Makeout Videotape

2008–2009: Formation and Heat Wave!

DeMarco finished high school in Edmonton in 2008 and moved west to Vancouver, settling in the Killarney neighbourhood, where he worked at a coffee shop and recorded songs alone in his garage. One of the first was "Heat Wave!", which became the title track of the project's debut release. Calder, a friend of DeMarco's from Edmonton, also moved to Vancouver and took on drumming duties; the pair had been playing together since they were both about fifteen. DeMarco said Calder joined "to make some kind of an official physical presence", with other friends filling in as needed. Jen Clement, a Calgary musician who had met DeMarco when her punk band Puberty toured to Vancouver, shared the drumming duties with Calder, and the title track of Heat Wave! was reviewed as featuring Natalie Gitt on tom-toms.

The self-released Heat Wave! EP appeared in 2009 and sold out its run of 500 copies. Reviewing it that November for The Georgia Straight, the paper's critic rated it four and a half stars, wrote that its "ultra-fuzzed-out lo-fi will keep you toasty", and praised the "thumping blues swagger" of the opener "Slush Puppy Love", the jangly title track and the tape-deterioration hiss of "I Guess the Lord Is in New York", a Harry Nilsson cover; the paper also noted that "the local duo knows its way around a pop hook" and named "Basketball Kids" its recommended download. Discorder called the songs "charming, catchy, jangly gems with melodies and hooks as strong as any in your parents' '60s pop songs, just drenched in distortion and fuzz". CKUW Stylus later described the pair of 2009–2010 releases as "quite the beachside party", recorded cheaply enough that "the chords ring in, pushing needles into the red".

Late in 2009 the project signed to Unfamiliar Records, a Toronto independent whose roster also included Japandroids, Brasstronaut and No Gold. Label co-manager Edo Van Breemen said he had been won over after seeing a show at the Astoria: "I think of them as a garage-y sound, but with very sophisticated songwriting. Personally, I think [front-man] Mac [DeMarco] is a bit of a songwriting genius… [h]e thinks it's pop music, [but] he uses a lot of weird jazz chords." DeMarco later described the signing as a chance encounter on the street — "I was like 'Hey, man, you should come to my show tomorrow'" — after which he asked to go on tour and was told to go with Japandroids. The resulting Canada–US tour with the labelmates followed that autumn, with the pair travelling in DeMarco's mother's Dodge Neon.

2010: Eating Like a Kid, Weird Meats and touring

A second EP, Eating Like a Kid, followed in early 2010, alongside a seven-inch single, Weird Meats, issued by Unfamiliar with a track taken from the sold-out Heat Wave! EP, and a mixtape that the project sold only at its shows. Songs were circulated through Myspace and Bandcamp, and cassettes appeared on labels including Totally Disconnected. A further EP, Bossa Yeye, and the demos collection Eyeballing were also issued. The project recorded quickly and cheaply in this period: Eating Like a Kid was cut at a house on Powell Street in Vancouver, and other releases were made at the Killarney garage, with later material recorded at DeMarco's mother's house in Edmonton.

Reviewing Eating Like a Kid in February 2010, the Canadian publication Weird Canada — which ran its reviews in English and French — called it "a mesmerizing departure" from the project's earlier work, with hooks that "are intelligently buried" and melodies "floating atop rivers of reverberating guitars". CKUW Stylus heard DeMarco "going in so many directions" across the year, from the surf pop of "Swim Dream" to the 1960s doo-wop of "Deborah" to the "sober indie pop" of "Because I'm a Boy".

In June 2010 the project played Vancouver's Music Waste festival; previewing the event, Scout Magazine called them "one of Vancouver's best" and noted their 2 a.m. set at Goody. That April the project had toured western Canada, including a Winnipeg date opening for You Say Party at the Royal Albert. Reviewing an earlier Winnipeg show at the Lo Pub, CKUW Stylus described DeMarco stopping mid-song to coax a broken reverb pedal back to life, and ending a cover of Nilsson's "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York" by yodelling over Calder's drums; the magazine noted that a tom and a snare were the project's entire drum kit.

2010–2011: Ying Yang

In December 2010 the project released Ying Yang. The release was unconventional: DeMarco uploaded six tracks to Bandcamp without warning, then circulated a 13-track version among friends, offering the full set to anyone who emailed him. He explained that the sudden release was a way of breaking a long silence: "We didn't make very much money and I was just broke and tired, so I came back and lived at my mom's house for a while and didn't do much of anything. I just felt like telling the Internet we didn't die." Asked whether the six-track upload was an EP or an album, he said: "I just uploaded those ones and people started saying, 'EP? Full-length?' I was like, 'Ah, whatever.'"

Exclaim! noted that the earlier EP had been recorded by DeMarco alone, while the new material also featured Calder on drums and had "less swampy" production, most noticeably on the vocals. Reviewing the album, the same publication singled out "Island Groovies" and the "woozy, experimental" "Brian", finding the fidelity "distinctly clearer than the band's murky early work, with the hooks coming out sharper and more distinct". Now rated it three stars out of four, writing that "while there are few sonic surprises on Ying Yang, Makeout Videotape deserve a listen just for their songwriting chops", and naming "Because I'm a Boy" its top track.

By March 2011 DeMarco was telling interviewers he was "already kind of sick of it", having worked on the material for about a year and a half. Asked about the release, he said the plan had been a cassette first and vinyl through the label later: "We [just independently] released Ying Yang on a cassette. We might release it with our label on vinyl."

2011: Montreal and the end of the project

The project wound down as DeMarco and Calder relocated to Montreal in February 2011, after a spell back in Edmonton. DeMarco cited cost and proximity among the reasons: "It's cheaper than Vancouver. It's nice and close to Toronto, New York [and] Chicago." He began recording and performing under his own name, later explaining that the decision was partly about the name itself: "By the time I got to Montreal I thought, 'Oh my god my band is called Makeout Videotape!' It's pretty hard to tell your grandparents that name… I figured I might as well change the name to my own, since it gives you a bit of freedom, and people don't think you're a band anymore." He recorded Rock and Roll Night Club and posted it to Bandcamp; Captured Tracks founder Mike Sniper heard the recordings and then saw the video for Ying Yang's "Only You", recalling: "I was really into the tracks, so then I saw the video for 'Only You' and I knew right then I'd have to sign this guy."

2015: Reissue

Ying Yang received its first vinyl release on 20 August 2015 through Thursday Friday, in a limited edition of 1,200 12-inch copies. The reissue was reported by Pitchfork, NME, DIY, The Line of Best Fit and Exclaim!, among others. DIY described the album as "the last of five records released by the band in just one year".

Aftermath

"Only You", the second track on Ying Yang, followed DeMarco into his solo career and became one of the project's most enduring songs; Canadian press continued to identify him as the musician who "used to live in Vancouver and performed as Makeout Videotape". Calder, the project's drummer, went on to a solo career on Captured Tracks and also recorded as Mold Boy and Collage Party; BeatRoute noted that he had previously played in Edmonton "as part of other bands (notably Makeout Videotape with Mac DeMarco)". Asked in 2013 whether he tired of being questioned about his former collaborators, Calder said: "You never really feel nervous playing other people's music. If you screw up, it's totally all their fault and you're fine."