Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.
The Mag Seven: Black Feathers (End Sounds, 11/16/10)
The Mag Seven: “By the Time I Get Out of Phoenix”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/The_Mag_Seven_By_the_Time_I_Get_Out_of_Phoenix.mp3|titles=The Mag Seven: “By the Time I Get Out of Phoenix”]
Morrow: Over the course of a dozen years and a half-dozen releases, The Mag Seven has traversed surf rock, Italian western, punk, rockabilly, guitar-centered jazz, and more. Originally configured with True Widow and Slowride guitarist Dan Phillips, the group shifted its sound in the mid-2000s with the addition of guitarist Brandon Landelius, and the decision was fruitful.
Black Feathers is the group’s new seven-track vinyl/digital EP — its fourth album with Landelius and sixth overall. It’s charged with the same surf-rock energy of albums past but scales back the jazz leanings and Angelo Badalamenti-style moodiness of its last release, Cotton Needle Sessions. Though short, it’s a well-balanced release, alternating between the down-tempo swagger of “Jive Turkey,” the reverberated rock of “My War,” and the western dub of “By the Time I Get out of Phoenix.”