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A Loose Dog, a Broken Shoulder, a New Album

Marc Schuster was halfway through recording an album when he broke his shoulder.

 

It was a gray January day when Marc’s dog Gordon slipped his leash and took off for parts unknown. Marc gave chase, tripped, and landed hard. It was an ugly scene for a moment or two, but he managed to round up Gordon and limp back home. A few hours later, he was in a sling. The diagnosis: a broken shoulder.

 

The break forced Marc to slow down and rethink his approach to recording. Before the fall, Marc had completed a handful of songs for his forthcoming album. With his dominant hand immobilized, playing guitar—or any instrument—was out of the question, so he started playing with samples instead, and doubled down on writing new material.

 

The result was Arguably—as in arguably a better album than the one Marc had initially been planning.  As its origins might suggest, Arguably is an idiosyncratic album. Drawing on influences like Elvis Costello, the Talking Heads, and Brian Eno, it has the feel of the 80s without sounding overly “80s.” More Night Court, perhaps, than Duran Duran.

 

Describing the album’s lead single, "One Cup of Coffee," indie rock legends Bottlecap Mountain put it this way: “This new Marc Schuster track sounds like if both Johns from They Might Be Giants got together with Portishead and cut the theme song to a spinoff of the Barney Miller show, and that’s meant to be a total compliment! Highly recommended!”

 

The rest of the tracks follow suit, leaning on brass and strings (or samples and synthetic versions thereof) and lyrics that cut like a double-edged sword: for every silver lining, there’s cloudburst in waiting. But in a fun way!

 

 

Marc Schuster interviews indie musicians on his blog, Abominations, and plays their music on his weekly radio show, The #Tweetcore Radio Hour. He’s been in several bands, including The Star Crumbles and the Ministry of Plausible Rumours, and he currently plays bass in Scoopski.

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