Here We Go Magic

Here We Go Magic's creative center, singer/songwriter Luke Temple, first made his name as a muralist, and the Brooklyn band's music fully fits that pedigree. HWGM's ethereal collage of indie folk, baroque pop, and plains country (and whatever else strikes their fancy) lolls back with dizzyingly hypnotic vocals, generating the feel of a vast, splashed-on panorama. Originally from Boston, Temple bounced nomadically about the country before settling in New York City by the mid-2000s. While the bandmembers are cagey about the group's origin, Here We Go Magic had expanded to a quintet by the 2009 release of their self-titled debut on Western Vinyl. The similarly psychedelic pop-inflected Pigeons arrived in 2010, followed by the Secretly Canadian-released January EP in early 2011. The band teamed up with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich for 2012's A Different Ship. Keyboardist Kristina Lieberson left the band to front TEEN, and after a falling out with bassist Jennifer Turner, the remaining trio of Temple, guitarist Michael Bloch, and drummer Peter Hale forged ahead between solo and side projects. Their fourth long-player took on an intentionally brighter personality; 2015's still trippy Be Small was a more modest, self-produced home recording made mostly by Temple and Bloch, with Hale on paternity leave. ~ Jason Thurston & Marcy Donelson, Rovi