Rock AND roll. From the basement, recorded on an 8-track, with guitar solos. Believe it.
"What the Stones were, what the Dandy Warhols should've been." Magnet Magazine
"Playing tough, swaggering '70s-styled rock & roll influenced by the Faces and the Rolling Stones, Vancouver's Lions in the Street are a band who've learned the hard way the value of doing things your own way. Lions in the Street formed in 2000 as the Years, with Chris Kinnon on lead vocals and guitar, Sean Casey on guitar, Enzo Figliuzzi on bass and vocals, and Jeff Kinnon (Chris' brother) on drums, keyboards, and vocals. As the Years gained a local following, their sound became stronger, louder, and more in tune with the sounds of rock & roll's more dangerous past. In 2004, the Years were spotted by a major-label A&R man who signed the band to a record deal and hooked them up with a manager based out of New York City. However, what seemed like a dream come true became something of nightmare -- while the group was courted by several big-name producers, they didn't seem to be the right fit for the music, and the label decided not to release the album the Years had been recording on their dime. After hiring a lawyer to get them out of their contract, the Years returned to Vancouver in early 2006 poorer but wiser and holed up in their basement practice space, where they worked up a batch of new songs and began committing them to tape using a battered eight-track recording deck. The band decided to mark the new era by changing their name to Lions in the Street, and their basement sessions resulted in a five-song EP, Cat Got Your Tongue, which the band opted to give away as a free download on their web site. The gambit created a powerful buzz for Lions in the Street, who responded by hitting the road hard in both Canada and the United States, earning a potent fan following and winning rave reviews for their showcase set at the 2007 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX."
Mark Deming - All Music Guide
"Vancouver is known for its sticky icky, and this pack of retro rockers both look and sound as if they were raised eating the stuff for breakfast. But let’s not confuse these longhairs as total stoners, because their EP titled Cat Got Your Tongue is anything but a drug-fuelled mess — they can most certainly down a bottle of JD when they need to as well. This free five-track download (including artwork to boot) reveals a band remarkably in touch with their parents’ record collection; from the cheese cutters and tight-ass denim on the CD cover to the rotation of slow groove ballads and blistering humdingers they pump out genuinely, they exude the glory of ’70s rock’n’roll. According to their blog they even have a great history: done wrong by a major label down in L.A. and pursued by production heavyweights like Bob Ezrin and Todd Rundgren — two dudes that could turn LITS into proverbial rock stars. A smattering of Exile On Main Street rings throughout frolicking boogies like “Mine Ain’t Yours,” and their ability to pen a decent ballad (check “Lady Blue” and “Feels Like A Long Time”) should be enough to make the much inferior Jet pack it in. "
www.exclaim.ca
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January Music Reviews: Lions in The Street
Cat Got Your Tongue EPGrade: A-/B+
"For some reason or another it took me a long time to finally get Lions in the Street’s EP into the stereo. The problem was, though, is once it got in there I couldn’t take it out, because it felt like you just came across an amazing lost 70s rock album – one that produces chills. Getting screwed by a major label may have been the exact prodding for these Canadians to write and self-recorded the brilliant five songs on Cat Got Your Tongue. In a double-extra fuck you to the music world, you can get this EP off LITS site for free. And when you hear the Stones-meets-Allmans “Mine Ain’t Yours” your pants just fly off your body, you know that you’ve heard the truth. “Already Gone” kicks off the scratchy recorded EP with fast riffs and bluesy attitude – where the partially sub quality recording matches the flavor of LITS nearly perfectly. The slow paced “Lady Blue” and “Feels Like a Long Time” bends the band’s softer side, while “You’re Gonna Lose” closes down the EP with dirty, distorted rock riffs. Cat Got Your Tongue brings you back to some magical days of yore where life consisted of sunshine, laughs, and relaxing on the beach."
"This Vancouver four's bio includes several reviews comparing them to the Rolling Stones, and yes sirree, there's plenty of Exile on Main Street, Goat's Head Soup, and It's Only Rock and Roll sons-of-Chuck-Berry riffage going on. There're even similar harmonies and aching "Moonlight Mile" or "Angie" -like balladry in "Feels Like a Long Time" and "Lady Blue". But the thing is, this basement eight-track recording is the punky edge the Stones stopped rollin' after Some Girls. And there's a solid R&B base that takes in a little Dave Edmunds, Eddie & The Hotrods, Ducks Deluxe, and Berry himself, especially on the saucy opener, "Already Gone." (And there's a little Faces in the blues of "You're Gonna Lose.") If you can't be new, be great at the time-tested old."
"The hipper-than-thou worms at Magnet certainly nailed Lions in the Street when they described the band as What the Stones were, what the Dandy Warhols shouldve been. The five-song Cat Got Your Tongue sounds like lost tracks from the sessions for Some Girls, a record that quite arguably stands as the Glimmer Twins finest moment. All street-fighting guitars and sucking-in-the-70s vocals, the only knock on the EP is that Lions in the Street sound more like vintage Jagger and Richards than they do a band playing original material. In other words, they do the Rolling Stones better in 2006 than the Rolling Stones themselves. Still, the final track on Cat Got Your Tongue a thundering acid-blooze explosion titled You're Gonna Lose suggests that Lions in the Street are already on their way to finding a sound thats truly their own. When they do, these guys may well be unstoppable."
LITS! Great to see you guys still powerin' along...needed my Lady Blue fix and dropped by to see if you were still alive. 'Everybody Know's This is Nowhere'...ahhh, classic Canadian rawk, and beautifully done. Meanwhile, we've given up on music and now we sell fruit. Keep awk rawkin'!
Hey Friends! Just had to swing by to say hi & I still love your music! Hope all is well in your lives & everybody's appreciating just how great you guys are! oh & come home to Scotland soon!..lol Love ali xo
we like what you boys are throwin' down...thats some "good'ol boy rock&roll"! and...we got some love for Canada as well...our bassist hails from your place of residence. cheers- theblacksummercrush
So I run youth in government conferences now- I was getting one of my schools ready for our model UN- they're representing Canada- I thought about you guys and told them they should develop an obsession with hockey and rock. Miss you all!
Hey guys! It's been a while! Hope all is well. Be sure to head back this way if the winter gets too much for ya up there! We'll catch a Predators hockey game to make you feel at home!
Hello from Madrid! Thanks so much for the add!! It's a honor 'cause the band really sounds so good!!!Your numbers are really great! Gig in Spain by any chance? Cheers and keep on rockin'. Alberto
i always let such a long period of time pass before i start talking to you guys again and i dont know why or how i even let that happen. anyways, how've you been and how are you fellow's not the biggest band in the world right now? you're so incredibly talented and amazing it just blows me away.