The Magic City develop a power-pop and punk science on ‘A Series of Chemicals’ - out 2/23.
When The Magic City arrived on the scene late last year, part of the modern rock bandʼs grand introduction revolved around its moniker, taken from an imagined fictional metropolis that exists mentally as a combination of their home of Boston and spiritual base of London. But any great cityʼs reputation is built upon its various neighborhoods, with their own distinct style and rhythm, and the songs of The Magic City reside in similar fashion. On Friday, February 23, the quartet takes us to another part of town with new single “A Series of Chemicals,” arriving exactly a week before they perform live at The Cantab in Cambridge on March 1.
Where last fallʼs provocative debut single “Roadrunner Vs. Your Mother” leaned in on British Invasion inspiration and a poignant dose of Cool Britannia set to seduce and stir, “A Series of Chemicals” brings it back home, drawing on several generations of American punk and power-pop. And like fellow Boston heroes The Cars, The Magic City now reveals itself as a band with more than one frontman, allowing bassist and producer Mike Quinn – who wrote the first demo of the song before bringing it to the band – to take the mic and drive home the vocal charge.
“We have been working to develop an exciting and diverse catalog of songs that we hope will inspire repeated listens,” says Quinn. “We want to be your favorite band.”
With a heartfelt flair and power-pop punch, “A Series of Chemicals” not only expands the sonic palette of The Magic City, but also its rich storylines and gravitational world-building. The band first formed in early 2022, just as the pandemic haze began to li, with Quinn rounded out by a trio of longtime collaborators in guitarist Adam Anderson, guitarist and vocalist David Jackel, and drummer Ken Marcou. But where “Roadrunner Vs. Your Mother” zeroed in on the human element of relationships, family, and getting older; this new single delves deeper into our shared chemistry – and how it shapes our behavior with others.
“I am not a scientist, but I am fascinated by science,” Quinn says. “The disciplines of chemistry and biology, and how they differ and overlap with each other is interesting to me. This song explores the idea that we make our decisions not because of free will, but in the various biological and chemical reactions going on in our brains and bodies... the billions of bacteria in concert with and/or at odds with the hormones we produce and the drugs we ingest. Is it our fault when we make bad decisions? Or is it due to bacterial behavior in our gut or an imbalance of chemicals in our heads? The protagonist in this song blames the chemicals while also praising them.”
Quinn admits that The Magic City were keen on following up on the debut single with something more up-tempo, and “A Series of Chemicals,” already a live show favorite, fit the bill with its musical DNA linked to a lineage of MC5, Television, Matthew Sweet, and the Pixies. It came together quickly in the studio – “just under 24 hours,” Quinn notes – aer the band workshopped his early demo. It was engineered and mixed by Quinn, and recorded at his Bluetone Studio in Somerville as well as Shave Media in Allston. Additional engineering was completed by Jackel and David Grabowski.
“I couldnʼt get the song out of my head, which I thought made it a good candidate for a single,” Jackel adds. “When Mike first showed us this song in practice, it was a ʻMarvin Berryʼs band keeping up with Marty McFlyʼ situation, in that we followed Mikeʼs lead and it all clicked. I came up with guitar parts that I knew I would enjoy playing live: dirty chords on the choruses, and reggae-style backbeat hits on the verses.”
Offering up a change-of-pace in a bandʼs second single feels right at home for The Magic City, who first assembled over a shared love of Britpop, post-punk, classic alternative, glam, goth, UK indie and the other sounds that raised us. With this new project, the quartet has taken pieces of its past and/or other affiliated projects – The Daily Pravda, Reverse, The Daylilies, Graveyard of the Atlantic, and others – and craed something that feels fresh and new without ever losing sight of how we got here in the first place. Part of that is never allowing the listener to get too comfortable; The Magic City is already a band that defies expectation.
“We definitely intended this band to have multiple songwriters,” Quinn notes. “And up to this point the primary songwriter has ended up singing lead. But I wouldnʼt hesitate to write a song for one of the other guys to sing lead on.”
Jackel agrees with the sentiment, and while heʼs known to Boston audiences mostly as a frontman in the aforementioned Daily Pravda, heʼs enjoying this new creative arrangement. “Thatʼs part of the joy of this band for me,” he says. “I love that we can write songs with different lead singers, duets, and three-part harmonies. Having multiple songwriters and vocalists adds more depth to each song and new dimensions to our body of work, and it gives me a chance to catch my breath during live shows. My fantasy is that our dynamic becomes a functional version of what the Beatles were doing in the late ʻ60s.”
One new neighborhood at a time.
Media Contact: Please direct all press inquiries to Michael Marotta at michael@knyvet.com, and reach The Magic City directly at info@themagiccityofficial.com.
