Tony Mac - You Think Too Much CS

I was fortunate enough to come across Tony through another member of the excellent group he moonlights in, ATM, via a switched on LA mate. I don’t know a great deal about Tony beyond the fact that he’s an Englishman (or someone who is very good at affecting an accent) who has lived in Venice, California for a good deal of time and that he is behind the fascinating, small-proximity radio station Venice FM. Servicing the few blocks surrounding Mac’s small bungalow, the station has gained a cult rep, extending to ol’ mate from The Strokes who handpicked Tony to host a version of the station for a recent, online iteration of GTA. The whole thing is quite bizarre really.

More importantly (to me at least), Tony contributed the Tony side to the appropriately titled Tony / James split 7" with James Sinclair (Live For Each Moon) released on LA's Tears Of Joy imprint in 2021. In an otherwise fairly dull year for new tunes I dugged the dang out of it. It proved to be one of the more rotated pieces of plastic I encountered all year and even got praise from Lord Coley of Wire Manor 'imself! Wowee.

There is definitely an overwhelming sense of cheap throughout You Think Too Much, and I mean this in the best possible sense. Due to Tony's scousing vox, there's a connection to the gloriest days of the early UK synth punk movement. Another keen listener heard a correlation with Delroy Edwards' Hanging At The Beach when lending YTTM an ear and I can't help but feel it rings, at least a little, true in its few beat tracks. 

Tony makes these short vignettes with very little need for much equipment, any software or much in the way of heady narrative themes. Topics covered include going to the shop for a beer and scratch card (Chippy Chippy), yard work (Raking The Leaves) and the evening before Friday (Thursday Night). What he lacks in elaborate constructs, he makes up for with his own indelibly thick sense of humour, equal parts silly and misanthropic. The more I listen to YTTM the more it makes sense.