Moving on from the dark corners of music business
Let’s travel back in time for a minute. To the days when the music scene was dark business and fatal to all those who’d stumble upon it. I’m sure we’re now well aware of our unheeding dependency on social media’s grant of a means to communicate. We once didn’t have an opinion. Sorry, no - we once didn’t have an avenue to designate our very much existing opinions to fulfil independently-driven relationships and outcomes as citizens of this music society.
About a decade ago (in 2013, to be precise), a band dropped their debut EP “On The Lam”. Can you imagine an equivocal projection of rock’n’roll survivors? The four-piece Lions In The Street created a first dent in the scene with pure Vancouver blues and an alternative rock distillation. They portrayed distorted guitar riffs and redeeming bass lines through a thick-skinned record deal.
Let’s not fast-forward back just yet. We’re still wound into the 2000s when two brothers, after adopting a young passion for music, joined forces with a friend from the hood and a Calabrian-Canadian bass legend. They plunged themselves straight into open sea, where suited sharks roamed hungrily looking for a bite from bands benefits, blinded to the importance of a zealous pursuit of music.
But as far as happily ever afters go, there’s always a sequence to a story. Lions In The Street focused their initial creativity on making music they love. “We put out music for love of the game, certainly not for money!”. Getting the chance to hang out with Peter Buck, Todd Rundgren, and Bob Ezrin back in the day didn’t cancel out the fact that they had to break through work accidents, health problems, the adjustment of a change in jobs and countries as well as difficult relationships with record labels; leading them to limited choices and a long pause from releasing new material.
Until now, in 2023, they returned by releasing new singles as a tedious build-up to an album drop of remixed and rare tracks this March. Even though the title of the LP is not certain, the passionate embrace of 70’s blues rock surely is. Expect to fall into step with their walking blues and country tendencies. However, they are not shying from taking a step further into pop influences from The Beatles, Bee Gees, The Carpenters, etc, and crafting their sound into music no one’s heard before. Not only have we their upcoming LP waiting to greet us this year, but an unreleased live at SiriusXM and an album with Nashville heavyweight Dave Cobb. Ears must definitely be peeled.
I sense refreshment in this band once known as The Years. I can even sense a metaphor here - sometimes, I like to think I’m quite the sage. The years passed and, powering through long sweat and tears, the Lions grew to take their stance in the Street. They now enjoy being in charge of themselves and keeping in touch with the audience as their peers. "Now you can go directly to fans with your music through social media, and it's really glorious." Sticking to the pop-rock niche, they enclose encounters with personal relationship gubbins for their songs. They've also called upon the relatable, tantalising fear of failure and disappointment in a few of the new album pieces.