Russells Eight Track (zzz)

Russell really has an eight-track recorder, but it doesn't work anymore. "Russell's Eight-Track " is not so much a band as it is its own genre of pop-rock music. The Magic Carnie dumbly calls it "angel-billy."

For a moment it's completely danceable. Then the beat drops out, and arrangements dance like clouds. Ethereal waves of intense complexity surely rivals the simplicity of the divine harp. This rock 'n' roll is designed to make one move the body and stimulate the mind, but it is the soul that is the target to be nourished most thoroughly. The story is the thing. The slightly abstract realism of the lyrics lets the listener be two places at once. Feet on the ground. Head in the clouds. Characters are the driving force of this concept record with performances that differ greatly from one song to the next. The singers use a variety of styles to help flesh-out each unique voice. But they aren't parts of a play. This is something new. To give each song its own identity within the concept of the whole, a single character is voiced, not only by changing the vocal style, but also by alternating two singers for the same protagonist. It wouldn't work on tv, and it wouldn't work as a play. It can exist only as what it is: Magic Eight Track.



Though the story of the album contains a magic eight-track, the name combines Russell's Eight-Track and The Magic Carnie. Though set apart by almost ten years, the artists' respect for each other's abilities has kept them working together for five years now. The Magic Carnie has made several records with different musicians. It was after the hurricane Katrina, as soon as electricity was restored, that Carnie made his first solo record, The Significance-Trance. A weak musician, Carnie hoped these songs would create an interest among the most talented musicians around him to make the music he would sing on. And it worked. Russell and long-time contemporary Jonathan McLeran began arranging and producing new Carnie songs. McLeran joined the Navy after five songs were done, and Carnie with Russell spent the next three or four years working to complete the record. More a hobby than anything else, he finally stopped working on it very recently. It is called "Magic and Hilda: Flower of the Russell Machine Plant."



Then Russell started work on his first album, Russell's Eight-Track's "Headphone Music." (Available for free download.) A jazz guitarist with a degree in music, Russell was completely capable of playing and singing every part in these arrangements. Brotherhood now, more than anything else, inspired him to leave certain parts open and ready for The Magic Carnie's "juice," as it is called. And for several songs, the brilliant psychedelic guitarist Warren Ard was recruited to give them a crunchy, dirty, extremely dynamic tone.



As soon as he finished his degree, Russell made his way out of the hicktown of Hattiesburg to Austin, TX. He still collaborated with Carnie via email. But this kind of arrangement proved frustrating. So, in February of 2010, Carnie journeyed to Austin with Ard to write and record a ten-song concept album. The project was completed in just three weeks.



And now, Russell's Eight-Track presents: The Magic Eight-Track.