Resurrected Blues Magoos Mix Old & New

The Blues Magoos
Psychedelic Resurrection
(Kayos)
In A Word: Flashback-tastic

In their ’60s heyday, the Bronx-bred Blues Magoos delivered three memorable LPs of precociously punky garage-psych, and scored a Top Five single in 1967 with the gloriously bratty teen anthem “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet.”

This agreeably lighthearted reunion of three original Magoos – singer/guitarist Peppy Castro, singer/keyboardist Ralph Scala and drummer Geoff Daking – offers a scrappy mix of new tunes and reworkings of some of the band’s vintage gems. While their updates of such oldies as “Pipe Dream,” “Gotta Get Away” and the aforementioned hit won’t make fans forget the original versions, they’re delivered with a raucous, uninhibited spirit that’s infectious.

The same is true of such new tunes as “I Just Got Off from Work” and “D’Stinko Me Tummies On the Blinko,” which replace the band’s original youthful swagger with a goofy sense of humor that suggests that these old compatriots are less concerned with conquering the charts than they are with making each other laugh – which isn’t the worst motivation for a reunion. Elsewhere, their album-closing revisitation of “Tobacco Road” – the Magoos’ entry on the seminal Nuggets garage compilation – is delivered with a raving fierceness that makes it clear that these vets haven’t forgotten their roots.

The Blues Magoos Psychedelic Resurrection from David McDonald/Filmmaker on Vimeo.

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Scott Schinder

Scott Schinder has written written about music and popular culture for various publications in the U.S. and overseas, including Rolling Stone, Creem, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Time Out New York, Newsday, Stereophile, Musician, Tower Pulse, New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Texas Music. He's also written several music-related books and liner notes for numerous CD reissues and box sets and has contributed essays and other pieces to several other books, including all six editions of The Trouser Press Record Guide.

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