August 7th, 2009 - Lioness with Grand Analog
$10 advance, $12 door
Tickets available at Leo's Video and Habitat
Lioness came together, almost in secret, in Toronto in the winter of 2007, when Jeff Scheven and Ronnie Morris, the rhythm section behind the dark, stomping disco pulses of controller.controller, hooked up with Vanessa Fischer of soul-punk quartet No Dynamics. Honing their craft by playing low-key after-hours sets in sweaty, off-the-radar locales throughout the city, the band nonetheless generated a remarkable undercurrent of buzz in the following months, leading to support slots with the likes of !!!, Hercules and the Love Affair, You Say Party! We Say Die! and K-OS.
Their sans-guitar sound is like a head-on collision of old and new, as Fischer draws upon jazz, old soul and blues, roaring and moaning over layers of electronic squall and elastic rhythms like a witch in heat. It’s a clash of organic and synthetic, the sound of disco and house music filtered and distorted through the instrumental apparatus of live rock and roll. On stage, they are a synthesis of electronic rock band and performance art project, a drum and bass wall of sound bathed in red light.
The band recorded their self-titled EP with Rob Sanzo at Signal To Noise and was it mastered by "Nilz" Patel at The Exchange in London. The Lioness EP was released October 21st, 2008 on New Romantic.
"Lioness is your response to your jaded friend’s claims that indie rock ain’t got no soul."
-XLR8R
"Combining the massive elements of Led Zeppelin with the bleeps-and-blips skinny jeans dance craze, Lioness... seems well-poised to pick-up Toronto's coolest band-ever mantle..."
-The National Post
"Anyone familiar with the members’ other work won’t be too surprised by what they find in Lioness, but if you ask me, the band are the marriage of those aforementioned bands’ best bits."
-Exclaim!
"…sweaty death-disco grooves that are as contagious as the common cold."
-Eye Weekly
"Lioness is the sound of 3 am."
-Vue Weekly
"Bass lovers be warned: this disc might be your hottest wet dream since Death From Above 1979."
-CHARTattack
Grand Analog is fronted by Odario Williams. Members include Ofield Williams (DJ), Alister Johnson (keys), Warren Bray (bass) and Damon Mitchell (guitar). Grand Analog is a raw collective of seasoned record collectors, musicians and self described beat junkies. Odario describes the Grand Analog sound as a beautiful mess of rap'n'roll, dub and soul. "Grand Analog is unbalanced and dirty; never clean. Grand Analog is fuzzy with three coats of dust and reads like an old manual no longer in use". Calligraffiti, the debut album, has an array of soundscapes you can travel through: 'Touch Your Toes' boasts James Brown style drums, rock guitar and a New Orleans style horn break. 'Around This Town' can only be described as a ska-pop-hiphop joint. The new album titled "Metropolis Is Burning" keeps these traditions alive by fine tuning what is now the Grand Analog sound. Odario and DJ Ofield blame their father, a reggae DJ from the 80s, for cursing them with the love of music, bass and trouble. Catalist on keyboards was also born into a musical family inheriting a few dusty analog keys for the lab. GA's live show adds soul to the bloodline mixing infrequent stage jams and off the wall tactics. Grand Analog's METROPOLIS IS BURNING is available May 26, 2009.
Yours truly is very much looking forward to this show...
Tickets available at Leo's Video and Habitat
Lioness came together, almost in secret, in Toronto in the winter of 2007, when Jeff Scheven and Ronnie Morris, the rhythm section behind the dark, stomping disco pulses of controller.controller, hooked up with Vanessa Fischer of soul-punk quartet No Dynamics. Honing their craft by playing low-key after-hours sets in sweaty, off-the-radar locales throughout the city, the band nonetheless generated a remarkable undercurrent of buzz in the following months, leading to support slots with the likes of !!!, Hercules and the Love Affair, You Say Party! We Say Die! and K-OS.
Their sans-guitar sound is like a head-on collision of old and new, as Fischer draws upon jazz, old soul and blues, roaring and moaning over layers of electronic squall and elastic rhythms like a witch in heat. It’s a clash of organic and synthetic, the sound of disco and house music filtered and distorted through the instrumental apparatus of live rock and roll. On stage, they are a synthesis of electronic rock band and performance art project, a drum and bass wall of sound bathed in red light.
The band recorded their self-titled EP with Rob Sanzo at Signal To Noise and was it mastered by "Nilz" Patel at The Exchange in London. The Lioness EP was released October 21st, 2008 on New Romantic.
"Lioness is your response to your jaded friend’s claims that indie rock ain’t got no soul."
-XLR8R
"Combining the massive elements of Led Zeppelin with the bleeps-and-blips skinny jeans dance craze, Lioness... seems well-poised to pick-up Toronto's coolest band-ever mantle..."
-The National Post
"Anyone familiar with the members’ other work won’t be too surprised by what they find in Lioness, but if you ask me, the band are the marriage of those aforementioned bands’ best bits."
-Exclaim!
"…sweaty death-disco grooves that are as contagious as the common cold."
-Eye Weekly
"Lioness is the sound of 3 am."
-Vue Weekly
"Bass lovers be warned: this disc might be your hottest wet dream since Death From Above 1979."
-CHARTattack
Grand Analog is fronted by Odario Williams. Members include Ofield Williams (DJ), Alister Johnson (keys), Warren Bray (bass) and Damon Mitchell (guitar). Grand Analog is a raw collective of seasoned record collectors, musicians and self described beat junkies. Odario describes the Grand Analog sound as a beautiful mess of rap'n'roll, dub and soul. "Grand Analog is unbalanced and dirty; never clean. Grand Analog is fuzzy with three coats of dust and reads like an old manual no longer in use". Calligraffiti, the debut album, has an array of soundscapes you can travel through: 'Touch Your Toes' boasts James Brown style drums, rock guitar and a New Orleans style horn break. 'Around This Town' can only be described as a ska-pop-hiphop joint. The new album titled "Metropolis Is Burning" keeps these traditions alive by fine tuning what is now the Grand Analog sound. Odario and DJ Ofield blame their father, a reggae DJ from the 80s, for cursing them with the love of music, bass and trouble. Catalist on keyboards was also born into a musical family inheriting a few dusty analog keys for the lab. GA's live show adds soul to the bloodline mixing infrequent stage jams and off the wall tactics. Grand Analog's METROPOLIS IS BURNING is available May 26, 2009.
Yours truly is very much looking forward to this show...
- Categories: Concerts , Past Events , Indie Rock
