From The Music Museum of New England:
The Atlantics were Boston kings of the “shoulda been.” The new wave band had strong songwriters who crafted tight tunes with infectious arrangements, and it had a first-rate live show. The group was formed in 1976 by a couple of Tufts students, guitarist Tom Hauck and bass player B Wilkinson. The rest of the classic Atlantics line-up included vocalist Bobby Marron, drummer Ray Boy Fernandes (and later Paul Caruso) and guitarist Fred Pineau. The group was a victim of bad management, bad producers, and record company mayhem. Signed to ABC in 1978, the band’s debut disc Big City Rock had stellar moments like the title track, but the hack production job didn’t come close to capturing the band’s real sound. ABC was sold to MCA weeks before the album’s 1979 release, and MCA then quickly dropped the Atlantics from its roster. The band later rebounded with a local 1980 single, “Lonelyhearts,” which is one of the very best slices of Boston rock from that era. But the Atlantics never made national waves again and disbanded in 1983. Wilkinson died in 2000, Caruso in 2006. The Atlantics recently released a CD of pop/rock gems from the ’79-‘83 era, such as “Pop Shivers” and “Weekend” that cuts their first album to pieces.