Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Mrs. Magician on Thrill Me! Records




Mrs. Magician sent this in to the dirty basement which is the 7inches record shelter. It's like a reverse bomb shelter...protecting the rest of the world.
The A-Side hit the turntable and I waited for some kind of drone noise project to disturb the neighbors based on this smoking hospital patient sleeve but instead "There is no God" is sounding sweet...major blissed out vocal harmonies, a couple of trained voices...singing a hymn to...well, no one anymore. Sort of a general '60s garage combined with some more modern gazing of the shoes. A little bit Woods, when their harmony almost drives the entire song. The laid back guitar is secondary, they can throw all the weirdo samples they want into it, but the song is basically the same.
For such a heavy sentiment like the destroying of thousands of years of faith, it seems like they're making the best of it. It's not really a big deal.
Then they go and blend the slightest hint of electronics into what is definitely a reverb soaked garage '60s sort of surf with contemporary fuzz.
This track is brief, you can see it barely takes up half of the 45, you don't notice, they really pack in the loads of harmony with a little dream-pop background haze in what has to be less than two minutes. A new band called Beach Boys and Mary Chain. I have to keep getting up to start it over...my only complaint.

The B-Side title, "I'm going to hang out with the lesbians next door and drop acid" should have clued me into the psyche edge the guitar has on this one, mellowing out on waves of sustained distortion and ludes... the old Jesus and Mary Chain rears its head. They have left such a freaking impression on everyone after. Maybe they just got there first?
There's some greaser in there too, a little bit of danger...attitude; the misfits B-movie sound of the '60s. But that could be due to the sickening brightness of the A-Side. I'm jaded now.
This track is more free form, there's less melodic structure...I have to think again about those JAMC songs where you can't believe they got away with that sound the year it was released, especially the B-Sides where they weren't trying so hard for any kind of hit. Just seeing how far they could take that sound.

Mrs Magician walks that line of angry unhinged, no wave noise/feedback distortion and can't we all get along too damn catchy doobie jams. The vocals are buried in the reverb, the instrumentation is mixed even lower so this becomes a solid mass of twinkling pop where that vocal follows it's own kind of logic, thankfully not tied to the swirling feedback, sustained haze.
I could hear this working with that Slow Animal sound in a way, the Mrs. is a little happy, maybe too happy if you know what I mean. This works off the fuzz vibe in an irrational way, but then again on paper the Fresh & Onlys don't really seem like they would be as great either.
What is it with this laid back Real Estate vibe of finding that catchy groove and thinking that's enough? God dammit, it shouldn't be that easy...where's the sweat, and work?


45RPM with a punch out center, very considerate, from Thrill Me! Records. No link on their myspace, I think they want you to email them:
thrillmerecords(at)gmail.com

3 comments:

  1. Everything about this looks/seems awesome. I just emailed Thrill Me Records. I want that album cover in my collection!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice. I thought maybe that was a Johnny Got His Gun still, but it's probably from the same scary medical textbook that was the source of all xerox punk singles in the late 80s.

    ReplyDelete
  3. been hooked on this band...

    ReplyDelete