Video :: Christians & Lions - Gimmie Diction

Found this on a DVD at a Whitehaus yard sale. Don't tell Warner Brothers!!

Read More ::

:: Read Less

Playlist :: Christians & Lions - MORE More Songs For the Dreamsleepers & the Very Awake

Here's a little treat for any potential Christians & Lions fans. From following the band for a while, I've compiled some additional non-album material that happens to be pretty damn good. So, I've made a playlist of the aforementioned songs.

The first section is all unreleased songs.

'We Fall and Get Up' I snatched from myspace, circa 2006...maybe. A sweet acoustic thing about indigestion and indecision. It kind of lyrically relates to the bridge in 'Stay Warm,' "if we only find ourselves in decision, will we only find ourselves indecision?" Don't know why this one never made it onto any release.

'Firebelly Salamander' was on the Christians & Lions Acoustic LP that was released before More Songs.

'Waltz in D' and 'Palek' were also snatched from myspace, but after the Bird's Milk EP in 2009.

'Outlaws' was on the first little Sharp Teeth demo burned CD that I bought at a show in 2005 for two bucks.

The next section is alternate versions of songs on More Songs that are really interesting for one reason or another.

'Bones' has a mandolin in it and for some reason I always really liked when Sam shouts "Let's walk he says!" after the homeless man line before the bridge. This is also from the Acoustic LP.

'Stay Warm' is a demo also with mandolin. From that same Sharp Teeth burned CD.

'Sexton Under Glass,' my favorite version of this song, with mandolin and more uptempo. They used the mandolin for a while, mostly with Sharp Teeth. It was a shame to see it go.

'Things Don't Fall Apart, They Just Give Up on Being What They Are' is actually a demo of 'Some Trees.' For some reason the song got to me with that title. It's actually a line from 'Everybody So Gorgeous' on Bird's Milk. This version is interesting because it has the singing saw, a synth and what sounds like clinking glasses for percussion. It sounds very different from the album version. No idea where this came from.

'A Seven Alarm Fire is Burning Sacred Heart to the Ground' is a 'Landing' demo. The saw really makes this one. Think this came from the Sharp Teeth myspace.

'Free Radio Post-Apocalyptic Metropolis Blues,' is a really cool demo of the version on the Gimmie Diction single and Bird's Milk EP. It's got a nice litte intro.

'Alphamale Soup/Two Row Pale' is a live instrumental thing from 2007. Towards the end of their first run, the band started doing a lot of these semi-digital, very different sounding things. Would've made for an interesting second album.

christiansandlions.com

myspace.com/christiansandlions

myspace.com/sharpteeth

Read More ::

:: Read Less

Christians & Lions :: More Songs for the Dreamsleepers & the Very Awake

It was in the basement of a building on Boylston Street in the mid aughties. Some students from Emerson College set up a show of absurdly different bands. A thrash-core scream-fest metal monstrosity, whose name has been lost to time, finish pillaging the stage and pack up their gear. Fans who were a moment ago throwing themselves into one another and 'slam dancing,' now wait, panting. A group of guys walk in front of the stage. One of them has black wavy hair and Truman Capote glasses and says, "we do things a little differently." He asks everyone to take a seat in a circle around them. The other guys pick up their instruments as he pulls over an upturned trash can with a torn bit of cardboard on it and sets up a tambourine on top of a hat on the floor, testing its sound with his foot. Some confused and sweaty skacore kids stumble out of the back door, but the rest of the crowd sits.

The group plays. Steel brushes chatter against cardboard and tin, the acoustic guitar chasing the rhythm. An upright bass bumbles along, a singing saw is squeezed between knees, and mandolin trickles throughout. Harmonic croonings emerge from the boys that, back then, were calling themselves 'Sharp Teeth.'

It could've been just the fact that those two acts were such a stark juxtaposition, but the audience was entranced, faces awash with surprise. Simple, hollow instruments with thick earthly resonance matched well with prophetic words that were humble, but had an insistence and urgency pervasive throughout. This was nothing wildly inventive; the old world folk attitude came just as people were starting to call that particular sound a 'revival' around 2005. It was just pregnant with poignancy. Amidst the well worn patterns of noise, things could be a little different.

Read More ::

:: Read Less