Every action has a reaction. When there is a push, there’s a pushback. When the pendulum swings left, it eventually swings back right. Yet somehow, we live in a world where certain people believe more in all rights than lefts. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work that way, so people, such as your average rock n roll lover, must cope.
Supposedly, due to the popularity of Taylor Swift and the influx of women rockers from Mitski to St. Vincent to Phoebe Bridgers, guitar sales amongst women and non-binary people are going up. This means more and more female and nonbinary people are taking space in rock n roll to let out their own bit of anger, explore their own idea of debauchery, and showcase their own bit of badassery. For every song ever sung about how women were cold hard bitches, there will be a song seeking to cut down self-serious men to size. The latest band to employ this is Mega Infinity—formerly known as Megawave.
Married couple Michi and Mike Digiulio lead the band using a potent mix of ska, synthpop, and balls-out rock. Together, they use said formula to uplift romance and take on the toxicity of patriarchal values. These acts go far beyond their music, too; for example, on Twitter, Michi, who has revealed she is a survivor of sexual assault and constant body shaming, rallied against people loving bands that were “canceled” for being abusers, rapists, and overall misogynists. If you thought they were going to let their finger off that trigger on this EP, you would be sorely mistaken.
Before that becomes a focus, the band takes time to reflect on past struggles in the explosive title track. “The story starts with our happy ending / but the fear crushing us felt unrelenting / hardly got to honeymoon / when they salted all of our open wounds,” Michi immediately reflects. Lyrics concerning both the hardships and their mutual confidence in one another add to the message of how positivity and teamwork can help turn struggle into power and how marriage only ever doubles that.
Together, the band uses that power to take down sex-obsessed predators both on the internet and in clubs—as seen with “Dude Poisoning.” Common Sense Kid, who offers synth assistance, turns up to rap about the failures of said toxic masculinity on men, as well as everyone else. Specifically, in one bar, he tackles how men get the idea of masculinity from social media. “Does it inflate your ego,” asks Common Sense Kid, “when you puff out your chest because the algorithm says so?” Throughout said song, he not only tackles social media influence but goes even deeper with the discussion of nature vs. nurture and how bad choices of males can influence a whole different generation of males to think toxicity comes with the territory of being a man.
Both the title track and “Dude Poisoning” find Michi mixing her singing style with rapping. Whether or not you may be any bit receptive to Michi’s Kathleen Hanna-like rapping—with a delivery reminiscent of Luscious Jackson’s rap-like moments—it adds a sense of straight-shooter seriousness to Michi’s performance.
To close the EP, Michi, lovingly nicknamed Skalanis Morissette, takes on the referenced namesake’s catty classic “You Oughta Know” with the same amount of ferocity, and Mike plays the guitar with the same fire as the original. Also, while we are talking about Mike’s guitar prowess, what he offers is a driving, almost garage-rock kind of ferociousness to his playing, which threatens to take the track from the mix of ska directly into the territory of some of the most badass rap-rock or “slacker” alternative bands of the 90s.
Though they have slightly blown up with their Rainbow Heartache album, Chaos Magick feels like a true beginning. An EP that only needs four songs to try and demonstrate what Mega Infinity is truly capable of, and while past albums and EPs are not without its fury, Chaos Magick shreds, grinds, and stomps in a way that suggests that the men who will likely complain as they get bigger are better off just stepping aside.
