Localized Crack Magic

If this were 2002 (or even 1992), Crack Magic would be neatly cast off as a lower-rung screamo band climbing up among the likes of The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower and The Locust. But it’s 2009, and Plot has long-since broken up and The Locust hasn’t put out a new album, or anything even really that substantial, in years. Also, no one says screamo anymore without wincing just a little bit.

This is both bad and good for Crack Magic. The Denver-based quintet is either way behind in the times, or so far removed from the genre’s heyday that it’s actually kind of refreshing, like those movies where the old person’s soul gets transported to the young person’s body, and then gets to temporarily live out youthful transgressions but with a matured, worldly perspective that makes the eventual switch back that much sweeter. Crack Magic, on this live album (recorded at Radio 1190), embodies that kind of wistfulness: The heft of the long-established history of all the bands before it, but through the wide-open eyes of apparent inexperience.

The tracks are short (the longest clocks in at 2:07) and the music is spastic. It’s moderately standard, DIY-styled hardcore—grinding guitars, breakdowns, body-exhausting screams, and a punky-sounding sax à la Plot—but with a renewed, frenetic live energy. Crack also continues The Locust/An Albatross/Anal Cunt tradition of wordy and biting song titles: “Craigslist Is Ruining Spontaneous Orgies,” “I’m Gonna Ike Turner Your Bitch-Ass,” “Bureaucratic Fascist With A Hard-On,” and so on. The boys are green, that’s for sure, their ideas a little rough and their sound far from inventive—but that’s just fine. Crack Magic, as a fairly young act, has all the time in the world to figure out what to do next. 

A.V. Club Grade: B-