Mary Magdalan
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Mary Magdalan

Los Angeles, California, United States | SELF

Los Angeles, California, United States | SELF
Band Hip Hop Metal

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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Press


"System Of Freaks Tour Starring Mary Magdalan 6/16 at Reggie's"

Everyone in attendance moved up front in anticipation of Mary Magdalan taking the stage. After the band finished setting up they turned off all the stage lights, put out a little smoke and had their own light show to decorate the stage with. The band is a mix of electronica, rock, and hip-hop and led by a female vocalist who raps, sings, and even yells. The music was fast tempo, somewhat repetitive, and sometimes groovy. The girls in the audience were obviously big fans as they danced in place, sang along and pumped their fists. Mary stalked the stage and whipped her hair about as their bass player creepily stalked around as he pounded his bass while being painted up to look like the Joker from The Dark Knight. They were hugely entertaining and pretty unique and are probably going to gather a larger following in the near future. After the show was over there was an after party scheduled at the bar next door for those who didn’t have to be anywhere early in the morning. - www.punkvinyl.com


"Mary Magdalan Dragonfly show review"

The fog machine was emitting chalky ambiance while the 'something-epic-is-about-to-happen' intro music played for nearly ten minuets before Mary Magdalan herself emerged onto the stage singing 'I should Kill You'; a song with an ghostly Eminem meets Alice in Chains quality to it. The Dragonfly was full on this Wednesday night which is definitely a testament to the growing buzz surrounding the upcoming sensation that is Mary Magdalan. The band consists of four people, Mary Magdalan, a DJ named Gzus, a lead guitarist named Jizm and apparently a new bass guitarist who's not mentioned on the bands website. The sound was surprisingly full despite the fact that half of the music (the keyboards, drums, and samples) were coming from the DJ and not actual instruments. I've seen industrial bands that use drum machines when playing live before and the piped in sounds are usually very hollow in comparison to the live players, but Gzus has obviously devised a way to get them to mix together perfectly. The only disconcerting thing about it was the fact that there were no real pauses between songs because the electronic sounds of the next track would immediately start as the last one finished, not giving the audience a chance to clap, or breath; though the pace did match the frantic quality of the music and the performers themselves. Mary is an angry little ball of fire pulling off her raps as well as the big vocal melodies all while thrashing about on stage. The new bass player, dressed like Heath Ledger’s joker, bounced around frantically like a mental patient making evil faces and even the DJ was exuberantly rocking out to the beat of the music. They played pretty much all of the songs that can be found on the bands MySpace like breakout hit “Dirty Trash” which has a hook that is impossible to get out of your head, “Debbie Unglued” which is a raw, heart felt, diatribe about her mother, “Scrape the Day Away” where Mary’s voice again has a resemblance to Layne Staley, and what could be considered the bands hit since the video has done so well on the internet “Mind at War”. A cover of Britney Spears "Toxic" was an interesting highlight. Their take on it being much heavier of course. In a rare moment for a local show on a Wednesday, the crowd demanded an encore, even though it seemed like the show was definitely over, they got back up on stage and did their drug ballad "Rehab" where about 50 different drugs are named in the lyrics. Mary Magdalan's music is a strange mix of hip hop, heavy metal, blues rock, and industrial music. Another shocker considering the fact that half the music is done via DJ, it sounds even better live than it does on the recordings. The music is much heavier, much fuller, and amazingly mixed. Mary's American tour is currently underway and coming from someone who's seen hundreds of live shows, this is one band that is definitely worth checking out. - The Gauntlet


Discography

Pity Girl
R.I.P.
Narcotica
Fear & Loathing Mixtape

Photos

Bio

Mary Magdalan was born into addiction. Both of her parents were severe heroin abusers, and they were deemed by the state of New York as unfit parents. Mary was shipped away to live with her grandparents at the young age of two, only to be exposed to the conflictual environment of their two children, her Aunt Terri and Uncle Jimmy. At the tender age of five, Mary witnessed the near murder of her Aunt Terri during an attempted carjacking. Terri was shot in the head at point blank range. Although she lived, her Aunts life would never be the same.

As Mary entered her teens her family tree started to burn. First her mother died of a gran mal seizure; then her aunt died in her sleep from an apparent heroin overdose, a drug Mary's mother introduced her to after her accident. Soon after, her Uncle Jimmy was beaten to death in prison by guards. The final blow came when her grandfather, who was Mary's rock in her chaotic world, finally succumbed to lung cancer. That's when everything went dark for me recalls Mary. She began abusing drugs heavily and became an atheist. Her world had crumbled around her and she dove right in.

As her addictions increased, Mary found solace in one thing,: her music. Music kept me grounded, says Mary about her love for the art. Music gave her the ability to express these inner demons and kept her out of harm's way on the Hollywood streets. Then came a chance meeting with uber-DJ and producer Gzus H. At this time, as DJ Ray, he was a catalyst in sparking the career of Compton gangsta rapper "The Game" and was DJ to stars such as Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks, and Jaime Foxx. The two immediately formed a musical bond. At the time they both suffered from heavy addictions but they made a pact to get clean for the music.

After several months, and many agonizing nights, they both kicked their habits and came out with a handful of classic material and recruited hot shot guitarist Jizm through a mutual friend. The pieces aligned immediately and the band started writing together. They quickly recorded the songs Rehab and Rage over a weekend just to hear what they sounded like. They then posted the songs on their Myspace and were immediately bombarded with fans attracted to their sound and image. Within two years their Myspace drew over 265,000 friends and 28 million plays. They have sold over 20,000 CD's and garnered over 200,000 downloads with no help from a label or distributor.