4 or 5 Magicians profile picture

4 or 5 Magicians

new single out Monday April 21st !!

About Me

!!OUR NEW SINGLE IS OUT TODAY - MONDAY APRIL 21st!! Our new double a-side single Change The Record / Ideal Man is out today through This Is Fake DIY Records. You can digitally download the single through i-Tunes and the like, or order a nice shiny 7" vinyl from www.thisisfakediyrecords.co.uk ... www.banquetrecords.co.uk ... www.hmv.co.uk and probably some other places! !!OUR NEW SINGLE IS OUT TODAY - MONDAY APRIL 21st!!

Here is a live video of Change The Record performed in London on April 19th 2008. Thanks to Aaron and Ciaran for this!

!! BOOK US !! We are available for shows more or less anywhere and at any time so long as our costs are covered. Just send us a message here or email fourorfivemagicians[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk !! BOOK US !!

!! BUY OUR OLD SINGLE !! You can still order our single (released October 2007) Forever On The Edge from Alcopop! though I guess there aren't too many left so snap one up while you can! It's a 4 track, 3" CD limited to 500. Tracklisting :

1. Forever On The Edge

2. Conversational Karate

3. Orderly Queue

4. Tom Waits' Blues

Do it here :

!! THIS IS OUR RADIO 1 SESSION !! This was recorded in June 2007 by Dan on Drums, Guitar and Voice, Jon Wood on Bass (now of Epideme) and Matt Hayward on Guitar (now of Favours For Sailors). Enjoy! :


Huw Stephens Introducing...on Radio 1

!! SOME PRESS LOVIN' !!

"I just really like the juxtaposition of the sort of dismissiveness and confidence rubbing-up against each other...a clattering pop-noise that weaves the singer along" - Steve Lamacq, Radio 1

"Really, really exciting" + "SOOOO SOOOO GOOD!" + "brilliant" + various other superlatives - Huw Stephens, Radio 1

"At last a believeable British retort to the drawling rambles of Stephen Malkmus. Think Hefner's Darren Hayman fronting Guided By Voices. Ace." Music Week

"the sort of lo-fi attack jam that Kurt Cobain would have creamed over" - Rocksound

"very nearly stirring enough to make you put some pants on and run down to Capital FM with a big gun. Marvellously cynical alt.rock grubbiness. More please!" - The Fly

"‘Forever On The Edge’ not only boasts a loveable melody so missed from the chord-driven NME crowd , but also a contender for the best lyric of the year ... Lo-fi indie rock at its best" - 8/10 - drownedinsound.com

"inherently fantastic" - rockfeedback.com

SINGLE OF THE MONTH Oct 2007 - "a monumentally fuzz drenched summer anthem for the slacker generation missing the greats!" - subba-cultcha.com

DEMO OF THE WEEK May 24th 2007 - "a promising potentially explosive alt.rock indie-pop X factor edge of their own" --- AND --- SINGLE OF THE WEEK Oct 18th 2007 - "A fine fine debut slice of English alt.rock ... we want everyone to form an orderly queue and pin all your hopes on these four or five fine magicians" - Organart

"This is an impressive collision of relevant underground styles from a young band with seemingly no shortage of energy or ideas" 4.5/5 manchestermusic.co.uk

"They're magic!" - SoundsXP.com

Check out everyone in our top friends too, they are all nearly as good as we are! But nowhere near as good as this man :

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/5/2005
Band Members:

4 or 5 Magicians just recorded seven songs with a very nice man called Ian Button. Here is who did what :

DAN ORMSBY wrote the songs, sang them, played all the drums, half the guitar, and a negligble amount of keyboard

SAM CLARKE played all the bass parts

SAM MOORE played the other half of the guitar parts

MIKE LORD played virtually all the keyboards

Live, well, it's more complicated...

DAN sings, but sometimes also plays guitar and drums

SAM C always plays the bass

SAM M always plays the guitar

ILJA GRAY plays the drums, maybe the guitar in future a bit too

MIKE plays the keyboard and sings a bit, but doesn't play all the time

GRAHAM PEMBREY plays the guitar, and sometimes the keyboard, and also doesn't play all the time

We are also currently looking for a brass section to join the ranks. Get in touch if you are interested!


Influences:

MAIN OBVIOUS MUSICAL INFLUENCES : Guided By Voices / REM / Nirvana / Dinosaur Jr / The Flaming Lips / Pavement / Sebadoh / Built To Spill / The Pixies / Mercury Rev / Meat Puppets / Beck / Sonic Youth / Television / Weezer / Ben Folds Five / The Presidents Of The United States Of America / The New Pornographers / The Decemberists / Grandaddy / Eels / The Walkmen / Spoon / The Webb Brothers / The Strokes / (early) Everclear / (early) Smashing Pumpkins / Wilco / Neutral Milk Hotel / Royal Trux / Archers Of Loaf / The Breeders / Ben Kweller / Hockey Night.

BUT ALSO, AND LESS OBVIOUSLY : Fugazi / Rites Of Spring / Husker Du / Oneida / Dead Meadow / The Minutemen / Mission Of Burma / Polvo / Girls Against Boys / Queens Of The Stone Age / At The Drive-In / Tool / ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead / Slint / The National / Karate / Malajube / Fiery Furnaces / Bobby Conn / Hanson (!) / Mates Of State / The Jai-Alai Savant / Clouddead, Themselves and the Anticon label / TV On The Radio / The Modern Lovers / Jeff Buckley / Elliott Smith / Bright Eyes / Ben Lee / Tom Waits.

AND EVEN, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, SOME BRITISH BANDS! : The Beatles / Mclusky / The Fall / Mogwai / Gang Of Four / Blur / Seafood / The Longpigs / the first three albums by ... Idlewild, Radiohead, Ash, Snow Patrol, Biffy Clyro, Terrorvision / Therapy? / Super Furry Animals / Mansun / Kenickie / The Stone Roses / Six By Seven / The Futureheads / Scott Walker / Jake Thackray.

AND, OF COURSE, OUR FRIENDS AND CONTEMPORARIES : Johnny Foreigner / Los Campesinos / Distophia / Jetplane Landing / Blood Red Shoes / Esiotrot / Laura Hocking / Favours For Sailors / The Young Playthings / My Psychoanalyst / Popular Workshop / Paul Hawkins ... and all the other ace bands we know, have played with, or are doing great music right now!


Sounds Like: All the above rolled into one!
Record Label: stop pushing and form an orderly queue!
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Tour Diary Part 5 - Lincoln, Norwich, London

Wednesday 9th April - Lincoln, Club Indiependance @ The Cell :Lovely day on the drive to Lincoln. In places the sun was so bright that I think me and Sam C received slightly burnt retinas (retini?). ...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Sun, 04 May 2008 09:04:00 PST

Tour Diary Part 4 - North Wales, Newcastle

Saturday 5th to Monday 7th April - A cottage on a hill, Llanbedr-y-Cennin, North Wales :Sam M kept the tour dream alive by going to Manchester to spend a weekend sleeping on the kitchen floor of his f...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:09:00 PST

Dan Reviews Reviews 2

Ok its only been a couple of days, but I think this one needs a response too. Thanks to Simon Taylor from Angry Ape for this :"Brighton, South England plays home to these relative newcomers but you w...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:14:00 PST

Dan Reviews Reviews 1

Bit of a light hearted break in the writing up of the tour diary for you here. Been sitting about with not a lot to do so googled the band name to see if I could find any online reviews for the singl...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:40:00 PST

Tour Diary Part 3 - Leicester, Birmingham, Stoke

Thursday April 3rd - Leicester, Sumo :Sam's first motorway action featured a lot of questions that I tried my best to answer despite only being an observant non-driver. I have decided that I am the b...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:28:00 PST

Tour Diary Part 2 : Swindon, Guildford, Kingston

Monday March 31st - Swindon, The Vic :The less said about this, the better. I guess every tour has to have a dud show, but this one took the biscuit.We arrived mid-afternoon, parked. Venue closed, c...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:23:00 PST

Tour Diary Part 1 - Brighton, Brixton, Bournemouth

Back from tour. I'm pretty tired, but I feel fine - for once I didn't get ill! It has actually gone really well all things considered. I'll start at the start. It seems like months ago, I can't ac...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:36:00 PST

URGENT - WE NEED DRIVER FOR TOUR STARTING SUNDAY 30th MARCH

Ok we are in the shit a bit here. The driver we thought was doing the tour can no longer do it as she is under 21 and cannot get short term insurance from anywhere!So we need someone out there at ver...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:50:00 PST

thats what i go to school for

So this guy the other day came on the drownedinsound.com messageboard and asked if any unsigned bands wanted to submit their myspace links so their music could be analysed by a class of Year 9 student...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:19:00 PST

fashion / music

We just did a gig in London. We were really good. Actually really, really good. Thing is, nobody I know came to see us. I'm not even sure anyone actually came specifically to see us at all. The 3...
Posted by 4 or 5 Magicians on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:50:00 PST