The band was formed by Chris Valentine and Dexy Valentine in summer 2008, after Chris found a copy of Dexy's song "Teenage Love" on her band the Dollphins' MySpace page and the two got in touch. Dexy moved from Los Angeles to Nashville and the two began to write music together. The name of the band stemmed from the gift of a magic wand from Chris to Dexy while the two were living on opposite sides of the country. Their first single, "Black Magic", was released on 7" vinyl in 2008 by Ark Recordings. In late 2009, the band signed to indie labelBright Antenna and released their first EP, Magic Love & Dreams, recorded in New York City with producer John Hill. Prefix's review gave the album a 7 out of 10 score, with critic Matthew Richardson writing, "The whole EP is covered with the cosmic haze of dream-pop, while the Valentines maintain the attitude of punk kids". On February 17, 2010, RCRD LBL released a download of the track "Warrior", remixed by the xx. The Wands' debut studio album, Aloha Moon, was announced on the Spin website on February 7, 2012, along with a stream of the single "Space". Reviewer David Marchese wrote that the track was "a sexy and propulsive stunner...a really cool song, suggestive of the darker side of '80s pop and brighter side of falling in love". On April 5, 2012, RCRD LBL premiered the band's non-album cover of the Madonna song "Burning Up". Aloha Moon was released on April 24, 2012, by Bright Antenna. The band toured as openers for the Jesus and Mary Chain in summer 2012. Magic Wands relocated to Los Angeles, and recorded their second album, Jupiter, with the rhythm section of bassist Michael Schenk and drummer Charlie Woodburn. The album marked a change in approach, as Dexy Valentine noted, "We decided to not use electronic backing tracks for this album and keep it more spontaneous and experimental and have live players on stage actually playing their instruments". While the album was being mixed, Dexy Valentine reformed her prior band, Bonfire Beach, self-releasing the digital album Lit in 2013, issuing an eponymous 2014 album on Cleopatra Records and touring with the Dandy Warhols. She also collaborated with Ariel Pinkon the track "Walkie Talkie", issued only via Magic Wands' SoundCloud page; Pink included his own version, sans Dexy Valentine and retitled "Lipstick", on his 2014 album Pom Pom. Meanwhile, Chris Valentine traveled, studied ancient sound healing and opened his own shop. Magic Wands also contributed a cover of David Bowie's "Cat People " to the 2015 Cleopatra tribute album A Salute to the Thin White Duke - The Songs of David Bowie. Jupiter was eventually released by Cleopatra on February 26, 2016. Magic Wands then added two new live members, bassist Tommy Alexander and drummer Keith Crutchfield. Keyboardist Phil Galoni also performed on their 2017 tour. On May 18, 2018, the band released their third studio album, Abrakadabra on Argentine label Casa Del Puente Discos. That same month, Magic Wands also self-released the Portals digital-only compilation album collecting B-sides, demos and other unreleased recordings. A vinyl edition of Abrakadabra was released on July 13 by US label Etxe Records., Abrakadabra on Los Angeles, CA and Washington, DC based label on vinyl offering a full-length digital download with bonus track "Puzzle of Love". Argentina based label Casa Del Puente Discos is providing CD versions of the release.
