It’s an old story, but so many bands dissolve just when they’re shaking hands with accomplishment.  Missoula is no stranger to this kinda thing and in fact, I’d say it’s the common trajectory.  We’re a small scene in a small town that’s a few Starbucks shy of really being a city.  Thank gawd there’s a college here and we’re strategically placed between the Midwest and the cultural-twin-towers of Seattle and Portland or we might as well be Oklahoma with mountains.  But still, considering so many musicians in Missoula double as students, it’s not surprising to see some of the best take off for the big city before the ink dries on their MFAs.  That’s the curse with the Magic City Boys.  Turner Capehart Canty, their drummer, youngest in an East Coast punk dynasty (just google his last name) and venerable musician in his own right, is one of those folks to take flight recently.  Off to Oakland and hopefully to return (we hope!), Turner’s absence spelled an early death for a band that should’ve kept going for a hell of a lot longer.  It’s notable too that fellow “boy” June West was once a member of the local powerhouse Julie & the Wolves and their equally early end was prompted by the move of musician Julie Hurd, this time to Seattle.  So much moving.  Quit it, people.  

Their lone album, Welcome Week, is ironically titled.  I doubt it was on purpose but come on, it should’ve been called CYA For a Year.  The third “boy” in the band is Riley Wave and he was gracious enough to make the record available online in the last few days.  It’s great.  I just wish I could get it on vinyl.

Now I’m reticent to praise the internet’s job in annihilating musical regionalism but with so many influences so readily available and the education it ensures so vast and so free, a ton of bands can draw upon things they normally wouldn’t have heard of.  This is even more true with the young(er) generation.  I mean, I’m one of those people that lived a big chunk of their adolescence without an email address.  In my own lifetime it’s been both exciting and terrifying to see how much things have changed.  We had magazines and now you have streaming audio. It’s fantastic.  The Magic City Boys are younger than me.  They either had extremely hip parents or they learned how to use the internet’s potential at an early age.  I’m betting on the latter.  The jangly interplay between Wave and West’s guitars keep reminding me of the Byrds (California) while their seemingly asymmetrical song structures remind me of bands like Bird Names (Chicago).  I’m not going to assume this was intentional but musical memes have a way of traveling at increasingly impressive speeds these days.  There’s no such thing as the “Missoula” sound anymore.  Same goes for those big cities on the edges of this country.  We’re all together now in this muddy, confusing mess of combination, emulation, and choice. 

That’s not to say Welcome Week isn’t interesting.  I’d say it’s one of the strongest records to come out of Missoula in a long time.  From the get-go we’re thrust into the playfulness of June’s voice and a song (“If You Can Believe It”) that’s begging you to keep listening to it but wait, there’s a wink.  “Chalk” is even better and though I have no idea who’s doing it, that guitar work jumping in after that OH OH OH OH OH intro is why I’m comparing these guys to the Byrds.  This song is also where I’m really getting the interplay not only between Wave and West’s guitarisms but between their vocals as well.  Those two can harmonize.  June’s nearly perfect pitch and Riley’s charming almost-pitch are perfect counterpoints.

I have to say it now: lyrics are not one of those things that are that important to me about a band.  Granted, horrifically bad lyrics can be a deal-breaker (I’m looking at you, Pretty Girls Make Graves) but as long there’s an understanding from the vocalist that the way the words sound is more important than the words themselves, we’re traveling in OK territory.  Call it my Eno-centric take on music or whatever, I’m just not usually drawn to that kinda thing.  There are exceptions, of course, but when aren’t there?  It’s such an amorphous task: writing about music.  We’re pitting one medium against another.  It doesn’t really matter what I say about this album as long as I’m at least enticing you to listen to the thing.  That’s why I do this.

Back to Welcome Week?  Three words: worth your time.  Hopefully they’ll play another show before I die or at least the two remaining Missoulians in the band will do something equally exciting.  Who knows?  I wish them the best and I’d like them to know that I’m watching closely.  If June and Riley don’t make music together again they’ll be doing this town a disservice.

Welcome Week is available for download at a your price from their Bandcamp page.