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Everything's Magna-fine By Brock Radke Let the great local music media myth die now, once and for all. There is no Vegas Curse. So says Mike Szuter, and if it were real--the baffling plague that quietly waits for talented locals to claw to the verge of big-time success before shattering everything with technicalities and industry fallout--then his band, Magna-Fi, would have been the most recent victim. But between watching a Schwarzenegger movie and consulting with his wife, Szuter denies the demon's existence. "I think people here like to see other people fail, and when they hear about this happening they think it's a good story. That's really uncool," he says. "This story plays out in every city. It happens all over, all the time." But not necessarily the way it happened to Magna-Fi. After signing with independent Gold Circle Records, the band was set to release its major debut Burn Out the Stars in August. In June, days after Vegas' KXTE 107.5-FM added the single "Where Did We Go Wrong" to its playlist, Gold Circle shut down. Szuter says the foundering status of the industry convinced the man with the money that music was not a wise investment. "It completely dumbfounded us because everyone there and at every other label was really psyched up about it," he says. "Xtreme radio added that song before we even had a release date, and that created even more interest. It bummed us out for a while, but I think it's a testament to the guys in this band and how much they love this record that we're going ahead with it." Instead of folding up as the label did, and as many bands have before them, Magna-Fi is shopping the reportedly hit-laden record around. And the band formerly known as the Szuters is staying extra busy, having just returned from gigs in Mike and guitarist brother C.J.'s hometown of Cleveland. It is also in the middle of a series of local shows, starting with AcousticPalooza over Labor Day and continuing with the grand opening of Club 2100 Saturday and the House of Blues Sept. 21. "We've heard the most ridiculous stuff for why they're not interested," Szuter says of the evil industry folk. "We sound too much like what's on the radio, or we don't sound enough like what's on the radio. We have too much stage presence or we don't have enough stage presence. Either they don't have the money to put behind the record or they're just covering their own asses." If Szuter sounds confident about the album's chances, he's justified. Burn Out the Stars is full of the band's trademark heavy but melodic rock, with hooks galore. If it's not the opening sweltering guitar strains of "Where Did We Go Wrong," it's the ballad "This Life." Any rock band looking to write catchy songs, local or otherwise, could take a lesson. Thousands of Japanese fans can't be wrong. "That's pretty weird," Szuter says of the group's Far East following. When still in Cleveland and still the Szuters, the band signed a distribution deal with a Japanese company that led to three albums released overseas and a tour. Thanks to a special deal Gold Circle inked before the crash, Burn Out the Stars soon will be in Japan also. "To go from playing in front of 50 people in a bar in Cleveland to thousands in Japan is pretty freaky. But it's a very musical-oriented society there, and they still today totally worship the Beatles. They're into hooks, and allegedly we got 'em. I'm not saying we do, I'm just saying I've been told that."
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