Childhood friends from the East side of Manhattan, Marc Philippe Eskenazi and Mark Sanger met Casey Smith while playing in the NYC cult-favorite and Shindig! party house band The Sexy Magazines. The three became great friends as the group gained a great deal of experience opening for bands such as Iggy Pop, Big Star, The Strokes, and The Mooney Suzuki. Though the group was unsigned, the Sexy Magazines were known for their raucous live show, and were thus invited to play renowned festivals such as Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival, South by Southwest and most notably, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in the year 2005.
It seemed that the boys’ wet dream was becoming a wet reality, but in fact it had become a wet and sticky mess. The group eventually broke up, and anyway it had not offered the three as much of a creative outlet as they desired.
In the interim period, the three boys played only one show: opening for Enon at the Shindig! party under the short-lived moniker/pun of sorts, The Ex-y Magazines (with Sexy Magazines drummer Brion Isaacs). Mark Sanger finished earning his degree creative writing and such at the Gallatin school of NYU, and Casey Smith began working as a commercial composer for one of the top jingle houses in New York City. And lastly, after about two years of playing bass for The Mooney Suzuki, (for whom The Sexy Magazines had been openers) Marc Philippe Eskenazi returned to Harvard where he had been studying government.
When the boys decided to start writing songs together again in the summer season of 2006, the dynamic was magical. I mean simply magical- I mean mothafuckin’ magical! From there, the songs began to improve and take on their own distinct sound, with Marc Philippe and Mark growing more comfortable as singers and songwriters, and Casey developing ways to capture the sound in the studio. The three began to feel comfortable leaving behind their older, somewhat moldier songs in favor of developing newer, edible ones. It was awesome?
In the midst of recording what would later become their self-titled debut EP (now available for purchase over the world wide web), Marc Philippe Eskenazi was asked to join the Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. on the road in support of Albert’s solo album “Yours to Keepâ€. The band then met and began work with Greg Lattimer, who had just finished production on Albert’s record. Greg mixed Medium Cool’s EP using tools generally used (but not exclusively intended) for mixin’ it up, slappin’ it around, and overall rough housing… a lot. The result is a master’s peace.
In conclusion, Medium Cool is kicking ass all over New York City with new bass player and old friend Jonah Green, who played with Marc and Mark in their first ever grade school band circa 1995, and Tim McCoy, who you might know from his drum sticking in the band Isles as well former band The Natural History. Come and join us at our next show!!!
Sincerely,
George Burns
CEO, Heaven
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