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Buy Central Meaner Street LP/CD
What you get: Each package contains a
high-quality 12" vinyl record and an enhanced
CD containing the album, plus bonus material
(art, photos, mp3s & live footage).
You can purchase Central Meaner Street:
Download
You can download Central Meaner Street at:
• iTunes
Buy Harsh Lenses CD
What you get: Dean's first EX~PO release: five Bedroom Anthems on CD.
You can purchase Harsh Lenses:
Download
You can download songs from Harsh Lenses at:
• iTunes
• Music Match
• Mp3
Tunes
• Napster
and most other download sites . . .
Radio Support
Here are some of the stations that have shown some support for ex~po:
Central Meaner Street
• CJAM(Windsor/Detroit, Ontario/Michigan)
• WRAS(Atlanta, Georgia)
• CFBU(St. Catharines, Ontario)
• CHUO(Ottawa, Ontario)
• CHMA(Sackville, New Brunswick)
• CJAM(Windsor, Ontario)
• CJLO(Montreal, Quebec)
• WVCR(Loudonville, New York)
Harsh Lenses Point Homeward
• WBRS(Waltham, MA)
• WMFO(Medford, MA)
• WSMU(North Dartmouth, MA)
• FNX(Boston,MA & Dover NH)
• WGDR(Plainfield, VT)
• WNYU(New York, NY)
• CFRC(Kingston, Ontario)
• CHUO(Ottawa, Ontario)
• CFRE(Mississauga, Ontario)
• CKMS(Waterloo, Ontario)
• CKXU(Lethbridge, Alberta)
• CHMA(Sackville, New Brunswick)
• CFMH(Saint John, New Brunswick)
• CFOU(Trois-Rivières, Québec)
• CFCR(Saskatoon, SK)
• CJLY (Nelson,
BC)
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CENTRAL MEANER STREET
Central Meaner Street represents the culmination of four years of life-experience, writing and recording for Toronto-based musician Dean Marino (under the moniker EX~PO). Dean describes EX~PO as: “well crafted indie pop, filtered through sunny vocal arrangements, fuzz-guitar, punchy rhythms with psychedelic ‘studio head’ tendencies.”
Like most kids, Dean grew up on his parent’s record collection. These stacks of vinyl and 8-tracks contained typical British invasion and West-Coast pop but his folks also had a penchant for oddities like the Velvets, obscure soul and jazz. Unlike most kids, music completely saturated Dean’s life. His father played in several Brit influenced garage bands with names like “the NYC Teens” and “the Spiders,” while his grandfather on his mother’s side was a prominent jazz bassist.
Inevitably, Dean started his first band (Lucid Dream, which became Smile) in high school with his brother Pete and current collaborator Jay Sad. Influenced by the local indie and punk scene, Pete and Dean went on to form Knacker, a pop-via-punk outfit, which after a string of minor successes and two albums, went on hiatus in 2004. In that same year, Dean released Harsh Lenses Point Homeward under the EX~PO moniker. This limited-run release garnered critical acclaim,
with wide-ranging comparisons to Belle and Sebastian, Mark Bolan, Sonic Youth, Wilco, Elliot Smith and Sloan. Upon listening to Harsh Lenses or Central Meaner, one will notice that Dean has expanded his influences beyond his inherited and teenage roots and while one can undoubtedly hear George Harrison and Brian Wilson in his work, one can also find heavy traces of Sid Barrett, Wayne Coyne, Kevin Shields, Jason Pierce, John McEntire and Elvis Costello.
In addition to fronting EX~PO, Dean also provides electric guitar for the Toronto-based roots rock collective Yonder and is a well-known studio engineer and record producer. He co-owns Chemical Sound Recording Studio with long-time collaborator Jay Sad.
Central Meaner Street comes as a limited CD/LP package with high-quality 12” vinyl, stunning artwork (hand-drawn by Dean himself) and a digital copy on enhanced CD featuring bonus tracks, live footage and photos. It is available here for order and as mp3s on iTunes.
Praise For "Harsh
Lenses:"
"Marino's sleepy voice is at times reminiscent of a
Marc Bolan with more gusto, particularly on last track “Liddy”,
which isn’t a bad thing at all."
Soul Shine
(read the full review at www.soulshine.ca
)
"Marino treads the fine line of those guitar chords
that sounds perfect together. His voice drifts almost
effortlessly through the song. The song deserves a friendly
sigh when it’s done, leaving the listener a little
happier."
CD Reviews
(read the full review at www.cdreviews.com
)
"His velvety voice, bright guitars and appealingly
tangled-up melodies make it easy to lose focus on the music
and simply let it flow through you."
Splendid Magazine
(read the full review at www.splendidezine.com
)
"There's enough beauty to fill the coldest heart within
the five tracks"
Russell Barker
(read the full review at Russell's excellent website www.russellsreviews.co.uk )
"He (Dean) creates a dreamy, complex sound for his smart songs ... a lovely little EP ... "
Luna Kafe
(Read the full review here)
"...creative use of instruments and soulful sounding voice, laid back, never rushed and draped with pop sensibilities ... a headphone experience, enriched with Elliot Smith styled vibe and atmosphere..."
Alternative Rock Review
(Read the full review here)
Dean maintains his myspace account. Go there for the
latest news/rants/uploads/downloads: "ex
tilde po on myspace."
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