Marsupial — GENUS THYLACINUS [self-released]

Seeing as how this is the band’s fourth cd and it’s utterly brilliant, you’d think I would have heard of them before, but that just goes to show you how hard it is to keep up with things in a world filled with entirely too many bands releasing entirely too many albums. A couple of decades ago a band of this caliber would have been nationally known (if even only in hip, progressive circles) by this time, but now even great bands manage to get lost in the shuffle, especially if they are not easy to classify or market.

Hailing from Asheville, NC, this quartet combines elements of prog rock, country, jazz, and free-form improv to create a sound that fuses the best elements of these styles into something that’s both catchy and innovative yet surprisingly accessible. Their propensity for free-form jam sessions streamlined into actual songs puts them in the territory of bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, but these guys are far more disciplined, never allowing their exploration of song structures to devolve into endless soloing, and their actual sound is closer to that of an extremely progressive country-rock band.

I normally avoid listening to bands like this because they tend toward the self-indulgent, but this band is not like those bands; they are not only all stellar musicians (the guitar tracks are particularly amazing, although I have no idea who’s doing what, since three of them play guitar), but they have a sense of restraint that’s rare for a band so drenched in progressive stylings. At times they resemble a country band weaned on King Crimson, only without Fripp’s overly academic approach and the retention of the pulsing groove that makes the best country music so rhythmically compelling. This is the sound of greatness; too bad it’s being drowned out by bands with far less talent and more marketing muscle.

Click here for the original review.

Short Take Review: MarsupiaL – Genus Thylacinus (MarsupialMusic) There are a lot of people out there waiting for this, the fourth CD from North Carolina based band MarsupiaL. This quartet of twin guitars, bass and drums has been working steadily since forming around 2000 and their fan base has been growing steadily. Taking their musical foundation from bands such as The Grateful Dead, Phish and Umphrey’s McGee, these guys straddle a bunch of musical boundaries. The disc starts out sounding a little like Dire Straits, and then shifts into something a little more Southern Rock oriented before shifting gears a couple more times. The music has an almost contradictory structured jamming quality. We slide from one genre to the next all the while displaying a roots, southern country flavoured tone. The disc has a nice mixture of short and long tracks, as long as “Lead On” [8:46] and “Naked in the Hall of Deduction” [9:39]. Here the music effortlessly slides around changing dynamics, time and tempo, one guitar will provide a distorted atmospheric backdrop while the other provides a delicate lead line. Other tracks clock in around 3-5-minutes where the composition tends to focus more on a straight forward song. Fans of the bands mentioned above will know instantly what to expect, but if you are unfamiliar you might want to check out the band at www.marsupialmusic.com (Jerry Lucky, 9/6/09)

Progression Magazine, Issue 57, Spring / Summer 2009

MarsupiaL
Genus Thylacinus

2009 (CD, 43:46); Independent Release
Style: Alternative/Country/Pschadelic
Sound 3 | Composition 3 | Musicianship 3 | Performance 3
Total Rating 12

MarsupiaL blends vintage country psych with alt-country and 70’s Southern guitar rock in forging a sound difficult to classify. Odd combinations of influences with generous instrumental interludes make genus thylacinus simultaneously original and familiar.

“Lead On” opens with a Dire Straits feel giving way to an extended space guitar solo that slowly builds to maximum intensity. When the rifting gets too hard to handle, some Moby Grape harmonies take the batton and run awhile before returning for a few more measures of guitar histrionics. The nine-minute piece finally closes out with the aforementioned Dire Straits-inflected verse/chorus.

The second cut is Lynard Skynard personified, followed by the 10-minute “Naked In The Hall Of Seduction”, a mental stew of early Steve Miller, Moby Grape, and Pilgrimage-era Wishbone Ash.

The Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Family, The Great Speckled Bird and the Groundhogs all rear their rocking heads on this fourth release by the North Carolina Quartet. Grab a brew, sit back, and enjoy.

by Warren Baker

Written By: gryphs also
Date: 8/20/2009
Format: CD (Album)

Click here for the original review @ www.progressiveears.com

North Carolina band Marsupiual have taken the wide variety of music influences of the region (jam band, southern rock, country), missed them together with some non-traditional song structures and a mellow Pink Floyd feel, and come up with a collection of songs that although not complex or challenging are catchy and very difficult to get out of your head. The diversity in sound of their CD genus thylacinus can be partially attributed to having three different songwriters in the band, and each one’s songs seem influenced by different things.

The two of the three songs by Chris Carter (drums, guitars, vocals) clock in at over 8 minutes and show jam band leanings. “Lead On” starts with a clean guitar rhythm during the vocals and quick chords of distorted guitars over the changes. The song then breaks into a 3.5 minute instrumental interlude. Although punctuated by lead guitar work it is definitely a vehicle for musical interplay as opposed to solo gamesmanship. The song returns for a short vocal portion related to the original theme before another musical interlude and then a return to the main song melody/vocal motif.

“Naked In the Halls Of Seduction” begins with a short guitar de-tuned section before entering the main part of the song: a clean guitar with echo playing a simple three chord rhythm that will stick with you for days. This leads to other sections with musical interplay somewhere in the grey area between post-rock and space-rock.

“There Is A Better World” is a short acoustic number punctuated by tasty pedal steel fills.

The two songs by Ian Reardon (guitars, vocals) are more in the southern rock vein. “The Man Who Knows Things” contains vocal sections with pretty picking over acoustic guitar chords but has fills and a solo with a nasty guitar tone that is a sonically perfect foil for the acoustic background. “The Tide” is similar but starts off in a jazz-rock vibe using chord inversions and a clean guitar until that same nasty guitar intros the lyrics. The song then breaks into a heavy rock number with that same lovely guitar tone rocking out over some alternative-sounding progressions.

Forrest Smith’s numbers are more diverse. “In Between” has a chorus that sound like U2’s “Angel of Harlem” and a pretty acoustic guitar solo that again is a compliment to the song, not a spotlight. “The Goodbye Waltz” is an alt-country rock gem that has some effective vocal harmonies. “Sucker Punch” is an aggressive instrumental song bordering on prog-metal with some de-tuned guitar giving the song a slight Tool feeling and some stoner-rock solos.

If you are more into the mind-challenging progressive variations, then this probably won’t stimulate you enough. If melody and relaxing to some well-crafted songs that are small “p” progressive is more your taste, Marsupial’s genus thylacinus might be for you. Accessible, but definitely in the art-rock area.

The first thing one must consider when listening to Genus Thylacinus by MarsupiaL (with a capital L), is that this is a bona fide jam band. Out of Asheville, NC, MarsupiaL’s sound mixes progressive rock with southern rock and a taste of jazz. What results is a very winding and mellow type of music, like the rock equivalent of a babbling brook. This quartet’s sound is just plain laid-back and unobtrusive. They’re not flashy, but that doesn’t mean there’s not talent here. Quite the contrary, there is a strongly prevalent degree of musicianship at work that is sometimes hard to find in a band, even with several releases under their belts (let’s face it: some bands just aren’t that good at what they do).

The eight song album goes by relatively fast, even when all but two of the songs clock in at over four minutes. Track one is just shy of nine minutes, while track three comes close to ten minutes, which goes to show that the band likes to meander about in the songs that they play. I actually thought that track one, “Lead On,” was two different songs until it reprised into its chorus at the end.

This is an album perfect for sitting around with friends on a summer night while kicking back a few beers. I’m not saying that it’s only good as background music, but it’s just very “chill,” so to speak. It has a sort of Frank Zappa-ish vibe to it, and feels very much like one of the classic rock jam bands of years gone by. This kind of music simply isn’t seen as much any more, and that’s a shame, because these guys have a lot of talent.

While this isn’t something I would play religiously, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good jam band. The first track, “Lead On,” is especially fun, with some great guitar solos. The southern rock feel of “The Man Who Knows Things” makes it stand out well from the rest of the album. I definitely wouldn’t mind listening to some more MarsupiaL.