WATCH: Mac DeMarco Star as “Dave Fuck” in the Mini-Mockumentary, “BACKER”

Throughout the month of August, I saw Mac DeMarco perform live 4 different times on 4 different stages over 3 different days — twice at the Pickathon Festival in Happy Valley, Oregon, to start off the month, and 2 more times during The Bumbershoot Music & Art Festival in Seattle, to finish it off.  Each set was a little different, as far as the the setlist, but even more so with the banter and audience interaction.  I believe that the songwriter jumped off the stage to crowd surf while smoking a cigarette at half of the shows, which is a common occurrence, but the shows were all so loose that it felt as if anything could happen at any moment.  And I guess that’s the one major commonality at a Mac DeMarco show, the entire band seems to be savoring the reality that they’re able to support themselves by traveling around, fucking off, and playing music for other people, as well as for each other.  In short, these guys really seem to be enjoying themselves.

Yesterday, DeMarco tweeted a youtube link from his account with the following hashtags: #anotherdocumentary, #tinypenisman, #colekushnerhugepenis, and #backthatshitup.

https://twitter.com/Msldemarco/status/526543256382078976

I’m not sure who’s running Mac‘s account, but his previous tweet simply consisted of “#newsflash #ilovesuckingcock #ihaveatinypenis #2014” with the one before that being a tour announcement that included a really bizarre video and the hashtag #mypenisissmall.

Those of you like myself, who have seen Pitchfork‘s half-hour documentary, Pepperoni Playboy, which focuses on Demarco during the creation of his latest album, Salad Days, might understandably expect “#anotherdocumentary” to reference something along those lines.  It doesn’t.  What the link does actually redirect you to is a mini-mockumentary titled, Backer which falls just under 3 minutes and is directed by Cole Kushner (as in #colekushnerhugepenis).  In the video DeMarco puts down his guitar to play the lone character of, “Dave Fuck,” a man whose spent decades investing himself in his passion of helping to direct people while they are backing up their vehicles, rather than to perform his trademark “Jizz Jazz” music (a unique hybrid of jangly indie pop and 70s AM-GOLD), which he is known for.

As Fuck, the New York-based Canadian export sounds about as “Canadian” as we’ve ever heard him, perhaps due to a combination of his subtle accent mixed with the Trailer Park Boys-style mockumentary format of the project.  Of course, he doesn’t simply sound like a character pulled directly out of Strange Brew; also providing narration, Demarco‘s comes off more like DJ Screw recorded an interview of Buffalo Bill from Silence of The Lambs after he was placed in a witness relocation program where his voice needed to be modulated to shield his identity — that or exactly like an Amish kid who was high on ketamine that I met outside of Deer Creek Amphitheatre in a Phish lot back in July of 2000.  Backer also has a pretty sweet little dream sequence, which features an animated Mac DeMarco and which enters some Lawnmower Man territory, and ends off with Dave Fuck quoting the song Mad World by Tears For Fears.   In short, this thing is pretty fucking sweet.

Here… watch it for yourself, eh?