Making Marks are a Norwegian four-piece that play the kind of chirpy, unfashionable and hooky sounding indie pop that just oozes innocence. Press play on the stream of their debut taster song Hard To Be Good and you’ll be transported into a world of choppy guitars, brassy riffs, the 1994 winter Olympics and a questioning chorus: “Why does it have to be so hard to be good? When everybody says that’s what you should, at least I’d like to say I did the best I could, but there must have been something that I misunderstood.” It’s the kind of zestfully twee indie that brings to mind the more upbeat and toe tapping moments of Belle and Sebastian and it will probably make even your grumpy granddad want to get out of his chair and have a little dance.
It’s a fine start as a debut single, but actually it’s only a debut of sorts. Because Making Marks consist of four fifths of a previous band with possibly the most awful name in history; My Little Pony. My Little Pony had been making music since 2007, having released a number of records and playing shows all over the world, including at South by South West. However, with one member departed a band re-brand was decided upon, the group deciding on a new moniker from the title of their own 2011 album. We quite like this idea. Imagine for instance if Elton John had renamed himself Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy or Paul McCartney renamed himself Kisses On The Bottom.
So now we have Making Marks. A new band that are actually an old band, a sort of Dr Who like regeneration perhaps? Their debut single Ticket Machine is due in October, but for now grab this free download of Hard To Be Good. It might be hard to, but it is.
Making Marks - Hard To Be Good
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