The New Kings

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.