New Local Music: Magic Castles, Red Pens

Two of Minneapolis’ more promising psychedelically-inclined bands (and that’s saying something, considering you’ve got Daughters of the Sun and Vampire Hands running round the MPLS) have recently uploaded new music to their MySpace profiles. For Magic Castles, the new songs represent a substantial sampling of their upcoming second record, the self-recorded, self-released Dreams of Dreams of Dreams.

Based on the wide variety of mellow psych-rock presented by the band (including the Mamas and Papas-esque “Letterbox,” and the comperatively uptempo, shuffling “The Ones We Love”) the reality of Dreams seems to be that it will be another solid effort from the band. Check out more at the band’s MySpace page.

Like Magic Castles, experimental nu-gazers Red Pens have a new album coming out, one that will be released in June. So it would seem that “Kick Me” (with its biting refrain “Who cares about tomorrow?/it will just kick me”) and “Blue Lighters” would be a taste from said record. Bearing a strong similarity to Chicago’s Star, both songs shine with a lo-fi tinge which should appeal to fans of uber-hyped bands like Wavves. Check them both out here.

Magic Castles MySpace Page
Red Pens MySpace Page

(Jon Graef)