Time Out NY

Johnny Society frontman Kenny Siegal is a madman on guitar, piano and harpsichord, plowing through wild arrangements that hearken back to ambitiously orchestrated 70s arena rock, touching on glam and a soulful strain of Britpop that evokes modern bands like Oasis as well as some oldies.

New York Times

"Johnny Society is led by a songwriting machine with a rock star's voice."

BabySue Magazine

The tunes on Coming To Get You are intelligent, catchy, original, and completely timeless. Articulate arrangements support soaring vocal melodies that should affect the minds and souls of listeners everywhere. This is about as good as music gets.

People Magazine

(recommended album)

Living up to a name that's tops in pop, the New York City trio enlists knowing song craft and rare instrumentation.

BabySue Review

Ahhh...this is the one we've been waiting for... We went absolutely APE over this band's first CDs, so it comes as no surprise that we are once again swept off of our mighty feets. Wearing his Roy Wood influences proudly upon his sleeves, Kenny Siegel and pals have created a whirlwind of a pop masterpiece. The music is heady...and just slightly psychedelic...sixties pop with definite similarities to The Move. What we like best about Mr. Siegel's compositions is that they are extremely difficult to categorize. Is this fluffy pop...or very peculiar, abstract, and difficult music? Actually, the tunes on Clairvoyance are both. The listener is tugged back and forth between light tunes with easy chord progressions...to some extremely challenging and mind boggling musical triggers that go way off the deep end... Taking the listeners in this office on a journey they can't predict doesn't happen very often...so we always appreciate it when it occurs. Dazzling arrangements abound throughout this CD...and, as on the band's previous releases, Mr. Siegel's vocals are so goddamn good that you won't believe your ears. One of the best bands of the past decade that has not yet reached a large audience, Johnny Society has their intent pegged squarely in the right spaces... "Juggling Monkeys" is our current favorite, but that may change during the course of the next 500 spins... KILLER stuff!!!

People Magazine

Living up to a name that's tops in pop, the New York City trio enlists knowing song craft and rare instrumentation.

Baby Sue / LMNOP

Rating: 6 out of 6

Johnny Society continues to be one of the best kept secrets in the world... although the band's name is slowly becoming more well known in larger musical circles. Life Behind the 21st Century Wall is possibly the band's most accessible release yet. While still retaining the basic elements from the band's first three albums... the album resonates with more polish and distinct precision. Main songwriter Kenny Siegal's vocals sound as fantastic as ever (his voice still reminds us of Roy Wood). Siegal has the uncanny ability to write classic tunes that have as much in common with 1960s pop as they have in common with twenty-first century rock. The band also features Brian Geltner (drums, backing vocals), Gwen Snyder (bass, backing vocals, piano), and Brion Snyder (clavinet, piano, backing vocals). Possibly due to the fact that all band members play multiple instruments, these compositions feature thick and sometimes intense arrangements. But rather than sounding overproduced...these cuts seem to have been cultivated using just the right amount of studio imagination and polish. Just as with the band's prior albums, there isn't a bad apple in the byunch... but standout tracks include "Trust," "Dirty Water" (this one is really exceptional), "Anyway," "Love," and "Everybody Sing Along." Destined to be one of the best releases of 2003. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

New Yorker

Johnny Society churns out nifty little pop songs led by singer and songwriter Kenny Siegal, who delivers each line with raw intensity.

Washington Post

...so catchy and so bouncy that you can't help but nod and chuckle along.

New York Press

Life Behind the 21st Century Wall is another solid rock album.

Entertainment Weekly

This power trio's heart is guitarist-pianist-compulsive songwriter Kenny Siegal, a 26-year-old hooked on rock's past. By reconnecting strands of '60s and '70s pop/rocks--Beatles, Kinks, Bowie, Queen, early Little Feat--in novel ways, Siegal & Co. come up with music that sounds both classic and brand-new.

Rolling Stone

Johnny Society have built a mother of a tower on the solid foundation of their first efforts. Frontman Kenny Siegal's crafty embellishments on the keys leap out of the speakers and his voice is limber in a soulful whisper/scream manner that recalls John Lennon. But this disc needs no comparisons, as it has a vision, an attribute all too rare these days. (ANDREW DANSBY)

Blender

John Donohue

Following up on their lauded third album, 2000's Clairvoyance, the piano-heavy New York quartet Johnny Society continues turning out music that is as catchy as the best pop of the past but also full of fresh ideas. Reworking such influences as Elton John, Cheap Trick and John Lennon, frontman Kenny Siegal creates songs that are uplifting without being cloying or sentimental. The power chords of the opening track, "Charity," show roots in rock, and on the 14 broadly varied songs, Siegal switches from rockabilly falsetto to throaty growl. He revels in MFA-worthy lyrics, fleshed out on occasion by the banjo, organ and clavinet.

CMJ New Music Monthly

Steve Klinge

Johnny Society's Kenny Siegal subscribes to the "more is more" school of songwriting. His songs twist and turn at odd and unexpected angles, conflating styles and eras, but often creating something coherent and stirring. on their fourth album, Life Behind the 21st Century Wall, the New York quartet gravitates to swampy blues, elastic honky tonk, slinky blue-eyed soul and pounding rock, sometimes within the space of a song. Case in point: "Dirty Water," which begins with a few syncopated heavy blues guitar chords behind Siegal singing, "Kick me if you mean it / Kiss me if you could stomach it / I'd still run away with you," gets interrupted by a chorus worthy of some happy-go-lucky white-bread 60s band like the Lovin' Spoonful, then shifts to a swinging, bouncy middle-eight before cycling back again. The song is as gritty as the Standells' classic nugget of the same name, and it's nearly as catchy. Although Siegal's overwrought vocals (he tends to slip from a soft falsetto whisper to a histrionic scream) derail some of the sparser tunes, he easily pulls off the Faces-like stomp of "Popular Man," the drunken barroom singalong "Get Off My Farm" and the darkly humorous blue-eyed soul of "21st Century Wall." Johnny Society's Life is full of surprises, not the least of which is that it holds together well.

Woodstock Times

Bob Margolis

These days, music is all-pervasive,churned out with an assembly-line mentality, a passing conversation piece that's soon to be forgotten. Fortunately, there are bands who are destined to become classic groups, whose music examines the human condition while honoring the roots of rock n' roll in the process. Johnny Society, Long Island (and now Catskill)-hailing prodigy Kenny Siegal's four-piece of sonic thrill-seekers, are already delivering, destined to find a reward in rock n' roll heaven some day for their honesty, style and amazing songwriting. To put it simply, without any exaggeration, Johnny Society can make even the most cynical listener love pop music.

But Johnny Society is far from simple pop - in the fluffier lexicon usage - as audiences will find out when the band performs this Saturday, February 8 at the Hudson River Theater.

I was lucky enough to have heard an advance copy of Johnny Society's new CD, Life Behind The 21st Century Wall, which will be released by Messenger Records on April 1. The disc is rich in sly, gritty soul and heavy blues drunk on funk and sexy shuffle, a potion that hits you in the heart and bones. The album glam-boogies like Bowie, allures like Lennon and McCartney and, for those in the know, could even make you dance like the Blues Explosion. It follows on the heels of Clairvoyance, a record that won the 2002 Independent Music Awards "Album Of The Year" distinction, from a panel of critics that included straight shooters and talents like Tom Waits.

The band's merger of styles is executed seamlessly; the sound is traditional and earthy, yet there is also something cutting-edge and new about the songs' overall energy. When asked how his band so easily straddles a line between past and present where so many other groups flounder, front man and ringmaster Siegal is humble yet concise: "Our roots on just a musical level are based on a lot of these classic-sounding records that were made in the late '60s and early '70s that we were all listening to and loved so much. It obviously comes out in your playing if you're a good player. Some of the funky or swampy stuff that you're hearing is our reaction to listening to people like Bill Withers, Sly and the Family Stone and a guy like Leon Russel, on the bluesy side. Maybe some of the reasons it doesn't flounder is because of all the other influences - pop bands from the '60s like the Zombies or the Beatles. I think there's some sort of a marriage there and the reason it seems current is because we're young, I mean, we're not 15, but we're young. We're still creating in the year 2003, so on this record there's Casio keyboards and stuff that sounds like the computer age." Pausing in thought for a moment, Siegal goes on to add that, "When things are a little more blurred, it's the sign that something has the ability to be more timeless. My feeling always is, you want to not be able to put your finger on exactly what you're hearing."

Songs like the opening "Charity," and the sixth cut "Dirty Water," contain a rough-around-the-edges humanism, dealing with artistic freedom, relationships and the search for satisfaction. On "Charity," in a powerfully confident croon, Seigal sings, "Get your money/ Get your money/ But no love from the offer." The next time, "offer" becomes "author." "The song isn't actually about charity," explains Siegal. "Those particular lines are written about the whole concept of somebody selling your songs or buying into you, and it's probably my reaction to the music industry and making deals... and charity being the idea of getting beyond it."

"Dirty Water" is more of a "twisted love song" according to Siegal. The lines "Kick me if you mean it/ Kiss me if you can stomach it," could well become a seized motto for the schizophrenia of modern romance in the short-attention-span age. "It's a combination of complaints and hopefulness," says Siegal. "The message is positive - 'I still love you.' It's a song I wrote after listening to a bunch of Laura Nyro recordings that Gwen [former bassist of Johnny Society] turned me on to. I listened to her nonstop. It's a pretty aggressive song, pretty garage, but the singing is kind of ironically 1950s, very melodic and poppy."

The band has pushed themselves to rock out at times, but to remain well-balanced, with the songwriting being the most important thing at the end of the day. "Get Off My Farm" was written "still drunk," according to Siegal, a New Orleans-inspired jam that sounds like a front porch session fueled by freedom, moonshine and speakeasy swagger.

Do yourself a favor and don't miss the band when they roll into the Hudson River Theatre (521 Warren Street, Hudson) on February 8. Johnny Society's former bassist, Gwen Snyder, will also perform that night with her band, Blueberry, who's sure to put on a groovy show of sexy-soft funk featuring intricate instrumentation, unpredictable rhythms, a triumphant brass section, and beautiful, haunting piano ballads.

Bill Kates, XM Satellite Radio

"They're just so... GOOD. Music you can sink your teeth into. Music that's like the best hamburger you ever ate."

Houston Chronicle

Johnny Society is everything surviving classic rock bands haven't been since their '60s and '70s heydays: rocking, funky and soulful.

Entertainment Weekly

"This New York quartet adds a dash of Queen's power pomp to its Cheap Trick-inspired ironic lyrics and cooly abrasive melodies. Here's a band unafraid to rock like punk never happened."

Relix Magazine

Siegal has an innate sense for what sounds good... He is unafraid to showcase the different sounds that he an deliver, vocally and on guitar, no matter how different one song may sound from the next. Johnny Society is at its very best.

Salt Lake City Weekly

While you¹re wasting arena money on classic-rock dinosaurs, pop maestros Johnny Society are producing the transcendent rock & roll magic you really crave. Get a refund, and buy this and the JS catalog.

The Village Voice

"Led by Long Islander Kenny Siegal (formerly of Geffen-signed Hunk), this foursome work the same territory as Guided by Voices and Baby Bird, patching together knowing pastiches of classic '60s pop and early-70's rock. Here's a Melotron, there's a T-Rex swipe, and the John Lennon homage follows the other John Lennon homage. The only difference is their fidelity to (relative) high fidelity - they don't want you to hear the seams, which may be why even Ray Davies is a fan."

Sound Waves Magazine

All I can say is it¹s a damn good thing I was able to control all my urges while experiencing this masterpiece, especially the one of stopping people on the street and making them have a listen. All in all, Johnny Society's Coming to Get You is a monumental experience that will leave you mesmerized.

Detroit Metro Times

Music Category: GLAM 'N' GRIT

The album by New York City band Johnny Society, sounds like a classic. Not just good, mind you, but classic. It's not that Johnny Society sounds retro, or retreads ground covered before and better by the bands it references; it's just that the album -- absent all of the fancy-schmancy computer muzik we take for granted these days -- is thrillingly real and alive, and it reminds you what was so good about straight-ahead rock in the first place.

New York Press

"A rare album that sounds both cutting edge and straight out of the 70s."

Circus

"After freefalling kicking and screaming into their world, you come out the other side, and land firmly right back where you begin, safe but uneasy."

Good Times

"Replete with harmonies and guitar notes playing tug of war, you'll discover a 90's White Album."