The Magic Death Sounds label leads a wild rock 'n' roll chase around the city

FMLY VALUES: Members of the local record label Magic Death Sounds are hosting a bike ride around North Philly with pit stops for short concerts.
Mark Stehle

On a mild day last September, about 50 cyclists met in Hawthorne Park in South Philly and followed a group of twentysomethings around the city, not completely sure where they were headed. By the time the ragtag peloton arrived at Grays Ferry Skatepark, local band tygerstrype had finished hooking up its sound system and was ready to play a brief set. Before anybody could phone in a noise complaint, the group dispersed, continuing their dash around the city, from a vacant lot under I-95 to a small stage in the middle of a field in North Philly, covering roughly 12 miles that night and seeing five bands perform.

This lightning-round concert series/bike ride was organized by small, local record label Magic Death Sounds, which started throwing parties, hosting shows and making tapes in 2010. They’ll be holding their second ride this Friday evening, with four scheduled pit stops around North Philly and a full set by the Detroit band Jamaican Queens at the Barbary. In deference to hot July nights, this ride will be a compact 4.5 miles.

On a recent Tuesday, key members of Magic Death Sounds met at an apartment in Fishtown to plan their upcoming events. Seated across from a prodigious record collection was MDS co-founder Tony Montagnaro and tygerstrype bandmates Gabe Guerrero and Alden Towler. (They jokingly referred to the other co-founder, who was not present, as “the enigmatic Dan Kaufman.”) 

Guerrero brought over the idea for this type of event from Los Angeles, where he had participated in two similar rides organized by the music collective FMLY. 

“FMLY is this huge organization that’s global,” says Guerrero. “You can find people that are part of FMLY in fucking Pakistan and Thailand. It’s actually a very huge organization because they based it off of [the idea that] there is no hierarchy. It’s more about how can we all help each other.” 

This means that a band traveling across the country to a FMLY-run festival can post a message on the group’s forum seeking housing, and be offered a place to stay by another member. (Impromptu shows often come out of this arrangement.) “You start to develop this camaraderie amongst people that are all in this boat where we don’t really have a lot of money, we’re passionate about music and we want to explore this creative outlet and we were able to do that with everybody as a community,” says Guerrero. “That’s another important aspect of what FMLY does, and we’ve incorporated that with Magic Death Sounds and that’s where the bike ride comes in.” 

Of the five bands playing this year’s ride, Banned Books and Laser Background are local, but the other three — Jamaican Queens, Zula and Cool Memories — are not. All of the money raised through ticket sales ($5 pre-order, $7 day of) will go to the touring bands to help defray travel expenses.

When planning a ride of this complexity, the organizers start by scouting out locations where the bands can play, preferably ones that aren’t heavily populated. After timing the bike ride, the organizers tell the bands where to be and when. These shows are so quick and tightly organized that no one really worries about cops breaking them up. 

“What’s cool about the concept of this bike ride is that it’s almost like a guerilla style, where you’re not paying a venue or getting permits for anything,” says Guerrero. “It’s just so ephemeral in terms of how the operation is executed.”

Banned Books, an experimental rock band with a sense of humor, also played last year’s ride. Singer/drummer Zane Kanevsky remembers playing in front of an electric plant in the Eraserhood. 

“It was pretty unique and surreal and definitely one of the cooler venues that we’ve played in, if you want to call it that,” says Kanevsky. “If they asked us to do it every summer I would do it, it’s really fun. It’s a really unique experience to play outside somewhere in a city you’re familiar with, in a place you would have never really expected to play a set.” 

The label used the momentum from last year’s ride to throw a block party (which they plan to do again this year in August). With the money they made from the party, they were able to release three different cassettes.

The handmade tapes are almost as fleeting as the bike ride: Typically, only 100 copies are produced, and once they’ve sold out, they’re gone. 

“There’s something about physical media that’s always been a part of our conversation,” says Towler. “It’s about having something that people can actually touch. … As much as we’re in the digital age, I think that makes physical art and physical media that much more meaningful for people.”

The members hope these events and tapes strengthen Philly’s budding experimental pop scene. Or, as Towler puts it, they want the label to be “a thread in the cultural cloth.”

Says Montagnaro, “We’re at the point in our career arc where it’s time to put up or shut up in terms of if we’re going to put more records and tapes out, which is based on the response from the city. We have this open-door policy. If you want to be involved, just come and hang out with us. There’s no egos. Since no one’s doing this for money, there’s no weird hidden agenda.” 

Magic Death Sounds bike ride, Fri., July 11, 5:30 p.m., pre-sale $5, day of $7, location disclosed with purchase of ticket, bit.ly/magicdeathride.