Mardou - You're Not Going to Live Forever

Artist: Mardou
Title: You're Not Going to Live Forever
Genre: Post-Punk
EP
2014
Sounds Like: Vacation, Joy Division
Favorite Track: Dirty Streets
Available as: Download (Bandcamp only), cassette (Let's Pretend)

Mardou is a really interesting and versatile band which currently lives in the pantheon of "bands I regret not seeing when I had the chance." I almost went to see one of their shows once but I had some conflict or other that I decided to go to instead. After buying and listening to their cassette, I regret that.

The opening two tracks of this tape are lo-fi garage punk stompers that remind me strongly of another Cincinnati punk band, Vacation. This is probably more than a coincidence, because half of the EP was recorded by Jerome Westercamp, aka Jerri Queen, the drummer and frontman of Vacation. They're full of energy and drive, with some really good riffs. Then, on track three, "Earth," the band shifts gears into a slower, more atmospheric (but still driving) groove that reminds me strongly of Joy Division, except obviously with very different vocals. No one can imitate Ian Curtis. He's the man.

For the rest of the tape, the band alternates every two tracks between driving punk and atmospheric alternative, in slightly higher-fidelity sound on side two, due to the fact that the two sides contain songs recorded at different sessions, by different engineers. My favorite track on the album is from the second session. It's called "Dirty Streets." Although this doesn't appear on the cassette, somewhere or other I saw this track subtitled "an ode to Over-The-Rhine," a historic neighborhood in Cincinnati which is one of my favorite places to hang out when I'm in Cincinnati. Over the past 15 or so years, it's transformed from a pretty unpleasant place to a really cool, artsy neighborhood with great culture, although "Dirty Streets" is more of an ode to its remaining rough edges - "these dirty streets don't need to be cleaned!"

The cassette holds an interesting little bit of value for me, because it bridges my two hometowns. Mardou is from Cincinnati, where I grew up, but the record label that released the cassette, Let's Pretend Records, is based in Bloomington, Indiana, where I currently live. Nothing really deep or interesting here, just a personal note. The EP is available as a whole only on cassette, which can be bought through Let's Pretend Records, but all the tracks are available on Bandcamp as part of two different EPs. They're set at "name your price," aka "free unless you're rich." I highly recommend checking them out.