The Continued History of To The Lions - Part 1.5 of 3

So where were we? Ah yes, Brad and Matt fighting in the basement of the Oak Tree Diner in 1995. I'm pretty sure at one point someone was stabbed with a pool cue, I'm not sure though, I was 16 at the time and high on lsd.

So 1995 was an important year for myself, Sparkie, Sparkles, Spanky, Spooky, Sparkler, XSPARKMARKERX, Sparkly Brown, Senior Montoya Sparklebons. This was the first year I was able to finally assemble a band to call my own. I single handedly recruited some younger kids from my high school who were in need of some direction and leadership in the ways of hardcore music. Enter the most infamous (although not yet) message board poster of all time, Gordie Ball, and Rob Blyth. When I met them they were in a band called "The Evil Cheese". Fucking shit. What a couple of goofs. So I set them straight and told them they now have a new singer and their band is called "Enter the Dragon"!!!!
This was the best thing to ever happen to these guys and I'm glad I helped them out. If you never heard Enter the Dragon you obviously are stupid and ugly. I will post one of our biggest hits shortly that was called "Trampoline Girl" that had the sickest chorus of CHARRED, BLACK, DEATH!!!! Actually if anyone has the demo please email me I sold mine on ebay for $250. Anyways where was I? Oh right, Enter the Dragon was probably the biggest band in Southern Ontario in 1996. So big in fact we got kicked off Cleveland Fest that year because they were worried we'd bring too much trouble. That's right - CLEVELAND. So after about 8 months of totally tearing it up Gordie "Tears" Ball quit the band and we tried going on but our replacement guitarist was a christian and too fucking happy all the time it really pissed me off, so I was like fuck this I'm done. If you have the means to pick up an Enter the Dragon demo I highly recommend it, it is so choice.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the continued history of To The Lions where I will further discuss and show examples of myself wearing stupid necklaces, baggy pants and tshirts that were made for really fat people. As well I will explore Chris Danner's role in the Southern Ontario hardcore scene as the manager of Lick's and how he brought the truly vegetarian nature burger into existence.

The concept of a demo

I have been thinking a lot lately about what this really means and how much it has changed since I first got into hardcore... in the late 80's. Demo tapes were pretty much the way of life for us back then and except for scanning maximum rock'n'roll for ads of bands we'd heard of and sending them $3 or $4 for a 7" (and waiting and hoping it showed up in the mail sometime that year). These demos were the most raw recordings imaginable, but I loved every one of them. There are demos of local (and Buffalo) bands I'm dying to get converted to mp3 so I can have them on my iPod. And that kind of brings me to my point right now.

In the modern world it's so easy for any kid with a computer to setup and record in their basement that mp3s on sites like Purevolume and Myspace have replaced demo tapes as the way to get yor music out there, and occasionally I'll see demo CDs out at shows. I think this is amazing, and I'm totally for embracing technology to grow and expand the scene.
My problem is with the commercialization and push for bands to explode onto the scene wth a slick product that's going to get them noticed and get them signed and millions. This means bands are spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on recording a demo (EPK, Press Kit or whatever) that sounds better than every record I've ever put out in all my band incarnations!
I guess my real problem here is that my previous band straddled the line between hardcore and what is now mainstream pop music so I have seen both sides. I have and always will think of myself as a hardcore kid, and I will always have those ideals, but our scene has completely changed. There are still the diehard hardcore kids with some kind of DIY ethic, and that's really who I want to play for because that's where I feel at home, but regardless of what I want, the line between these scenes is really blurry and bands jump across all the time.

To me a demo is saying "here's some songs we wrote, we like them and we wanted to record them so we could listen to them, and share them with people we hope will also like them", NOT sending out a product that's going to launch my career of superstardom. I don't want to be a "rock god". I'm not ashamed to record something that's not perfect, or not finished or maybe we're not sure about. It's opening yourself up for criticism, and sometimes it hurts, but you are always going to get criticism no matter how slick or perfect you think that recording is. But if you're doing what you really love and you believe in it, you're going to find some percentage of people who have the same kind of passion as you and can see beyond a missed drum fill or something not being mechanically precise, to the heart of your music.
And what it comes down to is I'd rather share everything, flaws and all, than be scared about some kid on a message board who has no idea where I come from or what I'm all about. This isn't for him, it's for me and the people who really give a fuck.
I will continue to post songs, without regard for sound quality or artistic merit, just because that one comment that says "dude that new song is awesome" makes it all worthwhile.

0-10

So I was reading Sparks post about the history of the band and the part where Jones yells "football jocks suck" or something of that respect and I started laughing. First off Jones is one of the better athletes I know and also the closest football jock clone I have ever met. Not a bad thing at all. The guy pulls in some pretty decent trim! Anyhow it brings me to my point today. When I was younger I was a hockey nut. I played in leagues every year from when I was 5 to 16. It was around the age of 16 that I figured out that hockey and metal music didn't mix. I was listening to the Misfits and Maiden and Celtic Frost and those bands would never dream of playing hockey. So I quit. For the next 12 years I would roam the world as a rock god. Drinking and smoking and whatever else. Killing my body to the point of no return. Now at the age of 28 I decided to step on the ice again. What happened? Well I fell back in love with the sport I should never have left. I felt at a young age that there was no way I could mix hardcore and hard hits. Well all those years of partying and rocking took its toll on my game and I realized I would never play in the shape I was in. So..........I quit smoking. I've been clean for over a year now. I rarely drink anymore (ha), and I'd like to think I'm healthy. Well I did all this purely for Hockey. So once again another positive plus for sports! So what does this all mean???? Well kids, don't ever think you have to put all your eggs in one basket. Love something for the fact of what it is, not for the stereotypes, not for anyone else but yourself.

PS my team the Burlington Rhinos is 0-10 for the season this year. We just can't win a game. However I'm out with my friends and family sharing some memories that will last forever. If your ever in Burlington on a Wednesday night stop by the Wave ice centre and check out a game. Music and sports...............it can mix.

Mosh
Brad

Revisionist history...

Here's the real story of the Grade/Trunk controversy 'cause Sparky was too young to remember correctly.
During our set Kyle said something like "people who smoke are supporting racism because the tobacco companies target minorites with their advertising". Made sense at the time, 'cause I was straight-edge. Mike Fontaine (Fonz) from Trunk came up to the front of the stage and blew smoke in Kyle's face and gave him the finger. Kyle jumped in the crowd and they started to go at it. Jerry the bass player from Trunk (also my roomate last year) jumped in and I started giving him shit. But it was basically a Grade show, so they were outnumbered, and it ended with no punches thrown, just a few heated words.
Ty, the drummer from Trunk came up to me after the show and said "great set man, as always" and I left utterly confused. And of course we all now hang out together and smoke and drink and be racist.

A (not so) Short History of To The Lions - Part 1 of 3 - The 90s

Will the 90s end up like the 80s? In ten years will kids be kicking massive raver pants, fat necklaces and oversized tshirts? All I know is 10 years ago I never would have thought girls would be wearing leg warmers again (and looking SO FIIIIIIIIINE MMM-MMMM-MMMMMM). So in order to be prepared I have refused to throw out, use as washcloth, or hand down any of my extra-large hardcore shirts. So my outspoken shirt goes halfway down to my knees (how did I ever wear this in the first place?!) - in 2012 I'll be the baddest old school (35 yr old) kid on the block!

So this fashion introduction is the backdrop to those in To The Lions, all of whom getting their start in the punk/hc scene in the early/mid 90s. I remember hearing GB and Bad Brains in the spring of '92 while visiting a friend in California. I'd like to say "that was it - I was hooked!" (because that is so original) and I remember really liking GB but still being a dirty chate and listening to Metallica and Slayer while sporting a jean jacket and hockey hair mullet (hmmm much like I do now - wow I'm really banking on this 90s resurgence). Anyone who is in the know, knows that in order to have any real cred in the 'scene' (at least this the case when you are 15) you must be in a band.

The first Lion to take it to the Southern Ontario hardcore scene was Matt Jones in his early snapcase rip-off band Facedown. Although they didn't have clever lyrics like "Land of the free - home of the Braaaaaave!" they did have TWO singers (so 90s). Shortly thereafter Facedown downsized to one singer but chose a new one altogether and thus SUN STILL BURNS was formed! These guys put out 2 badass demos that perhaps Matt would put on the site for everyone's listening pleasure. Now at this point in time there was a band from Burlington called INCISION. These guys fucking ruled. They sounded like Integrity and won supernova battle of the bands all over the place. Around 1994 both of these bands called it a day - or Incision reformed with Matt Jones on bass guitar under the new and improved moniker GRADE (yes THE grade). During this time, although I was not directly influenced or totally aware of this at the time, Brad Lion was punking out with his floppy-hawk in TRUNK. All I remember was these guys had a music video which was kinda a big deal back then. I also specifically remember a show in Oakville where both Grade and Trunk played together. The dudes in Trunk seemed to be chain-smoking drunks and looked like a surly bunch as a whole. At some point while Grade was setting up some sort of commotion began between Trunk and Grade climaxing with Matt Jones shouting out "GO BACK TO THE FOOTBALL FIELD YOU JOCKS!" - Hardcore 1 - Punks 0!!! He may have in fact been yelling right at Brad at that point - we will never now.

KILLSWITCH DVD

I just picked up the new Killswitch live DVD. It is of course no surprise that it is a mind blowing live DVD. However the real gem is this cool documentary on it that goes through the origins of the band by people in and around the Mass. scene and how they all played with each other at one time or the other. It really reminded me of the Ontario scene back in the day. How everyone played with everyone and how we were so incestuous. Very cool stuff worth picking up. Great metal band playing great metal music!!

Mosh
Brad

Buried treasure

In the process of cleaning up my basement I found a CD called "Grade Demo's '99". I have seen this Cd on my shelf for years and for some reason thought it was backup of songs I demo'd in ProTools for Headfirst. Still I wanted to listen to them 'cause I'm sure my demos sounded better than the horrible mix on that CD. I was honestly shocked to realize it was 6 demo songs we recorded before the Under the Radar recording sessions. I don't actually hate any of our records, but there are lots of things I don't like about them. On UTR it's the guitar sound. Where it should sound heavy and full, it sounds like Greg's playing in a tincan. The guitar's on these demo's really sound 100 times better. Way more raw and powerful. The songs themselves are a litle rough sounding and there were a few parts I'd completely forgotten about that we eventually changed on the album versions, but overall I like these songs again... a lot.

The Inefficiency of Emotion
Triumph and Tragedy
The Worst Lies Are Told in Silence
The Tension Between Stillness and Motion
When Something Goes To Your Head

Cletus, cut the umbrellical...

Welcome to the Lions Den! When we started this band we decided that a Myspace page was something that we would never do because the Teenbeat Emo Pop scene completely disgusts us all, and through no fault of their's Myspace has become the Mecca of that scene. BUT there a couple of things we do really like... hardcore, and free shit. I've been reading a good friend's blog for a couple of years now and realized this was a great idea for us to voice our opinions, keep people uptodate on the band and give away free shit. So we'll try our best to post news, upcoming shows and free songs and whatever else here as much as possible.

Matt out.