Magic Dirt

Magic Dirt is an Australian rock band, which formed in 1991 in Geelong, Victoria, with Daniel Herring on guitar, Adam Robertson on drums, Adalita Srsen on vocals and guitar, and Dean Turner on bass guitar. Initially forming an alternative underground band called Deer Bubbles which split and formed into the much heavier, rock based group called The Jim Jims, they were renamed as Magic Dirt. Their top 40 releases on the ARIA Albums Chart are Friends in Danger (1996), What Are Rock Stars Doing Today (2000), Tough Love (2003) and Snow White (2005). They have received nine ARIA Music Award nominations including four at the ARIA Music Awards of 1995 for Life Was Better – their second extended play. Turner died in August 2009 of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (a soft tissue cancer). From 2010 to November 2018, the band were on hiatus. Magic Dirt formed as Deer Bubbles in 1991 in Geelong, Victoria with Adalita Srsen on vocals and guitar, and Dean Turner on bass guitar. Within the same year, they started a new band, with transitory names such as "Detroit", "Brad" and "The Jim Jims", with guitarist Daniel Herring. Using the transitory name, "The Jim Jims", the band recorded a cover version of The Velvet Underground's "Heroin" for a Geelong compilation called Check This Action ... Let the Fun Begin, released in 1992. After the addition of drummer Adam Robertson, they became known as Magic Dirt. Srsen told a fanzine in 1996, "...we used to be in a band before Magic Dirt called Deer Bubbles. Dean knew Daniel from skating, and then he moved in with us, and we'd play like one song for forty minutes, we just loved it. Then we wanted to find a drummer, and we went through about five, then we found Adam through a mutual friend and that was it. We only used to have three songs we used to play for an hour". Early in 1993, the band supported Sonic Youth and Pavement on their Australian tours. Later in the year, the band issued its debut single, "Supertear", for Fellaheen Records. By the time of its release in July, the band had broken up. However, they soon regrouped and signed with Au Go Go Records in November. Their first extended play, Signs of Satanic Youth appeared in December, with the track "Redhead" receiving airplay on Triple J radio. In April 1994, Magic Dirt split however, the group again reformed and released a second EP, Life Was Better in November. The EP included the tracks "Ice" and "Amoxycillin" and debuted at No. 1 on the Australian alternative music chart. It remained on that chart for 75 weeks, eventually selling 20,000 copies. Life Was Better went on to receive four nominations at the ARIA Music Awards of 1995. In early 1995, the band performed on the Big Day Out festival tour across Australia, with Hole (Magic Dirt also supported their other Australian shows) and Silverchair. The success of Life Was Better had attracted international attention and Geoffrey Weiss, of Warner Music in the United States, traveled to Australia to see the band perform at the Big Day Out. Weiss negotiated a deal with their manager, Gavan Purdy and the band signed a two-album deal with Warner. In August 1995, Daniel Herring left the band. His final recording with the group was the 10" vinyl single, "I Was Cruel", which featured the words "Thankyou, Daniel. Goodbye" etched onto the vinyl. Dave Thomas, of fellow Geelong band Bored!, who had managed Magic Dirt at the early stages of their career, was recruited as Herring's replacement on guitar. In late 1995, Dirt Records released the band's debut album in the US. The album was a compilation of their first two EPs, along with the track "Goofy Gumb", and titled simply Magic Dirt. In March, Magic Dirt began recording their debut album proper, Friends in Danger, in Sydney with Paul McKercher (You Am I) producing. The music style was a reaction to the accessibility of their earlier material. While Warner had expected more songs in the vein of "Ice", the band offered tracks like the 8-minute "Bodysnatcher". Warner were less than impressed, and went so far as to offer the band additional time and money to re-record the album. The band refused, and when Friends in Danger was released in September, the label put little effort into promoting it. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, "[it] matched the band's fearless experimentation with a dark, unhinged sound that went from moments of eerie near-silence to full-tilt guitar noise". Friends in Danger peaked at No. 25 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and went on to sell 10,000 copies in Australia, helped along by "Sparrow", the album's most accessible track. The group toured North America supporting Archers of Loaf and promoting Friends in Danger later in 1996. Warner still refused to promote the album and they were dropped by the label. Since the band had a two-album deal, Warner paid them for the second album, despite the fact that they did not release it. In January 1997, Magic Dirt again performed on the Big Day Out tour. In July, Thomas left and his replacement on guitar was Spanish-born Raúl Sánchez – former front man of Melbourne band, Muffcake. The group began recording its second full-length record, Young & Full of the Devil, at Birdland Studios with producer Lindsay Gravina. They followed with a three-week tour of the United Kingdom (where they appeared on John Peel's BBC radio show) and continental Europe in the later half of the year. Subway Records in Germany released an updated version of the band's US debut, with new artwork and two additional tracks. The group ended 1997 with a new single, "Rabbit with Fangs", and a national tour supporting Silverchair, playing large arenas around Australia. April 1998 saw the release of Young & Full of the Devil, which peaked at No. 100. The album continued the unsettling, fuzzy sound of the debut, and sold 10,000 copies in Australia.[citation needed] Another single, "She-Riff" was released – in a new and more polished recording – with a video depicting Srsen re-enacting a scene from the 1975 Australian film Picnic at Hanging Rock.[citation needed] Young & Full of the Devil was the last release by the band on Au Go Go Records. Turner and Srsen undertook two side projects. The first was Seaville - a project with Mérida Sussex from The Paradise Motel, which issued the Swan Song EP in 1998. The second project was with Ronin System, which resulted in the single, "Expectations" in 1999. Without a label, the band supported themselves by touring throughout much of 1999. In 2000, Magic Dirt signed a recording contract with East West Records, and began recording their third album, What Are Rock Stars Doing Today with Phil Vinall (Placebo) producing. Released in October, What Are Rock Stars Doing Today reached the top 40. It signalled a dramatic shift in the band's sound. Gone were the fuzzy guitars and feedback. In its place was slick production and poppy hooks. Longtime fans of the band weren't sure what to make of lead single, "Dirty Jeans", with its hand claps and sing-a-long chorus. Tracks such as "Pace It" and "City Trash" proved that the band could still rock, however they did receive some backlash, with some fans labelling them "sell-outs". Triple J put "Dirty Jeans" on high rotation and it reached No. 12 in the year's Hottest 100. The year ended with a national tour supporting Powderfinger and Jebediah. 2001 and 2002 saw the band touring in the wake of What Are Rock Stars Doing Today. They launched their Love Ya & Leave Ya Tour - the largest the group had done up until that point – which saw them on their first trip to New Zealand. The City Trash Tour with The Nation Blue and Girls Against Boys followed in June–July 2002. They started recording demos for a fourth album early in the year – tracks such as "Love Me" and "Sarah May" from these sessions were later released as B-sides. Later that year, the band made its second trip to the UK, where What Are Rockstars Doing Today had been released on Sweet Nothing Records. In 2002, Magic