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MarsupiaL: Curtains

This easy-going quartet from North Carolina has built a regional following with its improv-heavy mix of progressive rock, jazz and jam-band music. With its third album, Curtains, MarsupiaL – the kind of band that opens for the likes of Gov’t Mule and Ulu and gets press in Relix magazine – proves that jam music needn’t be self-absorbed noodling. Sure, some of the songs here surpass the seven-minute mark. But with songwriting duties split between three of the band’s four members, there’s plenty of diversity, and much of the improvisation appears to have been left on the stage.

Vocalists Ian Reardon (who also plays guitar) and Chris Carter (the drummer, too) wander into Dave Matthews territory a few times and occasionally rely on a slightly off-putting falsetto, but nether offense is enough to diminish MarsupiaL’s overall chops. Just listen to “The Chameleon,” a dreamy acoustic piece that evolves into what could become a soaring festival anthem. The two singers harmonize smoothly on “So Far Away,” and the too-short instrumental workout “Swamp Cats” reveals MarsupiaL’s aggressive edge.

It’s worth noting that MarsupiaL includes “live and studio engineer” J. Ferris in the band’s lineup list and group photos – an admirable gesture, considering Ferris makes this independently released album sound better than some major-label titles.

Track Listing:
1) We’re Paralyzed
2) Feet on the Wire
3) Curtains
4) Surrender to the World
5) Swamp Cats
6) The Chameleon
7) The Truth Is A Lighthouse
8) So Far Away
9) Ticking Away
10) Jackalope
11) You’ll See the Light

Added: May 23rd 2008
Reviewer: Michael Popke
Score:
Related Link: Official Marsupial Web Site
Hits: 109
Language: english


It’s Curtains for MarsupiaL
Asheville progressive rock band returns to Murphy’s Friday

May 22, 2008 EDITION

By Jeff Eason

MarsupiaL, an Asheville band with Boone roots, will perform at Murphy’s Friday. The band just released its third studio album, Curtains.
Western North Carolina has a lot of musical traditions in the bluegrass, gospel and country music. Progressive rock, however, is not the first style that comes to mind when telling your friends about the music scenes in Boone and Asheville.

One of the nation’s brightest stars in the prog-rock scene, MarsupiaL, calls both Boone and Asheville home. The band had its beginnings when several of the members were students at Appalachian State University. The band relocated to Asheville several years ago and has become one of the most popular rock acts in western North Carolina.

MarsupiaL will return to Boone for a show at Murphy’s Restaurant and Pub on Friday, May 23rd at 10:30 p.m. Admission is $5 per person.

In addition to making a name for itself through powerful live shows, MarsupiaL is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most thoughtful recording artists in the prog-rock field, earning comparisons to national acts such as Umphrey’s McGee.

The band features Ian Reardon on guitar and vocals, Forrest Smith on guitar, Brad Mehder on bass and Chris Carter on drums and vocals. The foursome display an intuitive ability to shift gears from performing complex compositions to enter into innovative improvisational passages.

MarsupiaL’s latest album is the sprawling disc, Curtains. It alternately varies from Zappa-esque instrumental tracks to emotional prog-rock, a la Pink Floyd.

The title track to Curtains starts off with the same slow dislocated alienation that made the band’s previous album, Moby Fleck, an introspective favorite. With plaintive vocals and a minor-chord guitar motif, “Curtains” builds into a shimmering prog-rock anthem.

Curtains, the band’s third full-length studio release, has quickly become a favorite on WNCW’s Arc Overnight program. This follows the success of Moby Fleck at the station, an album that landed in the top 20 regional albums for the year 2006.

Find out Friday why MarsupiaL has “created a buzz around the Southeast with an eclectic vision that melds an improv-heavy mix of jazz-rcok and progressive rock with superior melodic content.”

For more information on Friday’s show, call Murphy’s at (828) 264-5117.

Take 5

Embracing the seven-year itch, local rock band Marsupial scratches the surface of new material, some of it courtesy of two new members, on their latest disc, “Curtains.” The band unveils the album at a CD release party Saturday night at Westville Pub on Haywood Road.

Members Brad Mehder and Chris Carter spoke about the band’s new release.

Hold the jam

“Seven years ago when we started, I can see us fitting into that ‘jam band’ category sure, but now we’ve really focused on writing songs and not so much of the improv,” said bassist Mehder. “I actually don’t know how to describe us because if I say one thing, it feels like I’m leaving something else out.”

“I think each of us…

Honest Tune

“One of the hardest working and certainly most talented bands swimming in the crowded and competitive Asheville music Pool, MarsupiaL is a nimble crew achieving (and deserving) to explode onto the southern jam seas.” - Honest Tune Magazine

Relix

- On the Verge by Mick Skidmore (October 20, 2004)
“Marsupial describes itself as an “electrogroovin’ psychofusion rock band”. The band operates as a tight-knit family and has a common philosophy of crossing all available musical boundaries. In the past five years this quartet has created a buzz around the southeast U.S. with an eclectic musical vision that melds an improv-heavy mix of…”

Hittin' The Note

“Earlier this year, MarsupiaL released its sophomore studio release, Moby Fleck. A follow-up to Dancing About Architecture, which was released in 2004, Moby Fleck is a concept album that embodies the band’s group approach to creation, one that is as effective within finite strong structures as it is careening into orbit. But to peg a label on MarsupiaL would be to short-change the quartet, which is equally skilled at exploring the dark reverb of “Commence, Your Time Is Up” or easing over the light jangle of the highly accessible “Thieves in Green.” MarsupiaL’s music displays unfettered versatility, whether they are shaking out a simple rock song or digging in for a mighty sonic adventure.”