LAST COPIES FOR A BETTER PRICE!! Making it their own, these nickel-city settlers abase your ears with abrasive artifice-less proto-punk n roll: nothing but genuine rock appreciation and subtle ingenuity here. With roughly 1 million bands trying to sound like this right now, Magic Shadows comes off as the real deal: there's no hint of fashion or put-on, it's genuine poetic aggression and artistic expression. The vocal hooks are infectious without being sweet, and the references to '60s proto, '70s pure and post, and 00's weird make this relevant and aware while cutting its own exciting swath across a genre full of yawn-inducing imitators and wagon-jumpers. There's well-suited reverb on the vox and catchy melodies to supplicate the new-comers, too, but these aspects have a purpose in the overall sound - they're not sonic decoration, they're essential fucking elements. And they can play! Though the drums remain stable and simple, the sonic layering, guitar phrasing and - what's that? - a real guitar solo, show that these dudes care about their craft and aren't trying to do anything, they've already done it. Two great tracks from the burnt out beauty that is Hamilton, ON. Must Grip ! --- Weird Canada******Coming off like a train-wreck of CRAMPS-inspired cave thud with sonic shards of SPACEMAN 3, Hamilton's hazy hit-makers have hit the nail on the proverbial head making it feel more like a sledgehammer to the skull on this debut platter. If the seventies TV show of the same name were around today, this would be the perfect soundtrack-a bubbling pot of pill-popping proto punk that will peel the paint off the walls just like the program's visuals did to kid's eyelids. Nicely done, sons --- Mongrel******There's a dark, evil vibe that oozes from these gazey onslaughts, almost like you're on an ever-descending trip into the depths of hell. 'Sunburned Mind' makes this clear with its repetitive and foreboding nature, led by the fiery and sinister crunch of the guitar. Toward the end this eventually leads us into a metallic envelope of piercing noise, sealing up a wild track with totally varied influences. On the B-side, 'Under the Stairs' keeps the evil daze flowing strong, coming out from a similar vein of 'Sunburned Mind' with jangly percussion and punishing guitar shards --- Styrofoam Drone******Sunburned Mind, the debut physical release from Hamilton's Magic Shadows, revels in a vintage sound, melding the musical stylings of the last three decades by fusing elements of droney shoegaze with the balls-to-the-wall attitude of garage and DIY punk. Considering the band's name comes from the classic Canadian television series of the same name, it's not surprising that the Sunburned Mind 7' takes on the feel of an acid trip gone wrong as it patiently plays with various tones and timbres allowing for a wide range of sound to emerge from repetitive progressions --- Upstate Soundscape******There's no better place than Canada these days to find dense, shimmering punked out psychedelia. Like Vancouver's Sex Church, Hamilton's Magic Shadows deal in thick noisy layers of primitive minor chord stomp that reveals more texture and swagger with every listen. Magic Shadows' brand of racket packs an excellent detached vibe on this debut single, blasting out Stoogian riffs through a tranced out Velvets haze. Pick up the vinyl edition of 300 soon and enjoy one of 2013's best singles thus far --- Noise For Zeros***