Stream: ‘Love’ by Dark Rock Duo MUSCLE AND MARROW
As they prepare for the release of their new full-length Love on May 27th via The Flenser, Portland’s MUSCLE AND MARROW have unveiled their ethereal and sorrowful third album single “Bereft Body.”
Formed in 2013 by Kira Clark (voice, guitar) and Keith McGraw (drums, sounds), MUSCLE AND MARROW’s debut album The Human Cry (listen here) was released in June, 2014 by Belief Mower Records. Its songs were arresting and hysterical, but also distinctly feminine. With Clark’s voice alternating between plaintive wails and guttural moans that soared over waves of pulsing drums and stifling guitars. MUSCLE AND MARROW toured across the United States and in October, 2015, the duo posted up at Machines with Magnets (The Body, Lightning Bolt, Marissa Nadler) in Providence, RI to record what was to become their sophomore album, Love. The band took their time in the studio and laid down seven tracks that delve further into deep electronic territories, but still incorporate the familiar droning guitars, ethereal vocals and tribal drums throughout.
This new collection of songs are their most powerful and fragile yet, bringing the band to the forefront of dark experimental music. Lyrically, Love is powerful and more realized, with elements of joy, strength and anger present. During the album’s writing process, Clark lost a family member and much of the lyrical content focuses on loss, but also on love in general. How to love better, more and at all, and what happens when someone else loves you—the trap of that love but also the freedom it affords. Along with themes of death and loss, Love touches on feminism and female archetypes, a topic that Kira Clark is very interested in. Comments Clark:
“It’s cathartic and alluring for me to delve into feminine madness because, of course, that character is inside me somewhere all of the time and to give her permission to surface in my art is powerful.”
MUSCLE AND MARROW live:
7/5/16 – Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
7/6/16 – Neurolux, Boise, ID
7/8/16 – Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT
7/9/16 – Lost Lake Lounge, Denver, CO
7/10/16 – Reverb Lounge, Omaha, NE
7/11/16 – 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN
7/12/16 – Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
7/13/16 – El Club, Detroit, MI
7/14/16 – The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON
7/15/16 – La Sala Rossa, Montreal, QC
7/16/16 – Half Moon, Hudson, NY
7/19/16 – Great Scott, Boston, MA
7/20/16 – Aurora, Providence, RI
7/21/16 – Bowery Ballroom, New York City, NY
7/22/16 – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA
7/24/16 – DC9, Washington DC
7/25/16 – Cat’s Cradle Backstage, Carrboro, NC
7/26/16 – The Earl, Atlanta, GA
7/27/16 – Gasa Gasa, New Orleans, LA
7/29/16 – The Sidewinder, Austin, TX
7/30/16 – Rubber Gloves, Denton, TX
8/1/16 – Valley Bar, Phoenix, AZ
8/2/16 – Casbah, San Diego, CA
8/3/16 – The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
8/4/16 – The Chapel, San Francisco, CA
8/5/16 – Henry Miller Library, Big Sur, CA
8/7/16 – Cobalt, Vancouver, BC, CA
8/8/16 – Barboza, Seattle, WA
