Lions In The Street - March/April 2007
Who: Lions In The Street
What: do not exile
Where: Vancouver, BC
To Contact: www.lionsinthestreet.com; www.myspace.com/lionsinthestreet; .
This ripping rock ‘n’ roll band - think Rolling Stones circa ‘71, ‘72 - “almost made” a record with Todd Rundgren or Bob Ezrin, frontman Chris Kinnon says, but a “rough” experience with a big U.S. label (as The Years) for which they started recording an album prompted the band to go it alone with a new name. The resulting five-song EP, Cat Got Your Tongue, was self-produced in a Vancouver basement on an old 8-track with “some half-broken microphones” and it’s a bit spooky what a throwback to the early ’70s it is. These songs would not be out of place on Sticky Fingers or Exile On Main Street, and that says something about the calibre of songwriting -loose, chugging rock ‘n’ roll, from the electric fireburner “Already Gone” to the haunting acoustic blues of “Feels Like a Long Time.” Vocalist/guitarist and songwriter Chris; his brother, drummer/vocalist Jeff Kinnon; guitarist Sean Casey, and one-named bassist/vocalist Enzo have logged stage time with Jet, Kings of Leon, Ambulance LTD, and others, and just hit the U.S. for the third time in a year. LITS might be milking the oh-so-close-to-tapping Ezrin/Rundgren thing, but why not? When you’ve been f**ked by a major, it doesn’t lessen the fact that two great producers wanted to add your band to their C.V.