Magic Magic & Me: An Assessment by Joe DiFazio.

Am I friends with Magic Magic? Semi-sorta. Sometimes I would call up Mike Hlady (drummer) to hang out. He was always with Dylan Gough (other drummer) and they were always playing Street Fighter, watching Mortal Combat the movie, or building a knife shooter out of an umbrella to pierce muffins with. John Murphy (singer) once took me to a video arcade and also tried to gyp me out of the money we made playing a show together. Demitri Swan (bassist) once video taped a consumer research study I did on condoms. Brendan Hughes (lead guitarist) I don’t know as well.

Many publications say that they are from Salem. This is wrong. They are from Dedham, a crappy, depressing suburb of Boston. The Salem thing was a hair-brained scheme thought up by their British booking agency. Many publications say they sound like Arcade Fire. This, too, is wrong. They do create gigantic and intricate sounds but are nothing like Arcade Fire. They are grittier, more accessible, better.

Their music is rhythm-based. They have two drums, a bass, and a guitar dedicated to rhythm. From this base they derive a powerful, colossal sound. Sometimes the two drummers will play the same thing just to make the beat louder and accentuate it. Slid over this is Brendan’s biting guitar, distorted and drawn out by delay pedals. Amid all this carefully planned noise is John’s anxious vocals. He sings and moves like a child who really has something to tell you, with a voice so high and desperate you can’t help but want to listen. His lyrics are weird and beautiful, ranging from becoming a jellyfish to acid to odd odes to people he loves.

Raised on every start-up indie band of the nineties such as Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, and going back a little further, The Cure, this band takes on the same sort of dark ambiance. Magic Magic is not yet signed and are in a shameful sort of limbo as a result of being from Boston instead of NYC or LA. Still, Magic Magic are making are making a name for themselves and are the next big thing from here, and hopefully soon the next big thing to grace all hipster-indie blogs. Screw Passion Pit.

-Joe DiFazio