Impose Magazine: EL JESUS DE MAGICO, RAGTIME HORS C23

Impose Magazine: EL JESUS DE MAGICO, RAGTIME HORS C23

by TRENT MASTERSON

The Columbus punks are back with another tape that puts songwriting in the backseat in order to show off seriously heavy psych-rock chops. 

The tape starts off with a simple, blown-out riff repeating over some straightforward drumming, as a dissonant hum growls underneath it all. Any trace of vocals is hidden under a murky sneer. It’s definitely punk ethos meets space rock ala other current bands like Eternal Tapestry, but the groove and soloing are so fucked that it’s hard to fit it neatly into already fuzzily defined genres. 

The band also works with some more calm grooves, electing to let effected loops and bright power chords do all the work, but the real deal comes via the B-side.
It opens with heavy riffing and does not stop until everything is blow into high-hat abandon. Restraint is minimal and that’s a good thing.

VIDEO: El Jesus De Magico - live in Columbus

The Agit Reader: An Interview with El Jesus de Magico

The Agit Reader: An Interview with El Jesus de Magico

by Kevin J. Elliott

Just Deserts—what does it mean? I know you guys are deep into nature, Gnosticism, ritual and psychotropic experimentation, so are we are to just take this album at face value or is there something underneath the surface we need to be looking for? 

Michael O’Shaughnessy: As far as the titles go, they are usually the last things added to pieces or albums. Short of a few of Jon’s solid title ideas, song names and record titles have always been Tony’s work. Maybe he decided that since Jon and I came up with such a stupid name for the band, he wouldn’t let either of us name anything else. Or, maybe it’s because when we talk about one song or another, we use signifiers from our own language as a band. “Jear jiki jear ja jear, jiki jear, jieeeeer” is the intro to “LGNO,” for example. Surely this sounds bland and demystifying, but it’s the truth. The titles, while brilliant, mean nothing to me as the drummer but so much to me as a listener. I have clear pictures of each song in my head while playing them, but they are myopic and solipsistic compared to the picture I get when I listen to the record and the band as a whole. I have a silly idea as to what Just Deserts means, but I want to keep that in my pocket and think about it on my deathbed. So yes, more deism, yes, more ergot and wormwood and look in the mirror and ask yourself if you’ll get your Just Deserts. Just spell it right. 

Tony Allman: To me, it’s the notion of being left, even on the smallest, most minor scale, what an ending sounds like if no one is there to witness it. 

I know this record has been in the can for a while now, but has just been released. How long ago was it finished? Where was the band’s collective headspace at that time? 

TA: It has been done for quite a while. It was sequenced a little over a year ago and most of it recorded long before that. I’m not really sure about the collective headspace. We were very far apart in many ways. 

MO: Tony finished this version of the record last summer. He had done a version before and sent it to Adam Smith (of Columbus Discount Records) to press at Musicol, but the EQ on the B-side was all womperjaw and sounded bad to everyone after the lathe was cut. Most of the songs were from the last few weeks at the funeral home (the band’s old rehearsal space) before Tony moved to that little borough where trends go to die, and then there was a slice or two from a session at Columbus Discount Records when Tony came back to grab the last of his stuff that I didn’t destroy before he signed the lease in that city of infinite rendezvous. Jon howled like a poorly exorcised ghost, and it was the type of sound that vinyl can’t capture.

New Additions: Just Deserts album by El Jesus De Magico

Last fall I picked up a pair of El Jesus De Magico albums from Records Per Minute. Both Scalping The Guru and Just Deserts came with the comment from the owner Steve - "these are the best Columbus albums ever." High praise, considering Steve's long history in the city. I don't know that I 100% agree, but there is definitely something special and unique about the band, who traffic in experimental noise rock that sounds like the natural evolution of the scene following Jim Shepard and his various incarnations.

Know Yer Band: El Jesus De Magico

Band: El Jesus De Magico

Members
Bass Guitar – Christopher Lasch/Sarah Yetter
Drums – Michael O'Shaughnessy
Guitar – Dave Capaldi
Keyboards – Anthony Allman
Vocals – Jon Witzky

Releases
2005 - El Jesus De Magico album (Columbus Discount Records)
2007 - Funeral Home Session 7" single (Columbus Discount Records)
2008 - Unclean Ghost / Pirate Utopia 7" single (Columbus Discount Records)
2009 - Scalping The Guru album (Columbus Discount Records)
2009 - Paha Sapa / Rapey Guys II / Klip Aught 7" single (Columbus Discount Records)
2009 - Ragtime Hors mini-album (Goaty Tapes)
2012 - Just Deserts album (Columbus Discount Records)

Reverbose Records Workbook Studio 25 Hour Grand Prix

I've been trying to stay away from stuff that I've been directly involved in, but I would be remiss not to mention as part of the compilation album coverage the 2004 release Workbook Studio 25 Hour Grand Prix released on Reverbose Records.

From what I recall, this was the brainchild of Neal Schmitt and Jon Chinn at Workbook, and we at Reverbose were looking for release opportunities other than just our own bands. The experience itself was quite exciting - being a part of a process where each band received one hour to record and mix their songs. For the bands, they could move in and out, but for the Workbook crew, that was a long twenty-five hours.

We ended up with a pretty eclectic and interesting batch of tunes from plenty of new and lesser-known bands, as well as more established local artists like Pretty Mighty Mighty, House Of Heroes, Greenlawn Abbey, A Planet For Texas and El Jesus de Magico.