I first met Johnny Lingo off a Craigslist ad. No, not that kind of Craigslist ad: I bought a great vintage Wurlitzer 200A (think Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”) keyboard from him, which I picked up at a Providence, RI recording studio where he was hanging out.
Lingo took me around the studio and graciously demo’d all the wild and fantastic keyboards there (they had a goshdarned Mellotron!) and gave me an EP of his former band, the Lingo. They’d built some regional notoriety playing upbeat, harmonious pop–including a funny little tune about how Johnny likes your friends better than you.
Now, the keyboardist’s struck out on his own, and released an album earlier this year. Driven by the same pop ethos, Lingo influences include 1970s disco (see “Step Outside”) and 1980s alterna-pop (“Fallen Angel”), but for the most part it’s a noveau mixing of a lot of stuff. Frenetic and melodious–and a good listen.
While we don’t ever like to make blanket statements that cast Billy Joel in a positive light, one thing he sang rings true: You can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine (or a blog) so don’t take our word for it: Sample four cuts on his MySpace, and if you like it, pony up the five bucks for a download.
