Michael Louis Johnson - vox/trumpet, other members have been:
Jud Ruhl - guitar,
Lenny Miller - drums,
Darcy Yates - bass,
Tara-Lynn White - bass,
Andrew Innanen - drums,
Derek Downham - drums,,
Dean Drouillard - guitar,
Tarik Zaky - guitar,
Jake Ulrichs - drums,
Mike Overton - bass,
Ben Huband - bass --
plus many collaborations with Richard Underhill and the Kensington Horns,
Ainike & Sambe Elegua
Influences
ACDC, The Clash, Bad Brains, Toots & the Maytals, Stooges, Dead Kennedys, MC5, Bad Religion (Suffer), Tom Waits, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Zeppelin and Sabbath
Sounds Like
Liberation Rock---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...(Michael Louis Johnson) has funneled his earnest commitment to humanist, anti-capitalist rabblerousing into a charged, confrontational mix of Strummer-ish outrage and galvanizing, jazz-warped rhythms...."
Ben Rayner, Toronto Star, Sept. 22, 2005
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"...the New Kings' Take Back the Streets makes scathing indictments against everything from corporations to bad "police-state propaganda" TV shows. Nothing light 'n' frothy here, to say the least."
Chris Rolfe, Eye Magazine, Mar. 31, 2005
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"My first face-to-face encounter with New Kings mastermind Michael Johnson happened when he was dancing atop an über-gross Hummer obnoxiously parked outside the El Mo.... a goofy political performance that took big cojones and makes the title of the Kings' new disc seem particularly apt."
Sarah Liss, Now Magazine, Mar. 31, 2005
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"Take Back The Streets!" is real music. It has teeth, a reason to exist, a sense of humour and is quite simply great rock'n'roll.
Michael Proudfoot - TV producer
---------------- We are the New Kings, you and I, each and every one of us. We have the right to work, and the right to buy whatever we want, whenever we want it. But pursuing our own happiness is not the only right of royalty. True nobility comes with obligation. The future of the Kingdom is in our hands. With every choice we make, we must consider not only what’s best for ourselves; but what is best for our community, our country, our world. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New Kings is a Rock ..n’ Roll band formed in 2002 by front-man Michael Louis Johnson. After spending most of the nineties as Swing-Punk side-man to Big Rude Jake, Michael J took up the reigns of cultural revolution and brought it to a new level. Ever the protest singer, the music draws from old-school punk and ska, while still being schooled in the lessons of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. As Tim Armstrong of Rancid commented, “It’s punk rock, but you’ve got the smarts to back up your ranting.” (or something to that effect, it was late, there was booze) The band worked its way up through the clubs of Toronto in ..03 and ..04, and made a successful cross-Canada tour in 2006. They released a five-song EP – STREET FIGHTER in 2004, a full-length – TAKE BACK THE STREETS in 2005, and recorded a live record 16.05.06 that has only been sold off the stage. The live show is very energetic; hard-driving music propells Johnson about the stage, taunting and tormenting the audience like an angry dog. As one fan put it, “… it's like watching Johnson walk uphill in a lightning storm with a golf club over his shoulder. Someday it'll end with two husky guys in uniforms carting him away.” The band could nail you with a barrage of three-minute punk songs, then go into an instrumental dub jam. Corporate Child is a walking-talking blues number that was never the same twice, Johnson improvising a story from his family history while the band simmered away, only to explode in the chorus, “I was raised by a corporation”. The New Kings are mostly known for it’s radical reclamation of public space: playing concerts in road-construction closures, and vacant lots, parking-meter parties and of course leading the “everyone is in the band” jams at the car-free PS Kensington street festivals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Soul Shaker by the New Kings, opening for RANCID at the Kool Haus Dec.10, 2006
Let's Make a Deal by the New Kings with the ReEvolution Day Arkestra
at PS Kensington, July 2005
video by Michael Proudfoot
hey whats up, i just put up last weeks show. its on my page. check it out tell what you think. www. myspace. com/the_uprise i played "hollywood north". it should play automatically.
Dear friends, my elder bro Dima has made a page dedicated to our lo-fi studio “Happy Records” based in Kyiv, Ukraine, created for non-profit purposes. The focus of the studio work is producing indie artists we subjectively find interesting.
So please, find some time and listen to our friends’ music recorded by us at:
Joey Shithead's band (DOA)is coming to TO in May. wouldn't it be great if the New Kings open for them? you kicked ass openin' for Rancid et al... mnhé...
well... i think that if you haven't seen 'The Future is Unwritten' - about the The Clash's front man Joe Strummer -- then... i think you should go! playing at the Royal until wed... so i think...and know nothing!
hcr trusay?
