042: Helium - The Magic City (1997)
“Every song is its own little story. I’m sure it confused everyone when it first came out; that it was even uncool. Even Matador admitted that it was a record that no one would get at the time—which they didn’t—but totally would in the future.”
—Mary Timony
Often criminally overlooked among the ’90s indie-rock canon, Helium’s The Magic City is one of the most colorful and unpredictable albums to come out of Matador Records’ reign as kings of the genre. On their second and final album, Mary Timony and crew cast aside the fuzzy, lo-fi guitars for bright, lush arrangements that explore influences as diverse as medieval folk, progressive rock, and video game music. Climb aboard your mighty unicorn and follow Dan, Amanda, and Rich into the cosmos as we travel through this musically rich landscape of aging astronauts, dragons, and Chamberlins.
Miscellany
In 2017, Matador Records did the band a real solid by actually putting their albums back in print. The Magic City received a dandy vinyl reissue that includes the No Guitars EP which was recorded and released around the time of this album.
As part of the reissue campaign, Mary Timony did a run of tour dates as “Mary Timony Plays Helium” in which she revisited her old band’s catalog for the first time since the breakup. Sadly, she came nowhere close to the southeast, cruelly shutting Dan out of any chance to see these shows.
You can find the medieval-themed Alternative Press photo shoot we mentioned by scrolling down on this photo archive from Mary Timony’s website.
As we mentioned, we have discussed Mary Timony before on this podcast, along with a host of other excellent indie rockers.
We mentioned several lengthy prog rock pieces without also mentioning the artist, because we’re newbie inclusive on Discord & Rhyme. “Supper’s Ready” is from the 1972 Genesis album Foxtrot and “Echoes” is from Pink Floyd’s 1971 album Meddle, which we just talked about in great detail about a month ago. Finally, “Karn Evil 9” is from Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery, and has apparently just been optioned as a sci-fi movie.
If you’re looking for good fantasy/sci-fi novels, Rich and Amanda are here to help. Just hit us up.
And if you like music about outer space, have we got the album for you!
Just in case you suspect the intro misrepresents our behind-the-scenes dynamic, Amanda literally had to stop Rich from adding another Sonic the Hedgehog clip in post-production.
Other links
Lady of the Fire, Mary Timony’s website (The Internet Archive)
The Making Of Helium’s The Magic City (A.D. Amorosi, Magnet)
What Makes Mary Timony a Guitar God (Liz Pelly, Pitchfork)
“Wouldn’t it be funny if this song sounded like the Moody Blues?” (Westword)
"Leon's Space Song" music video (YouTube)
“I walked on your face!” (YouTube)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Dan Watkins (host)
Rich Bunnell (moderator)
Amanda Rodgers
The Magic City tracklist
Vibrations
Leon’s Space Song
Ocean of Wine
Aging Astronauts
Medieval People
Lady of the Fire
Lullaby of the Moths
Revolution of Hearts, Pt. 1 & 2
Ancient Cryme
Cosmic Rays
Devil’s Tear
Clementine
Blue Rain Soda
Walk Away
Other clips used
Helium/Mary Timony:
Helium - Superball
Helium - Pat’s Trick
Mary Timony - The Bell
Wild Flag - Electric Band
Ex Hex - Good Times
Others:
Mark Seibert & Ken Allen - King’s Quest V Main Theme
Sega Sound Team - Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)
The Cars - Magic
Genesis - Down and Out
Gentle Giant - Talybont
The B-52’s - Planet Claire
Polvo - Fractured (Like Children)
Def Leppard - Animal
The Moody Blues - Gypsy
Autoclave - Paper Boy
Genesis - Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
Van Halen - Eruption
King Crimson - Epitaph
The Mothers of Invention - Aybe Sea
Snail Mail - Pristine
Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip
Helium/Mary Timony:
Helium - Riddle of the Chamberlin
Helium - 13 Bees
The Mary Timony Band - Rockman
Others:
Guided by Voices - Yours to Keep
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
10cc - I’m Not in Love
Genesis - Supper’s Ready
The Beatles - Something
The Beatles - I Am the Walrus
Pink Floyd - Echoes
The 6ths - Pillow Fight
Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
The 6ths - All Dressed Up in Dreams
Smash Mouth - Every Word Means No
Yes - The Gates of Delirium
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - The Three Fates
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9
The B-52’s - Cosmic Thing
Gary Young - Plantman
The Yardbirds - Heart Full of Soul
Percy Montrose - Oh My Darling, Clementine
Donovan - Season of the Witch
Band/album personnel
Mary Timony - guitar, vocals, Chamberlin, keyboards
Ash Bowie - bass, drums
Shawn King Devlin - drums
Mitch Easter - guitar, mandolin, percussion, pedal steel, vocals (background), producer, engineer, slide guitar, mixing
Andrew Emmett - violin
Ken Wilmot - trumpet
Chris Stamey - editing, Pro Tools
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Helium - Revolution of Hearts, Pt. 1 & 2 (this episode only)
You can buy or stream The Magic City and other albums by Helium and Mary Timony at the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon [affiliate link]. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio for his production skills. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.