Lo and the Magnetics|A Part Released 11.04 Top 5 Records
Okay, Okay, so I’ve been hearing mumblings about how
Lorraine from the established Canadian Ska band the Kingpins had something new going on. I always liked the Kingpins but,
honestly despite a tremendous amount of work by Lorraine to
keep them going, the band seemed to steadily grind to halt
in the past few years. More of a whimper than a bang if you
know what I mean. When Lorraine told me that her new band
was playing The NYC Ska Is Dead 3 date, I was of course looking
forward to hanging out with her and watching her band, but
really wasn’t expecting to be completely blown away.
Lorraine has always had a great voice and stage charisma,
but her new band backs it up with simply amazing and original
songwriting. Matt Smasher and I were among a handful of people
checking them out (they had the misfortune of playing the
second stage at the same time as the Toasters) and he was
kind enough to point out that Mitch Girio, formerly of King
Apparatus was playing bass. Ah-ha….the pieces are
coming together. Lorraine gave me a copy of her CD and I noticed
that the songwriting was credited to Mitch and Lo and the
Magnetics. So anyway, it’s beginning to make sense.
For those not in the know, King Apparatus was probably about
the most underappreciated of all the 3rd wave bands. Basically
they broke up just before things started to get big and their
CD’s made it into the bargain bins way before their
time (as if such a time could ever exist!). Many of you may
be familiar with King Apparatus front man Chris
Murray who has since gone on to do some great acoustic
trad ska. Anyway, genius songwriting was the key to King Appartus
and it’s what sets Lo far apart from the dozens of other
new bands. How to describe? Beautiful female vocals fronting
a great ska band. Minimal horns. The keyboards are emphasized
and again the keyboard lines are catchy, and tasteful. Not
like so many current bands who seem to add keyboards for novelty
sake... none of the “hey guys I have a MOOG lets get
zany” bullshit that seems so prevalent these days. Jerry
Dammers was not lost on these guys and I mean that in the
best possible way. How to describe? More 2Tone than 1st or
3rd wave. More 80’s style than 90’s and that’s
a good thing. How to describe? Kingpins meet King Apparatus,
meet The Specials? Well if I haven’t gushed enough…..I’ll
sum up….great album, very original, and worth your $12
bucks.
Anyone interested in helping sponsor the tour or website, please contact mpbooking@aol.com
(big cheers go out to our current sponsors….touring is difficult and expensive!)
Lo and the Magnetics
