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In many ways, it may be most appropriate
to say that Christians and Lions started long before all of
its members had met each other. Brothers Ben and Sam Potrykus
had been playing music and singing together since junior high,
but the bands that resulted never quite succeeded in capturing
their imagination. It wasn't until Christians and Lions was
launched with a month-long US tour in a borrowed station wagon
(upright bass strapped to the roof rack and all) that the two
felt something important beginning to take shape.
Upon discovering that two close friends and former roommates
of Ben's were each struggling just as hard to find a band as
they were to fill out their sound with additional members, the
two invited drummer Chris Mara and guitarist Matt Sisto to join,
along with local trumpet player Chris Barret to round out the
lineup as a part-timer. The band played only a handful of shows
before being thrust onto the club circuit in and around their
hometown of Boston and deciding that it was time to hit studio
Basement 247 in Allston, MA.
The result is More
Songs for Dreamsleepers and The Very Awake, an unironically-titled
debut effort, showcasing their taste for classic and traditional
rock, folk, blues, garage, psych, and contemporary indie music
in both performance and recording technique, as well as their
skill with guitars, percussion, upright bass, trumpet, organ,
singing saw, and vocals that harmonize with an eerie familial
connection that has to be heard to be believed.
It's "smart and textured indie-folk" (The Boston Phoenix),
music that's "somehow comfortable, yet unsettling...like
a Cadillac someone died in" (Jack Younger, Engineer). Well-aware
of their roots, but not a throwback, capable of experimentation,
but never dubbing themselves avant-garde, Christians and Lions
are somewhat of an anomaly, even if they seem to enjoy it. But
no one is patting themselves on the back just yet. The band's
lyrics and philosophy are influenced as much by theorists like
Althusser and MacLuhan as artists like The Zombies and The Tennessee
Three, and the members seem hell-bent on somehow keeping More
Songs relevant while completely severing ties to the people
they were when they recorded it. Prepare yourself for an identity
crisis. |
