Premiere: Magic City Hippies Heat Up with Glitchy Desire on “Franny”

Franny - Magic City Hippies
Magic City Hippies capture desire’s heavy hypnosis in “Franny,” a glitchy love song pulsing with hot n’ hearty funk.

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Allure is an intoxicating beast: There’s no telling how or when it might hit, but when it does, you can be damn sure that it’ll knock you off your feet. Magic City Hippies capture desire’s heavy hypnosis in “Franny,” a glitchy love song pulsing with hot n’ hearty funk.

And if you leave without my heart
A new bikini a la carte
I will be screaming when you go oh oh
But if you’re calling up my house
I put the weed in the bag, girl
What’s up with Steve in the jag, girl?
Listen: “Franny” – Magic City Hippies
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Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Franny,” the latest single from Miami’s Magic City Hippies. Dubbing themselves “indie funk” (pun intended), the trio of frontman Robby Hunter and multi-instrumentalists Pat Howard and John Coughlin excel at crafting sultry-toned tunes perfect for burning the midnight oil. It’s sexy, seductive, and altogether fun. The group emerged first as Robby Hunter Band, releasing their debut album Magic City Hippies and soon after renaming themselves after that LP. In the years since, their song “Fanfare” has hit #1 on both Spotify’s Global Viral Top 50 and Hype Machine’s popular charts, they have toured the country with Hippo Campus, and their latest Hippie Castle EP has racked up over 10 million streams on Spotify alone.

Franny - Magic City Hippies
Franny – Magic City Hippies

Following up to May’s 2018 comeback single “Body Like a Weapon” (though who would call it a comeback?), Magic City Hippies return today with “Franny,” out everywhere this Friday, 6/22/2018. The new single echoes with soulful heartache as the band cry out with hungry passion:

Oh, oh, oh – Franny!
I’d love to hold you closer
Not the queen of the Barbie girls
You’re the Eve of the Garden, girl
Oh, oh, baby!
You know you leave me in the cold
When you’re leaving the party, girl

A compilation of memories and personal experiences went into constructing the Franny story, resulting in a love interest that we can all easily gravitate toward. “The melody showed up before the lyrics on this one,” Robby Hunter tells Atwood Magazine. “We had this ‘Franny’ character and a full kind of melodic rorschach to plug a story into. As spastic and crazy as the arrangement was, the chords and the melody still felt like a love song. So, we drew on our combined experiences and wrote about an unrequited crush on a girl who picks up weed from you. How it seems like she shows up in a different car with a different guy each time, and how, in your lovesick frustration, you need to make your move somehow.”

And when you’re leaving in that car
Riding with Keaton, Allen, Carl…
I get so steamy when you go, oh, oh
And then you’re calling up my phone
For even just a dub sack
What’s up with Jack in the Cadillac, baby
Magic City Hippies © Fro Rojas
Magic City Hippies © Fro Rojas

That desperation rings true in the chorus, with fat grooves rising and falling in waves of impassioned emotion. As Hunter mentioned, “Franny” is undoubtedly a special track; its texture blends disparate genres and influences as far ranging as reggae and electronica, and the song still feels super poppy and charming. “I remember being like 5,000 miles into the first leg when we were touring with Hippo Campus,” Pat Howard recalls. “We’d already blown up a trailer tire in North Dakota and had the Buick Enclave we were touring in break down completely in Nebraska, where we had to basically abandon it for a little while and have it towed out to us in Montana in order to keep up with the tour. We eventually reunited with Robby’s Buick, and, on another delirious, long drive to Seattle, I started stitching together a beat from pre-existing drum and keyboard clips that we’d recorded for some other songs. Ended up with this kind of glitchy, playful thing. When we were pulling up to where we were crashing that night, I had to name the file. I looked at our keyboard player, Ferny, and then typed ‘Franny’ instead.”

Magic City Hippies © 2018
Magic City Hippies © 2018
Franny!
I’d love to hold you closer
Not the queen of the Barbie girls
You’re the eve of the Garden, Girl
Oh, oh, baby!
You know you leave me in the cold, yeah
When you’re leaving the party, girl

“Sometimes you can’t help the things you listen to obsessively from getting into your own writing and playing,” Magic City Hippies’ John Coughlin adds. “”I had recently been delving into James Brown’s music seriously for the first time, and just trying to get a really good feel with funk guitar, so when Pat and I sat down to lay down some stuff, that chicken-scratch groove that carries the chorus just came out pretty naturally…”

She lived her life like a child
With a fistful of quarters
in the last hour of the arcade
And she played

In addition to arriving on 2018’s summer solstice and capturing the heat of the moment, “Franny” also comes just as Magic City Hippies embark on their 2018 summer tour (dates and more info below). The new single finds the Miami band pushing their art and artistries further than ever, serving as an infectious, delightful reminder of why everyone fell for Magic City Hippies in the first place while promising more great things to come from the indie funk trio.

Stream “Franny” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and catch Magic City Hippies on tour now!

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Franny - Magic City Hippies

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:: 2018 Tour Dates ::

19 June – The Windjammer, Isle of Palms, SC
20 June – The Tap Shack, Duck, NC
21 June – Asheville Music Hall, Asheville, NC
22 June – The A&R Music Bar, Columbus, OH
23 June – Hi-Fi, Indianapolis, IN
24 June – Electric Forest; Rothbury, MI
26 June – Halo Bar, St. Louis, MO
27 June – The Record Bar, Kansas City, MO
28 June – Redstone Room, Davenport, IA
29 June – Electric Forest; Rothbury, MI
30 June – Mercury Ballroom, Louisville, KY
1 July – Piedmont Park; Atlanta, GA
12 October – ACL Festival; Austin, TX
tix & more info @ magiccityhippies.com

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Magic City Hippies summer tour 2018


:: Stream Magic City Hippies ::


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