Vocals, Guitar / Mike Reis
Keyboards / Joshua Ostrander + Chaz [Mr. Unloved]
Bass / Shawn Kilroy
Drums / JP Kyper
"What we have here, in the person of Mike Reis, is a guy who skipped right past all the great Beatles albums and dug deep into John Lennon's solo output for inspiration, a guy who seems to have placed more faith in Walls and Bridges than Abbey Road.
Right on. Red-eyed and raw throughout much of Slow Down Quick, Reis rubs many of the same already throbbing nerves as the bespectacled one.
Reis might not always sound as tortured as his idol did during those post-Beatle years but on tracks such as "Fly to Europe," "All's O.K. with M.E.J." and "Did You Offer Yourself" and especially "Voodoo Doll" he very craftily captures the coming apart spirit of albums such as Mind Games and Plastic Ono Band. (In the latter, Reis even gets in a sonic nod or two to George Harrison.) Along the way we can hear traces of ELO and vintage Queen in Reis's songwriting ("Underground" and "Afraid," a Big Star-ish quasi-ballad) but we also discover (sooner rather than later) that he's developed a number of his own unique musical maneuvers.
Slow Down Quick serves as a great introduction to Mike Reis, a more-than-capable songwriter whose name should be on more lips in coming years."
By Jedd Beaudoin for F5 Magazine
