REGULARS
by Frank Ruscitti - Village Voice
Mike Mok’s got mice. He lives on Ludlow Street and this is the first time he’s had the four-legged visitors. They don’t piss him off, he’s just not sure what to do about them. See, he’s a shrug -your –shoulders kind of guy, and that goes for varmints too.
Don’t let his aw-shucks persona fool you; He ain’t no rube, although you might think so when you first see him perform. You have to understand the appeal is not simply the lyrics or the music—smart country tinged rock and roll. It’s Mok. Because of the of the two types of singers/songwriters out there—self confident frontman and the what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here variety—Mok is secretly the first. Every time he scratches his head in wonderment before an audience, you’ll bet the house that he doesn’t have a clue. Don’t. You’ll lose.
Beneath the crooked smile, nebbish glasses, and uncomfortable suit lies a long-time Lower East Side dweller with loads of charm. The two bands that alternate as the Em-Tones know it too; you can see how much they enjoy performing behind him. While Mok, normally the rhythm guitarist, breaks into grimacing knee-bent solos, the others spur him on with big-brotherly affection. And when he kicks in his tunes with that nasally smooth and unexpectedly sensual voice, the crowd falls helpless to his wily ways: “Is she better in bed than you? ... Except for a thing or two/like I’m still in love with you/but I don’t think about that when I’m inside her.”
He’s an original, and although that word is thrown around like street-crime-unit bullets, this time it’s deserved. Mok’s been playing live for as long as he’s lived down the block from Katz’s Deli—15 years. And although he has a small following of fanatics, he hasn’t cared to look very hard for rock stardom (his just released three song EP could help change that). Now if only he knew what to do about those damned mice.
