Mac Luster Photo credit: CJ Simonson
Orange County alt-rock band Mac Luster first began in 2013 but went on a nearly decade-long hiatus until a chance phone call that brought the band back together last year. When frontman Jake Mazon and bassist Jackson Wargo got hold of Olivia Rodrigo’s drummer Jordi Radnoti from a drum store in Monrovia, they recorded their songs with her and engineer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Yo La Tengo). After all these years, The Big Takeover is proud to premiere Mac Luster’s debut EP, Ritual.
Ritual opens with the title song, an ambient track that sounds like it’s beginning a religious ceremony. Songs like “Staring at Nothing” and “The Lovers (Truce)” begin with hooky, arpeggiated guitars, sounding reminiscent of 80s college rock — like Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, or Hüsker Dü. There’s also a dollop of 70s rock like Kiss and Iron Maiden, especially on “Sofia” and the closer “The Hanged Man’s Swing.” Underneath the guitar riffs and Radnoti’s punchy drums is Mazon’s heart-on-his-sleeves songwriting at the core.
Wargo also brings his ear for producing the EP, and both Radnoti and Lasus help to fulfill the band’s vision. Having scrubbed their music off the internet before in 2018, Mac Luster gives off the impression that they’re perfectionists. But considering these must be the best versions of the songs — songs like “Staring at Nothing” and “Waiting Game” were first written as far back as 2012 and 2016, respectively. Ritual is worth the wait.
Jake Mazon said of the EP,
“I chose these songs because they were about experiences I’d had when I wasn’t writing, and I felt like I needed to exorcise them out of me. Last fall, my siblings found a Yu-Gi-Oh card called ‘Black Luster Ritual’ while cleaning out our parents’ garage. My brother gave it to me and called it the ‘Mac Luster Ritual.’ I dug it, and since a couple of the songs were inspired by Tarot cards, I ran with it. The tracklist is a chronological retelling of these things I needed to let go of, and it became a bit of a ritual to release them.”
Now relinquishing the past through their long-awaited debut EP, Mac Luster is releasing Ritual widely tomorrow.
New music on the way? Pitch Big Takeover Exclusives.
