to share:
"BEFORE USING THIS MEDICINE: Some medicines or medical conditions may not interact with this medicine as it is not a medicine and just some stuff to dance to ... ADDITIONAL MONITORING OF YOUR DOSE OR CONDITION may be needed if you are ingesting the Pussycat Dolls, Lady Gaga or the Jonas Brothers ... Inform your doctor of any other medical conditions, allergies, pregnancy or a prolapsed vulva.
CAUTIONS: There is no recommended dose. You are on your own. Drive, operate machinery and do anything dangerous...Ask the Society for the Advancement of despair if you have questions about which medicines are the most enjoyable...THIS MEDICINE IS EXCRETED IN BREAST MILK, SEMEN AND HUMILIATING PUBLIC OUTCRIES.
KEEP WITHIN REACH OF CHILDREN, REPUBLICANS AND HAND PUPPETS."
(Also note that it was sent to me by the president of their PR firm, Christopher BUTTner. And yes, that's his real name.)
For the record, my 13-year-old has already loaded a few of their tracks up on her iPod, but she has no appreciation whatsoever for the press kit. Teenagers these days just don't get enema humor. Also, she didn't like the fact that I was showing everyone at Starbucks my flash drive shaped like a suppository. I told her she was being a real pooper. - Mama Pop
Marrow - the San Francisco-based industrial-electro band who are “like a Top 40 Atari Teenage Riot” (SF Chronicle) - will release their sophomore album ‘Sunshine Enema’ on March 2. The six song collection features ferociously programmed beats coated with a dark pop sheen, with each track burrowing itself into the listener’s brain.
Marrow has devised a unique way for fans to “ingest” their latest album. As part of the “Sunshine Enema Master Cleanse Kit”, the album comes as a pill shaped USB drive, which can be found inside a ‘Sunshine Enema’ pill bottle and prescription bag, complete with “dosing instructions” for how to use it.
All the fancy packaging in the world would mean nothing if the band’s music weren’t such a miserably good time. As vocalist and songwriter Erin Fortes says, “we want to prove that misery can also make you move your gloomy ass.” “Use Me” kicks the album off with a forceful backbeat and powerful synth stabs, as Jeremy and Erin Fortes’ desperate vocals float above the mix. “Tear You Apart” is an industrial-coated reinterpretation of the She Wants Revenge track, while “Impotent Hack” could easily have soundtracked a ‘Bladerunner’ chase scene.
The band also look for other ways to spread their motto that “bliss is ignorance,” creating tongue-in-cheek PSA and Holiday Card videos for their fictional “Society for the Advancement of Despair.” Check them out here: http://www.blissisignorance.com/videos.html
Marrow is: Erin Fortes – composer, lead vocals, synths; Jeremy Fortes – composer, producer, lead vocals, synths; David Earl - producer, synths, background vocals
For more information on Marrow, please contact Rob Krauser rkrauser@shorefire.com or Mark Satlof msatlof@shorefire.com at Shore Fire Media, 718.522.7171.
http://www.shorefire.com/clients/marrow
http://www.blissisignorance.com/home.html
http://www.myspace.com/blissisignorance - ShoreFire Media
Discography
November 29, 2009 - Cyberage Radio - KUNM
Tear You Apart
November 16, 2009 - The Next Big Thing
Use Me Marrow on KALX FM 90.7
Quiet Desperation - in stores September 16, 2008
Hack, Use Me, Knock on Wood, High Horse and Out On A Limb(singles) - radio airplay
WGDR - 91.1 FM - Plainfield, VT
M3 Radio- internet streaming - NY, NY
KDNK - 100.1 FM/90.5 FM - Carbondale, CO
WRAS - 88.5 FM - Atlanta, GA
WKPS - 90.7 FM - University Park, PA
WRUV - 90.1 FM - Burlington, VT
KUGS - 89.3 FM - Bellingham, WA
WIIT - 89.9 FM - Chicago, IL
WAWL - 91.5 FM - Hixson, TN
KHSU - 90.5/91.9 FM - Arcata, CA
WRPI - 91.5 FM - Troy, NY
KSYM - 90.1 FM - San Antonio, TX
KVNF - 90.9 FM - Paonia, CO
KZMU - 106.1 FM - Moab, UT
KDHX - 88.1 FM - St. Louis, MO
KWCW - 90.5 FM - Walla Walla, WA
WBGU - 88.1 FM - Bowling Green, OH
KUNM - 89.9 FM - Albuquerque, NM
Women's Radio - http://www.live365.com/stations/womens_radio?site=pro
KRFC (Radio Free Colorado) - http://www.live365.com/stations/dave_tallent
Photos
Bio
Marrow doesn’t mind if you’re miserable. But they do want you to move your gloomy ass.
How does a trio of classically trained electro-rock musicians spread the word about their tightly crafted lyrics and meticulous production?
With a depressed puppet, a society that celebrates despair and offering their album “Sunshine Enema” in a prescription bottle, of course.
Called a “Top 40 Atari Teenage Riot” (SF Chronicle), to say that Marrow is not your typical electronic band is an understatement. And understatement is not what band members Jeremy Fortes, David Earl and Erin Fortes do.
“We’re serious musicians. We make the kind of music that makes sense to us,” says Erin, who shares the singing and songwriting duties. “But we’re also goofballs who want to surprise people into paying attention. So instead of printing fliers to leave at the record store, we’ll just stage a fake protest in the middle of Union Square with porn stars.”
With their first album, “Quiet Desperation,” Marrow used hard-edged electro-rock to let people embrace the lowest of lows. But with the band’s new album, when the band releases ‘Sunshine Enema,’ this March, they hope that eight tracks of misery with a dance beat add some energy to the dark side.
“You can dance to it, you can drive really fast to it, but you can also sit alone in your room and reflect to it.”
The track “Use Me” kicks the album off with a forceful backbeat and powerful synth stabs, as Jeremy and Erin’s anguished vocals float above the mix. “Tear You Apart” is an industrial-coated reinterpretation of the She Wants Revenge track, while “Impotent Hack” could easily have soundtracked a ‘Bladerunner’ chase scene.
“We’re clinically unable to do the same thing over and over again. I’m insanely proud of our shock-rock opera, ‘SCABARET!’, I considered ‘Quiet Desperation’ a total triumph, but we have to keep pushing what we do into new territories. With ‘Sunshine Enema,’ we kicked our comfort zones in the face,” says Jeremy Fortes.
The three first worked together on ‘SCABARET!’ in San Francisco’s performance art scene. There, they honed not only their musical talents, but also their knack for attracting attention, shocking and amusing audiences for five years.
Today, Marrow’s dichotomy is entirely between their professional musicianship and their attention getting antics – whether it’s a website and infomercials for their fake pet cause, The Society for the Advancement of Despair, or viral videos that attract the attention of pop culture blogs like Laughing Squid, Pirate Cat Radio or Tiny Nibbles.
While it may be all fun, games and marketing that first draws people in, it’s their strong classical and jazz roots, their shared fixation on industrial music and an inability to create anything less than 100% polished that keeps them motivated and keeps them gaining fans.
“Take three people who love electronic music, desperate to work with other performers who have serious musicianship and that thrive on surreal stage exploits and put us in the same situation and it just happens. Once Jeremy, Erin and I were around each other, forming Marrow was inevitable,” says keyboardist and producer David Earl.
For more information on Marrow, please contact Rob Krauser rkrauser@shorefire.com or Mark Satlof msatlof@shorefire.com at Shore Fire Media, 718.522.7171.
http://www.shorefire.com/clients/marrow
http://www.blissisignorance.com/home.html
http://www.myspace.com/blissisignorance
Links
