But rather than building, developing, or even meandering as his songs tend to do, these pieces simply putter along for a while and end. The familiar Mac palette is apparent as soon as “Gualala” kicks in-spidery acoustic guitar, a pleasingly round bass tone, the tap of a cheap drum machine, and a synth that sounds like a little bird commenting mockingly on the (lack of) action. Hot Dogs continues in the lugubrious vein of Here Comes the Cowboy, rarely exceeding the tempo of a resting heart rate. 2015’s Some Other Ones was recorded in five days and released as a free download, and it grew naturally out of the fizzle and spark of Salad Days. Now here are 14 instrumentals made on a long and spontaneous solo road trip, where DeMarco pledged “not go home to Los Angeles until I was done with a record.” This is a listless album about being listless, and it’s a pretty accurate picture of the stretches of useless, money-burning time that come with being on the road.įive Easy Hot Dogs isn’t DeMarco’s first instrumental release. This thread came to a head on 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy, a record whose burnt-out ballads were full of dead friends, departed lovers, and uncertain plans. Ever since he sang “What mom don’t know has taken its toll on me” on 2014’s Salad Days, he has been exploring a long post-adolescent hangover, the feeling of emerging on the other side of your young and carefree days and seeing little that looks exciting in your future. Mac DeMarco is too larger-than-life to ever be anonymous, but this scene is a good starting place for considering his new Five Easy Hot Dogs. Bob Rafelson’s 1970 film Five Easy Pieces ends with the hero, played by Jack Nicholson, hitching a ride on a northbound truck and disappearing into anonymity.
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