Thursday 17 November 2011
Reunion (of sorts)
(photo: Lesley Marino)
Dean Marino and Quick Before It Melts first crossed paths back in 2008 when he sent me some of the music he was making as EX~PO, and then again in 2009 when Tin Star Orphans (another project of his) released their debut album. In fact, his name has popped up as recorder, producer and friend to a great many of the bands that have been featured here through the years, so he’s certainly no stranger ’round these parts.
The other day, my friend Matt dropped me a line to say hi, and suggest I check out Papermaps, whom he heard played on XM Radio recently, and thought would be right up my alley. He was right; they’re a pretty a pretty cool piano-based pop outfit that I am totally geting into. I wasn’t too surprised to find out that Papermaps used to be the aforementioned EX~PO, with Dean Marino still the man behind the magic. Joined by Wendy Leung, Bobby Lee, Betty Dimo and Todd Harrison, Marino expanded the basic blueprint behind EX~PO to flesh out and round out the full band sound of Papermaps. Their self-titled debut was released in April of this year (pretty much right under my nose) and I’m sorry to say that it’s taken me this long to get hip to it (thanks again, Matt).
The funny thing is, I’ve heard “Reunion” a number of times on CBC Radio 3, and kept thinking, “Hey that’s a pretty cool track, I should find out more about these guys”. I find myself saying that a lot, actually, and I’m starting to learn my lesson. Their hand-made/fan-made video for “Reunion” has a pretty cool back story. Papermaps asked their fans to send in video clips of themselves answering the question: “If you could send a message back in time to yourself at age 16, what would you say?” The result is below:
What message would I want to tell my 16 year old self if I could? Today it would be “Check out the Papermaps LP as soon as you hear about it… and don’t be an arse.”
Papermaps are playing their last show of the year at Toronto’s El Mocambo on December 3, bidding goodbye for a bit while they finish up work on their sophomore LP. Maybe I’ll be more on the ball about record #2. Sorry, Dean. Forgive me?
Reunion by Papermaps
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