What better way to kick a new year off with a band with "new" in it's name. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you the Newkeys (all one word), a Maryland quintet who boast in their lineup one Tom Lofgren, brother of the more renown Nils Lofgren. Tom, Newkeys lead mouthpiece, is equipped with a set of pipes that aren't completely removed from his brother, but the band's modus operandi veers more to the mid-80s alt/college rock side of the fence, albeit a little AOR in spots. Highlights here are the tunes that kick off sides A and B, "Acts of Love" and "Matchstick Mansion," respectively, both suggesting mainstream sounding pop/rock acts of the era, Off Broadway and Hawks. Solid stuff overall, with few if any traces of the annoying poseur maneuvers of their '80s contemporaries.
Acts of Love was issued on Ruby Records, but from the limited info provided on the jacket, I don't think this was the same Ruby Records that released The Misfits classic, Walk Among Us. According to this site, Newkeys released a second album in 1989, Everything Goes, and Nils is now playing in Paper Umbrella, who also feature in thier lineup Dave Egelhofer, former lead guitarist for JohnWicks and the Records.
01. Acts of Love
02. Where I Fit In
03. Secret Hearts
04. Traitors Last Friend
05. Give Me the Ring
06. Matchstick Men
07. Permanent Wave
08. Holy War
09. I Will See You Again
9 comments:
Cool post. Definitely not the same Ruby Records that released the Dream Syndicate and Misfits, I think that label was gone by '82.
saw this band mentioned on a great Nils Lofgren tribute video. Thank you much.
No problem. Hope you like.
Don't believe NIls is in Paper Umbrella. Just Tom.
hi Wilfully, could you reup the Newkeys album? thx much have a nice day!
Bye
Flax
Will try to fix the link within a couple days.
The link has been updated.
Hi
Could you please re-up this one?
Many thanks
hey, just found this band, sound great, can you reup once more for us? tanx
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