Magneta Lane - November/December 2004
Who: Magneta Lane
What: medusa music
Where: Toronto
To Contact: Paper Bag Records, Inc. 455 Spadina Ave., #306, Toronto, ON M5S 2G8 (416) 260-1515, FAX (416) 260-0492, www.magnetalane.com.
Finally, a cool Canadian all-female rock band that has a vocalist with some power and oomph. No la la la flighty, wispy cutesy stuff happening here; singer/guitarist Lexi Valentine is reminiscent of the Pretenders’ mother of rock attitude, Chrissie Hynde, and musically it has the scrappy attack and simplicity of the Strokes. Formed by Valentine and drummer Nadia King in the fall of 2003, Magneta Lane soon added bassist/guitarist French (who goes by one name only) to the fold. After some local shows the trio was signed to Canadian independent label, Paper Bag, in the spring of 2004. Armed with six songs, the 19-year-olds went into Toronto’s Signal 2 Noise studio with Jon Drew of label mates Uncut, who produced, recorded, mixed and mastered what would become Magneta Lane’s debut EP, The Constant Lover. Valentine, who collaborated with King but handles the lyrics herself, writes about a gal who can’t find real love in the title track to what sounds like the night of a streetwalker in “Kissing Is Easy” and a manipulative go-go girl in “Medusa”. Magnetic.