We were dismayed to see reportage at Pitchebrity and Philfork regarding the at least conceptual demise of Psychedelphia luminaries Mazarin. The story goes that the band recently found itself at the business end of a legal threat from some unheard-of nimrods operating out of Long Island, NY, demanding exclusive use of the band name Mazarin, as they apparently have their own band operating under that nom de rock and have for some time. Rather than embracing the aggravation and footing the bill for fighting the legal action, Mazarin (the cool band, not the nimrods) bandleader Quentin Stoltzfus has decided to retire the name and the current iteration of the act. The band will play a final show at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia Dec. 2, and they are taking requests via email (hit the links above for more details on that, and make sure to request "Chasing The Girl," because that song is amazing). We gave the band's most recent set, 2005's We're Already There, five stars in this review for Junkmedia. The set is a high water mark few bands will ever achieve, and the eerie title track is among the finest songs released in 2005; as such we are linking to an MP3 of that tune and others below. Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that the band is offering a free download of the heretofore unreleased tune "Your Advice" as a parting gift. MP3 goodness and links to all the relevant hotness below.
Mazarin -- "Your Advice" [New/Previously Unreleased]
[just click]
Mazarin -- "We're Already There" -- We're Already There
Mazarin -- "The New American Apathy" -- We're Already There
[right click and save as]
Stream all three of Mazarin's full-lengths via Rhapsody:
Mazarin -- Watch It Happen [2000]
Mazarin -- A Tall-Tale Story Line [2001]
Mazarin -- We're Already There [2005]
Mazarin: InterWeb | MySpace | Flickr
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Total bummer. Great band, they was.
ReplyDeletea bummer indeed. i really liked mazarin - i always felt like they never got their due. hopefully they'll continue on in some form or another.
ReplyDeleteWell, fortunately Stoltfus will continue on under a different name, and perhaps with even some of the same cadre. I don't imagine with the world will be too long without a new record, although I guess it took four years to get the last one, so I could be way off there.
ReplyDeleteI think there's more to this then what's been published already. Although the original Mazarin's records are out of print I found tons of their material on-line.
ReplyDeleteLotta history there.
They seem to still be very active.
I'm sure great effort was made to settle this before the hammer fell.
Looking forward to the full story.
As a music fan I listened to their stuff and it's great vintage RnR.
Hey, who knows?
Vidman
Vidman, one gets the sense from your comments that you know more about what went on from the Long Islanders' point of view. Even so, bygones, it sounds like Mr. Stoltzfus has moved on, as I imagine the Long Island band has as well. Whether what the latter act did ends up being bad karma or good karma, they'll see.
ReplyDeleteI know the real Mazarin, they are to this day Rnr legends of Long Island, members of the band have been active in the bis, playing with Enrique Iglesias, Billy Joel and tons of other peepz, the only reason they aren't better known on the net, is because the generation of people who listened to them A) are old and don't really use the net. B) Have moved on from that point in their lives and don't have to ramble on about the good old days when they rocked out to Mazarin.
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