Slow Natives

-James Crugnale- October 27 2006
Jamaican flavor has been heating up the chilly North Country.

Slow Natives, a local reggae group, made their musical debut at Plattsburgh State University College, jamming out for the Social Work Student Association's Halloween Benefit in the Angel College Center Ballrooms on Monday, Oct. 23.

Erin Krisher, a member of the Social Work Student Association was impressed by the band's euphoric resonance.

"They're a great band," Krisher said. "That's why we got them."

The six-person troupe has been regularly performing their mellow calypso vibes at Maggie's Bar located at 124 Margaret St.

The ensemble's musical styling mixes various organic beats - including the congas and tambourine - with brass and smooth bass riffs.

The band's sound is described on their MySpace site as "guaranteed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

Slow Natives' jaunty compositions are complemented through their performance longevity, sometimes playing at gigs well into the night without stop.

The "tribe", as they liked to be called, also thrives on creative musical improvisation. This was evident during one particular show in which the police raided Maggie's looking for underage drinkers.

On the spot, the Natives delivered an energetic, tongue-in-cheek cover of the Inner Circle song, "Bad Boys".

Slow Native's soulful dynamics are achieved through an equal team effort.

There are no divas in the group according to Krit Woods, PSUC senior.

"Each band member gives their equal share," Woods said.

This laid-back dynamics of the Natives were on full display for the benefit as Mathias Kamin, an avid Slow Natives fan, filled in on guitar for Monday night's benefit.

"I usually have been at the gigs to dance and whatnot," Kamin said. "This evening I'm going to help them out."

Woods explained that she got involved with Slow Natives after group bassist, James Ward, discovered her and Andrea "Snowy" LaJoie performing together during a jam.

"James knew I played the congas," Woods said. "Snowy, another band mate, and I were having fun singing songs and we did harmony to Bohemian Rhapsody together. He loved how our voices sounded together."

Several band members said that the group likes to articulate their political emotions through their songs.

"We try to reflect a socially-conscious message in our lyrics," said LaJoie, PSUC senior. LaJoie is a trumpeter, keyboardist and lead vocalist for the Slow Natives.

"Music in general helps you to let out our anger and frustration through song," Ward said.

The group is regularly contacted for performances through their MySpace page, the campus performance included, in which the group decided to bill only for travel expenses to help give back to the campus community.

"We like to do benefit shows once in awhile," said LaJoie.

Slow Natives' next gig is scheduled at Maggie's for Halloween night, wherein typical "tribe" form, they'll perform from 11 to "whenever."
- Cardinal Point-PSUC

Comfortable grooves fill the air with this album. Weapon, by Slow Natives, is filled with the sweet sound of reggae with slight flavors of both cool jazz and latin. The lead vocals have a light, and soothing sound that are complimented by a beautiful female harmony. The music is a nice blend of spice reminiscent of Bob Marley and Jack Johnson. The tunes are very relaxing, disarming and tends to draw one in close. The sound is a very on-the-beach feel, filling a variety of moods. The songs are great for grooving along with or just relaxing to. The soulfulness of the music will smooth out any mood and bring everyone closer together. Songs like 'Waiting' and 'Wasting It' give a very happy, upbeat groove, while songs such as 'Gun' and 'Boat' give a slightly darker feel, while still maintaining a cool groove. Overall, the album is definitely worth checking out, reggae fan or not. The comfortable grooves make any moment worth while. - Fourth Coast Entertainment Magazine

In 1975, the Rolling Stones played "Brown Sugar" on a running flat-bed truck passing by the people in the streets of New York City. AC/DC did the same thing with "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'roll)" in Melbourne, Australia, in 1976. U2 did it in New York City in 2004.


The Slow Natives is working on its CD to be coming out in couple months.

These similar scenes came to mind when I saw the Slow Natives, a Plattsburgh-based reggae band, in the field house of Plattsburgh State University College. They were not performing on a flat-bed truck, but on the fixed stage. Instead, the audience kept circling the track in front of the stage many times. More than 100 people passed by the stage instead of the stage passing by the people.

There were several more unusual things: No one in the audience was drunk, and the band started playing at four in the morning. The Slow Natives performed for about one and a half hours as the last group in Relay for Life, a fund-raising event held by The American Cancer Society. Because the event was 12 hours long, some of the audience members were sleeping, some were just sitting, some were playing catch, some were eating, and so on. I had never seen the scene like this, although I have attended the band's shows many times at bars in Plattsburgh.

As they already had two sets of gigs in Saranac Lake before coming back to Plattsburgh, the total time of performance that night was five hours. Though they seemed slightly less energetic than usual, the performance was tighter. It might be due to the earlier shows in the same night that had warmed them up or due to their accumulation of experience. Some members looked a bit tired, but the keyboard player, Ade, seemed to be on a high. She looked like she was having extraordinary fun doing three sets in a night. She was speaking more than at other concerts.

The show started with the tune called "Yikes Dub," followed by the greeting and the self-introduction.

The most featured instrument in the next song "Wasting It" was the trumpet. Mike, the trumpeter, played catchy riffs, solos and bridge parts with soft sound.

"Weapon" was also a catchy and memorable number with a nice chorus.

Shawn, the guitar player, sitting in the center of the stage, was playing more fluently, especially ad-lib-like obbligato, than he would normally other nights. He played with mostly clean sound, but his natural distortion in "Restless" was also comfortable to listen.

An instrumental tune "Debu-chan" was like they were jamming on a simple chord progression, and the unique rhythm of the percussionist, Krit, was the most impressive.

They sped up the tempo in the middle of an instrumental number "Techno," which is probably one of the slowest numbers usually, and Richaete's drums sounded more powerful as Jamse, on vocal and bass, agitated the walking audience, "Walk faster, walk faster."

Though the huge solid space of the venue made a strange echo, their sound was clear throughout the show because of the P.A. that night, and the audience was less noisy compared to those at downtown bars. Therefore, it was an opportunity to focus more on their music rather than excitement of the band and the audience, and I recognized their music was fun and amazing.
- Tats Kasama