Since Cuddle Magic blew my mind just over six weeks ago at Valentine’s I’ve spent a little time with their self-titled album to great rewards. Just in time, since this multi-armed beast of a band will return to the Capitol Region on Wednesday of this week (6/18) to perform at Caffé Lena. The show starts at 7PM and costs a measly $2!!!

While I had a little bit of trouble getting into the record at first, more listens revealed an unbeatable second half. Witness the sequence from “Regular Unleaded” through “Butter Your Frappe” — killer. The crux of the tunes coming somewhere around “Sandinista” which displays their penchant for seamless odd-meters and cyclical, beautiful canonic writing. Again, severe props to drummer Paul Flaherty for the wide openings between notes and careful tempo handling.

The band has been kind enough to allow me to share this mp3 from the album here!
“Sandinista” : mp3

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The full album is available at the iTunes music store. If you enjoy, please consider tossing a little money the bands’ way so they can afford to make and release more recordings.

In addition, the band posted two (downloadable) live performances from their Lizard Lounge show on June 9th on their MySpace page. Check out the loping “Expectations” and an updated version of album track “Butter Your Frappe” featuring some added vocals and some more freak-out than the studio version. These live versions have that spirit and sound I remember from the Valentine’s show that really took me out to dry. While there are hints of this magic hidden throughout the album, the live show is certainly where it’s most likely to be caught.