First In Line - Magic City

Magic City - I can't remember how I first heard this Columbus, Ohio based group.  I do remember that I played them on one of my podcasts for the GaragePunk.com podcast.  (Note:  Mine can be heard by checking out my Myspace page.)  There's a gorgeous lo-fi garage rock charm to these songs.  Some of them are more about the melody.  "Does She" is a bit more upbeat, but still melodic.  "Evil" is slower and dark, but just so damned pretty.  And then there's "OH/IO".  Just a damn good time.  Yep, I'm really loving this group.

Sadly, they've gone and broken up.  Two of them - Nick (drums) & Ann (guitar/vocals) - have moved on to The True Moves, a group that concentrates more on the harder side of the garage and gets even further onto the lo-fi side.  Meanwhile, Karen (vocals/guitar/songwriting) has moved to Long Island, NY, and continues on with her other project, the absolutely amazing Dear Hearts, who sound closer to Magic City, probably because it's Karen's voice and still, I believe, her songs.  (Some of them I'm pretty damn sure about.)  Still, this duo occasionally verges on country, especially on a track like "I Really Don't Want To Know".  I'm not going to try and categorize something like "My Heart Beats So Slow", though I will say Karen's voice just makes this so perfect...The song speeds up, then...SLOWS down, everything in the right place.  The lyrics, coupled with Karen's delivery, really make me feel the emotion here.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure The Dear Hearts play much.  How to convince them to get down to it?

Besides buying some songs from the Magic City MySpace site, you can also hear them on The Real Boss Hoss Stomp-O-Lation CD, along with many other wild bands.  (Yes, including my own bunch, The Miscreants.)