Magic Dirt is an Australian band that plays a cross between noise-rock and garage-rock, a sort of "noise-grunge" equally energetic and twisted.

Magic Dirt (Dirt, 1996) collects their first EPs: Signs Of Satanic Youth (Au Go Go, 1994), almost an hour long, half tribute and half satire (Touch That Space, Redhead), and Life Was Better (Au Go Go, 1995), boasting their masterpiece Amoxycillin (a catchy refrain closed by a 10-minute coda of guitar feedbacks) and the equally tuneful Ice. The band is still untamed. Their music is a scruffy bed of frantic drumming, squeaky distortions, amelodic riffing and hysterical screaming. Adalita Srsen boasts a raw, strident vocal range reminiscent of Patti Smith and Joan Jett.

Daniel Herring's tremendous growth as a guitar arranger highlights Friends In Danger (Warner Bros, 1997), a collection of stormy ballads in the vein of a progressive form of hard-rock (Friends In Danger, Pristine Christine). The closing I Was Cruel is a tour de force of orchestration and vocalizing.

As it evolved, the sound of Magic Dirt approached the stereotypes of their more famous American counterparts, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. The progression led to the mature and compact style of Young And Full Of The Devil (Au Go Go, 1998), whose painfully sculpted songs those stars could envy.

By assembling the singles Dirty Jeans (2000), Supagloo (2001), Pace It (2001), and City Trash (2002), and some new material, the album What Are Rock Stars Doing Today (Sweet Nothing, 2003) presents a more radio-friendly Magic Dirt.