I first met Dean Marino in 2002 just after he quit his job writing software documentation to pursue his musical career. The decision to follow a professional career in the arts is either a very noble endeavour, or something really, really stupid to do. Fortunately for Dean, the former is where his story begins. Aside from having a solo music career (EX~PO), Dean is also co-owner of Chemical Sound Recording Studio in Toronto. Chemical Sound is known for its big room, its collection of eclectic gear, its vintage analogue sound, and the engineering and co-production skills of its two owners, Dean Marino and Jay Sadlowski.

Chemical Sound is well acquainted with the likes of Tokyo Police Club, Ruby Coast and the Born Ruffians. Soon the studio will start work on the new C’mon 7-inch early next year.

Over coffee Dean told me that he was recently working on a song for an upcoming Warp Records compilation where Warp artists cover other Warp artists. He had the Born Ruffians in the studio where they were working on a cover of the Aphex Twin song, Milkman.

One of the lines in the song is “I would like some milk from the milk man’s wife’s tits”, which we listened to over and over for about 10 hours. It was an, umm, unique experience.

This past summer Dean released his second EX~PO full length, Central Meaner Street. To sum it all up, Central Meaner Street is fun to listen to. The track Banana Republic (Reprise) offers up a dreamscape-ish song about corporate greed with lots of “…mildy Latin-influenced 5/4 backbeat, backwards string section, tape loops and a “trippy” 4/4 interlude featuring heavily delayed tubular bells”. I have no idea what that all means, but I like listening to it. I feel as if Dean went into the studio with a bunch of his friends and just played around with whatever instuments happened to by lying around. When you own a recording studio, I suppose you are afforded this luxury. This is an artists album. His wife Lesley adds to the vocals and percussion and all the album artwork is done by Dean himself. It was released in June 2008 on vinyl only, but now you can pick it up digitally over at Zunior.

Here is the video for a cover of the Low trak When I Go Deaf, which isn’t on the new album, but is oftern performed live by Dean.

EX~PO Appears live @ Rancho Relaxo (Toronto), this Thursday, December 4th with William Delray and Taylor Knox. In the new year, keep an eye out for Tin Star Orphans, another one of Dean’s projects.

I can also tell you that whenever I go to an EX~PO show or party I often run into Moe Berg (The Pursuit Of Happiness). Why is this important? Well, it isn’t except that Moe and Dean are buddies, and that Moe can be found DJ’n at The Tap here in Toronto every Saturday night. That reminds me, the Panic Manual will be hosting our second Panic At The Tap at The Tap (517 Bloor West, just east of Lee’s Palace) this coming Friday night from 10-2. Yeah. We’ll be playing a good mix of brit, canadian pop tunes.

 

 Ex~Po - Banana Republic (Reprise) (Central Meaner Street, 2008): Play Now