Performer Magazine
As a follow-up to 2007's Motorcade, the band's full-length debut, [The Remote Controller Absorbs the Place] ups the ante for synth-based pop by evoking emotionally resonant melodies and intelligent, politically adept lyrics that rival the best of folk classics.

Classical Geek Theatre
On "Favorite Sun," the first track of Thailand's new EP The Remote Controller Absorbs the Place, Thailand lays out the perfect introduction for their sound: structure and passion in a deadlocked duel, pushing on each other, back and forth. Both sides come back from near defeat at one point or another, and neither one wins in the end, an end that comes about four or five songs too soon.

Berkeley Place
Marc Linquist is, frankly, one of the best indie rock (new new wave) songwriters performing today. He's a fantastic abstract lyricist....He writes powerful music as well, and his bandmates Jonah Flicker (on guitars) and Staci Roark (synths, vocals) are perfect by his side, all of them playing together, incredibly tight. The band manages to be lucid and soaring without being shoegazy, and their debut album, Motorcade, was my pick for the third best indie album of 2007.

Feed Your Head
[Thailand's] catchy, clean, post-punk indie-rock sound is contrasted with some really thoughtful lyric writing....I was especially impressed with the song "Heartland Failure" (gotta love the title) which isn't so much a protest song (is that a dirty word...tooooo sixties?) as a current events song, where the anger is replaced by a certain objectivity....It illustrates so well how painful it is to be angry at your country.

Rock Sellout
What I've always loved about this band is that every release sounds like they spent a month with my record collection before heading into the studio. The key ingredients are included in the recipe, but the dish merely reminds...it doesn't bore the senses. Wire, Bowie, Roxy Music, The Fall, you get the picture. Marc Linquist also has a way with words that makes you feel a little smarter after experiencing what he shares.

Bows+Arrows

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Thailand
The Remote Controller Absorbs the Place

1. Favorite Sun
2. Down in the Trenches
3. The Chronic Sigh
4. Heartland Failure
5. Control Control

Recorded, produced and mixed by Thailand in the fall and winter of 2007/2008 (and into the spring) in an old Craftsman in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California.

Mastered by Dave Cooley

The players:
Jonah Flicker (guitars)
Marc Linquist (vocals, beats, guitars, synths, melodica)
Staci Roark (synths, vocals)

Songs by M. Linquist (BMI)
(c) and (p) Thailand 2008

Arts & crafts by S. Roark
Disc design by Bill Green

Thanks to our friends, families and loves, in memory of things we've lost, with apologies to all we've offended.


Favorite Sun
Once you see the blackness isn't physically easy
Take it as a mission, we got jumps to make
Here we go. This is the jump.
Listening to the evening calm, making room for our wickedest thoughts
A few get our phones to shine
It's been hours in this light, they know no shame, what have they done?
Passing through a minefield home, dreaming up a little island song
Now it's the time of night for settling in
They'll take another bite of the light
Another day and I don't know what have they done with my favorite sun?
Then they got all those rules, now you know it's a sign of youth
Only song that they're missing is a fight song
Don't let them try it, don't leave them to fight
I know it's a drag, but we'll eclipse them someday
It took me days to appear out in the shade of my favorite sun
With all their small cameras on, favorite sun
Their arms linked up and they're pulling me away

Down in the Trenches
You look great now how's your coma?
Sugar and dough and we're all bleached out
Check the body count, look you dropped ten more
Does it feel like we're down in the trenches?
Midnight in the business park
Slave vacation sleep in your car
Looks like there's a fight for manager
Does it feel like we're down in the trenches?
There's a little place we can all stay
It's a mild estate, call it Willow Traces
They come with cherub faces and ready-made window shades
But it's already dark in your darkest places, better get inside my love
It's already dark in the creeping hour, better wait till the morning sun
You look great now how's that coma?
Check the body count, look you dropped twenty more
Does it feel like we're down in the trenches?
This is our cartoon heart

The Chronic Sigh
She flash out those baroque eyes
Sometimes it gets too hot inside this old fortress
Feels like hell but she looks all right
Now we got the chronic sigh for the time
And she comes and she comes but she's already gone
All the fires all the fires all the chimes all around
She stands up on pylon thighs
Sometimes it gets too hot inside this old fortress
And she comes and she comes but she's already gone
All the fires all the fires all the chimes all around
All the shame all the shame all the unanswered lines
All the wires all the wires are they strangling us
And the disturbed dreams and the fiery heat
And she comes through the light and she begs for relief
From the years from the years all the years in between

Heartland Failure
This is something like a bust, now we're just gonna lose all self-control
Suddenly come barreling from all our foxholes
We let them come, they brought the terrible throes
The warm blood shots and the luxury box for life
Already got too many prayers on the mountain
Take me on top that ol' mountain of karma
'Cause when it comes it comes like a car bomb
It was at least it was at least it was emotional
One more year hating your country
One more year tearing your hearts in two
(Our hearts stopped beating...)
But in five more years while we're acting the fool, executive crimes afoot
Give it five more years, we always act the fool
Come on, it's a crime it's a crime it's a time bomb
Look they've come to save you all, they're gonna save you all
The circus come to town, they're so colorful and all
With sirens on the shore, hear the sirens on the shore
They're gonna save you, just hang on hang on
One more year blasting your stereos
One more year drowning out the terrible truth
(Our hearts stopped beating...)

Control Control
This is just a reckless mistake
Going out in the present tension just a voluntary heartache
It's all plastic man plastic man, keep those old-town thoughts to yourself
But I'm here and I'm now and I just want to scream my heart out
It comes back to control control
You feel like you got nothing left to say
Just get it out get it out, there's no time left to tarry on
It's all plastic man plastic man, keep those old-town thoughts to yourself
You pick up this fight and get caught down in the sodium blight
It comes back to control control
It's all plastic man plastic man, you're a child such a child such a child
You pick up this fight and get caught down in what's left of this life
It comes back to control control

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The Remote Controller...EP extras

Outtakes:
Dust Storm
Barely Functional

Alternate takes:
Down in the Trenches
Control Control

Mastered by nobody
Saxophone played by J. Flicker


Dust Storm
Guess your many years were justified many years for the fiends
Many years for the fiends all the wars they do without listening
Take your men home now you're justified
Take them home to the trials now you're justified
When the leaders of the world are the false profiteers and they bleed us God told 'em to
I hope you get all right I feel for you
Maybe four more years with the wild-eyed
It gets uglier down in the bog always uglier down in the bog
Call around here for the ghost of you call around town for the ghost of you
They took so much gold from you in the dust storm
If you don't come at it go insane you don't combat its golden shape
One more fear the golden savior
All the dust unsettled falls like your trust in a god
All the time couldn't see through holes hear the frenzied alarms
Now we're all frayed and busting apart like your trust in your god
Walk the light home now you're justified
Take your soul through the wall now you're justified
When the leaders of the world are the false profiteers and they bled you God told 'em to
They took so much gold from you in the dust storm

Barely Functional
Maybe this is destruction all right
Through the miracle of modern boredom
Now I'm clicking along the old drug gets you a stand-up man now
Instamatic flash is all I can make out
Hanging on the sad light of '75 now
Got to sing a ritual song got to feel the work in it all
Want to be reactionable but I'm barely functional
Just like them it's militaristic with a smile
Just like them it's over-simplistic it's a mantra
They come for the culture they come for the culture wars
It's toxic enough I wish you'd give it a shove and get on
It's a terrible display with these awful streaks and impulses
Strung yourself in a corner – heart, we should get up
We chew the world chew the world and we spit out spit out
May you chew the world may it always find you
I heard you really got a fright this time yeah
Spit out spit out the lungs you're a child you're a child