life is too short to listen to old music
Magdalena Bay
country: USA
genre: Pop
styles: Electropop, Hyperpop, Synthpop
ABOUT THIS BAND
Few artists are at once artful and savvy enough to transcend the endless scroll, but over the past 18 months, LA-based indie-pop duo Magdalena Bay have used social platforms to dispatch their music, and what you might call their philosophy, in hypnotic, ephemeral bursts. A long trip through their feeds produces music videos in miniature, irreverent pontifications on the state of the music industry delivered via home video VHS aesthetics, and existential meditations on everything from International Women’s Day to the clone craze of the early aughts to the indefinite lifespan of plants.
On October 8th, Magdalena Bay will release their debut full-length LP, Mercurial World, via Luminelle, a record that proposes an abstract theory of time and explores the staggering “what ifs” that make up the human experience. “Mercurial World has a lot of outsized themes on it, like destiny, death, and doing the impossible,” Tenenbaum explains. “It’s not exactly a concept album, but we love prog-rock, so we love a concept.”
Tenenbaum and Lewin met over a decade ago at an after-school music program in their hometown of Miami, where they bonded over a shared love of Genesis and King Crimson, eventually starting a prog-rock band together that lasted until they moved away to college. The two reconnected after freshman year and decided to continue their teen rock project, this time in a radically new form that would come to be Magdalena Bay. “We started discovering all of this experimental pop music that pushed the boundaries of what ‘pop’ really means,” Lewin says.
Bleeding-edge producers like Charli XCX and Grimes were a gateway, and by 2019, Magdalena Bay self-released their debut collection, mini mix vol. 1, followed soon after by a slew of one-off singles, all of which arrived accompanied by tricked-out videos. “Those early references have gotten more and more dissolved as we’ve come into our own sound,” Tenenbaum says. “Our philosophy was just to throw things at the wall. I like to think that our music lives between genres.”
Words like “anxiety” and “paranoia” come up regularly when Magdalena Bay describe their debut, but the production is beyond confident. Tracks flit between genre trappings with the ease of a band who reject the need to present any one way.
On Mercurial World, Magdalena Bay offer the listener a prismatic experience, one that is built on a desire to simply believe in something beyond the finitude of our lives. Approaching reality as a construct allows Magdalena Bay to enact their own, one that is committed to nothing but expanding the possible.
“As bass-heavy as Charli XCX and as melodically minded as Carly Rae Jepsen, these songs are not unlike the hyperactive computer pop popularized by PC Music. What sets Magdalena Bay apart is the gentleness of their lyrics and spacious, mood-building production.” — Pitchfork
“In addition to regularly dropping pop gems, Magdalena Bay have also established themselves as one of the music world’s smartest voices online.” — The FADER
Releases
Single
Ashes to Ashes (triple j Like A Version)
out on May 02, 2025
via triple j
LP
Imaginal Disk
out on August 23, 2024
via Mom+Pop
Single
Tunnel Vision
out on July 31, 2024
via Mom+Pop
Single
Death & Romance
out on May 28, 2024
via Mom+Pop
EP
mini mix vol. 3
out on April 13, 2023
via Luminelle Recordings
LP
Mercurial World (Deluxe)
out on September 23, 2022
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
Unconditional
out on September 20, 2022
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
All You Do
out on August 24, 2022
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
Chaeri (Danny L Harle Remix)
out on July 20, 2022
via Luminelle Recordings
LP
Mercurial World
out on October 08, 2021
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
Hysterical Us
out on October 05, 2021
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
You Lose!
out on September 15, 2021
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
Secrets (Your Fire)
out on August 11, 2021
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
Chaeri
out on June 30, 2021
via Luminelle Recordings
Single
Woww
out on September 22, 2020
via Luminelle Recordings
Videos
Image (Official Video)
July 10, 2024
Unconditional (Official Video)
September 20, 2022
Hysterical Us (Official Video)
October 05, 2021
You Lose! (Official Video)
September 15, 2021
Secrets (Your Fire) (Official Video)
August 11, 2021
Woww
September 15, 2020
Concerts
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