Sparkie Clarkie - Master of the Blog

Holy shit. What has happened to this blog?!
Not to worry. Things are going down, for instance, I spent the day on the beach.
THAT IS HARDCORE.
Why?
Because I wore my Integrity 2000 tshirt that was handed down from big brother brad.
Anyways I know thousands of people check this daily so I will give you the heads up if you don't see any new lions tracks you will get some fantastic blogs!
BUT you will see some new tracks so hold tight.

Shout outs to Petey, Ray-Ray and Morton.
Sparkout.

Apocalypse Montreal

Lookout frenchies we're coming! This sunday March 26th we're playing our first out of province show in beautiful Montreeeeal. And what an awesome show to do it at. Paint it Black is one my favorite hardcore bands of the last 5 years, and Lifetime and Kid Dynamite are 2 of my favorite bands EVER, so yeah I'm pretty excited. I want a picture with Dan Yemin (Gordie Ball I'm looking in your direction!).
And not only that, but we have so many friends up there, and friends coming with us to make the weekend awesome, we've already named it "Apocalypse Montreal". We're actually going to be in town from Friday to Monday so look out for us in the bars and breakfast places.

AND we've got a bunch of shows coming up in the next couple of months, a new website on the way, 2 releases in the works and total world domination.

The Lions Den report

Wassssssss upppppppppppp!!!!

Hello people. We are not dead. We are holed up in the Den writing for our debut full-length. We have compiled over 15 songs which we hope to have sorted out in the next couple months. We are 95% sure on the label who will be putting the record out, and lets just say we couldn't be more stoked!!! We are in fact super stoked.

Some show announcements to come and please hang with us if your in Montreal on the 26th with Paint it Black. Should be good times.

Anyway take care and please, please, please listen to "the Gathering"

special thanks to Matthew Jones.

The Spazman

In Flames rules

That is all.

Live on U of T Radio

Back in January we were invited in to CIUT the University of Toronto college radio station to do a live set and interview with Stephe Perry as I mentioned a little while ago on the blog. This week we got our hands on a copy of the songs and interview and I've posted them on the website. There are two new songs in the live set and 4 from the demo. We think Stew the sound engineer might have been high when he recorded these, but he still pulled it off. And this is the live feed that went right to air, no mixing or post production so it's pretty raw sounding, in a good way. My favorite part is probably when Brad and Steve's amps switch sides from left to right in Fallen, hahaha, but no one except us will ever know.

The interview is a marathon, clocking in at 53:35, and it's a pretty big file but funny as hell and it will give you a pretty good idea what we're all about. Thanks again to Stephe and Stew for all their hard work getting this to us so quickly!

First review...

Aversiononline has posted a nice review of our demo on their site. We've all been reading Andrew's website/blog for quite a while, so to get a review like that (for a demo!) from someone who obviously understands what we're trying to do and really "gets it" is awesome. Thanks Andrew!

And he has tons awesome unreleased, live and rare songs to download in MP3, plus reviews of lots of newer releases. I highly recommend downloading all the Handsome songs he posted a while back. A totally underrated band that was way ahead of its' time.

Lost Venues in Southern Ontario - WHOS EMMA

At the intersection of Nassau and Augusta throughout the 90s was this little super crusty record store called WHOS EMMA. I didn’t like buying records there because there was a guy with a tusk through his septum working the cash. This store definitely had a very PC feel to it (you know … WHOS EMMA, if you don’t know who that is just google “emma”). Anyhow, my friends and I liked Integrity and that wasn’t cool apparently because dwid punched out some girl. But I heard she was trash and deserved it so what’s the big deal. So one thing was for sure, you could always find an Ignite release there and that was not a bad thing, until you went to an Ignite show and saw what a bunch of assholes those guys were. Fuck that band! At the back of WHOS EMMA there was this trap door which lead … TO A DUNGEON. Just kidding. It lead to the basement which was all cement and was totally dank and when bands played there it got so hot the paint came alive and got all over you.

The one thing that stands out most to me about WHOS EMMA as a venue for shows was that I hated watching bands but loved playing there. The best part was all you needed was 40 people to show up and the place was fucking packed. And as much as I say I hated going to shows there, I seem to remember some pretty memorable ones that came through. Definitely (although I wasn’t there) Trial playing to Gavel and Haliachuk must have been a great time. But off the top of my head, in this pretty much 10X18 (roughly?) space Shai Hulud, Ten Yard Fight, Time Flies, Ire, Dilligner Escape Plan, Botch, Day Of Mourning, A Death for Every Sin, Overcast, Skycamefalling, Twelve Tribes, Good Clean Fun, only to name a whole bunch. I’m sure I’m missing lots so lay them out in the comments.

So to sum it up: WHOS EMMA – great cuz it was pretty much free and you could put on a show any day of the week. Not so great because Lisa Lionleg would always try to sell you stale cookies or you’d have to listen to some crappy pc vinyl record when all I wanted was MY CALIFORNIA TAKEOVER CD FUUUUUCK! MORE SONGS WITH TONY VICTORY SINGING!

Toronto hipsters throwin' down!

Thanks so much to everyone that came out to the show at Sneeky Dee's last Thursday, and special thanks to Chris, Eric, Cancer Bats, Fever Out! and Whore for a Heart. Even though Sparkie had been telling us for weeks it was going to be good, I was still skeptical. I was firmly under the belief that weeknight 19+ shows in Toronto sucked, but damn was I proved wrong! It might have started slow but those Toronto hipsters were really throwin' it down!
Jess Baumung sent us some pretty cool photos showcasing Sparkie's camo New Balance, and sweet Puma belt. Thanks Jess.

NEXT SHOW: This Thursday, Feb. 2nd in Hamilton, ON (that's right, first time back in the Steel!) at Sonic Unyon with Blessed by a Broken Heart, xLiferuinerx, Battlecat and Straight Reads the Line.

and the next show...

Is our first Toronto show! January 26th at Sneeky Dee's (corner of College and Bathurst for the 905ers) with Cancer Bats, Fever Out and Whore for a Heart. We're pretty psyched for this show, Cancer Bats are amazing and the flyer is awesome. AND we'll have more free demos and a fresh batch of new shirts, so come on down.

This is how we rock it in the T dot

Last sunday night (January 8th) we were lucky enough to be asked to come and play live on CIUT 89.5, the U of T college radio station. Stephe Perry who hosts the show is an old friend it was really awesome of him to want us to come in. Anybody that knows Stephe knows he's the real deal as far as Toronto hardcore goes, he's been actively involved in the scene for the last 20 years, probably longer. When I first got into hardcore in the 80's I had some songs from his band "One Blood" on a tape with DRI "Dealing with it" and SNFU "If you swear you'll catch no fish". So to me he'll always be a bit of a celebrity, and he's also one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.

We played a live 6 song set (with a couple of new songs thrown in), and then did a marathon 53 minute interview and had a total blast. Thanks so much to Stephe and Stu (and Fred?) for everything, and to the kids that showed up! It was all recorded so we should have the entire set and interview pretty soon and we'll post the whole thing on the site ASAP.

Humanity Is The Devil

I thought the old schoolers would enjoy this one. Here is a pic of The Spazman, Shawn Magill and the amazing frontman of Integrity, Dwid with his son in Cleveland circa 2000. There is no secret that Integrity is a big influence on me and this band.

Cheers

The Spazman

Lost Venues in Southern Ontario - CLASSIC STUDIOS

Directly across from the loonie bin and one of the most dodgy places to see a show when you were 16/17 yrs old is none other than Toronto's CLASSIC STUDIOS. Being your typical suburban youths, we had never been in the vicinity of schizos or run down houses or anyone with 'shifty eyes' as you walked by them. This was the case when in 1995 we all lied to our parents saying we were going to the adjacent town but were in fact riding the train into the city so we could go see Chokehold. Nevermind we had no fucking clue where this place was or how exactly we were going to get there, it was all in the name of hardcore and straight edge!
How this venue held people, I have no idea. Going to see it now it looks like it could hold maybe 20 people, and maybe it did. The only other show there I can recall was New Day Rising, BlueTip (winnipeg) and Jihad. In fact I seem to remember being totally freaked out by the neighborhood moreso than the bands that played there. Talk about white, middle classed youth! At least our parents didn't come pick us up in their mini-vans.
So there it is. One of Southern Ontario's lost venues in the heart of downtown Toronto. I'm sure there were many more shows than I listed so feel free to list them in the comments section. Let's never forget the great shows and itchy vagrants who were associated with this classic venue! (GET IT? CLASSIC!?!? HAR HAR The Jokeman strikes again!)

Merry Christmas Danner and a Happy Spazman to ya!!

So I hope everyone had a sweet ass holiday. I am currently unemployed so my holiday continues!! A lot has gone down since the last post. We have been working really hard on our full length. Songs are shaping up, but we are not rushing. We hope to have it out by summer 2006. I know that's a long time, but we want to make it sweet ass. We will announce sometime hopefully soon who will be putting out this fine product and I assure you it will not start with a V. In other news we will be performing live on air and being interviewed on CIUT in Toronto. So if you are in the local broadcast area tune in January 8th at 10:00 pm for a, hopefully kick ass performance and interview. In Rhino news we have won a game and tied a game since the last update so we are 1-13-1 now. Not bad. Unfortunately we lost 3 guys (including myself) for 2 game suspensions for throwing down (it was all the other teams fault, trust me). I think that is all for now. Come out to our show Jan. 26 at Sneaky Dees and say hello! We should have some new t-shirts by then and more free demos.

All Hail The Spazman.

Guelph Show - The Shadow

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the first SOLD OUT To The Lions show. Guelph once again proved to be one of our favorite places to play time and time again. Hopefully we'll back again soon. Sorry we ran out of merch so fast but we'll have a bunch made up for our next show (Jan.26.06 - Toronto - Sneaky Dee's w/ Cancer Bats).

Guelph show this friday

We've got a show coming up this friday Dec. 16th in Guelph, ON at Shadow. It's all ages and licensed if you wanna get your booze on. This is our first show in about 2 months and our first "headlining show", hahahaha. So we'll see if Spark can pull off a 45 minute set. We've got a couple of new songs to try out, and Guelph was always one of our favorite places to play in the past so we're pretty stoked for this show. Just ignore the "for fans of grade" thing on the flyer... we don't make these things.

Tothelions.ca

Our new website was posted yesterday at tothelions.ca, so go take a look. It's a pretty basic site, since we haven't been around long and don't have much content yet. This blog is linked off the site and the demo mp3s will be permanently hosted there, and show dates and contact information, probably some photos and live video as soon as we can get some. If anybody has any show photos they can send us that would be awesome, you can just email me.
And leave comments here if you have any suggestions or find any problems with the site and I'll try and fix them with my limited web knowledge.

30

Hi I just realised I am approaching 30 on Dec. 21st this year. I just want to let everyone know that Hardcore and Metal has never been so vital to me as it is now. I need it to live and it completes my life along with my wife. I have never looked forward to turning an age more. I think me and my fellow 30 plus bandmates can attest, don't be afraid of age. We are like fine wine, only getting stronger and better.

peace see you all soon

All hail The Spazman

PS Burlington Rhinos now 0-12

Done... moving on.

Ok, we've had this demo recorded since September and for various reasons it wasn't finished until last week.We recorded it in our practice space with all our own gear, a firewire interface and Garageband running on a 12" Apple Powerbook. But the beauty of doing it yourself is you can take your time with it.

The process went like this:
Record it, mix it, burn a few copies for a show. Listen to it again, remix some songs, burn a few more copies for some shows. Listen to it some more, decide mastering would make it sound awesome, wait for mastering guy. Decide it still sucks, remix it again, master it yourself, burn some copies for ourselves and maybe just say enough is enough and make this the final version.

So, we're moving on. We've got three new songs finished already, and at least another three written and just need arranging and some lyrics. Sorry to anyone who got one of the earlier versions of these songs, you were our lab rats. But what the fuck are you complaining about it was free anyway you cheap bastards...

Here are the final versions mixed, remixed, remixed again and mastered. And you can download the individual songs or altogether as a handy zip file And if you're feeling really crafty there's a PDF file of the demo cover with lyrics.

To The Lions Demo.zip
Demo Cover

Ride the Apocalypse
Amnesia
Illumination of the Damned
Fallen
Chokehold
From Fear and Hate Sets Free

Strange ...

It has just been pointed out to me that there is a very bizarre connection with the Jones family.

As mentioned in my previous post, I took over the duties of singing for Rob and Gordie's band "The Evil Cheese" (which turns out they were actually called Downfall but that's not a funny name at all wtf) - the singer who I took over from - ALEX JONES

THEN

About 3 months into Enter the Dragon our bass player quit and after an exhausting search for a replacement we found him - NICK JONES

THEN

10 years later after over five years without playing in a band I finally get the call to start something up from none other than - MATT JONES!!!

AND NOW I JUST LOOKED AT MY WATCH AND IT'S FROZEN AT 12:00:00 HOLY SHIT!!!

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.