Crossing Lions

When I listen to Shake The Dust, the debut EP by Vancouver’s Crossing Lions, I can’t help but feel a little bit of sunshine. Don’t get me wrong, I do indeed live in the lower mainland of BC where it has been one big puddle of rain for the past 4 or 5 months, but there’s a silver lining in this young band’s music that will instill some musical vitamin D, the exact antidote we’ve been in such desperate need of, out here on the west coast, from all this wet and grey weather.

In their album opener Caulfield, it’s clear that despite the aforementioned weather doldrums, Crossing Lions are optimistic with sunny guitar riffs, perfectly vine-ripened melodies and aromatic keys which all display the band’s quality instrumentation. They don’t quit with the musical optimism either. The bridge lines in Up and Out are lyrically inspiring as lead singer Pé Tolfo insists “Just hold onto that hope/Don’t cut it, don’t cut it out”. Along with the acoustic and electric guitars playing beautiful games with each other, the bass gleefully runs up and down a major scale and horns croon subtly in the background to round off one of the best songs on the EP.

The four-piece even throw a pretty cool instrumental ditty called Come On that’s only 1:43 in length, and is basically an extended intro into their next track, Wake Up. The former carries into the latter nearly seamlessly and by now, if you aren’t feeling that Vitamin D I was referring to earlier, you may need to check your musical pulse. If there’s one thing Crossing Lions know how to do, it’s how to write some catchy melodies with solid, head-bopping rhythms to maintain that steady musical pulse . They know how to do other things well, like write a good indie pop tune. Take for example the last two tracks of the Shake The Dust: To Say The Most and Sunsets.

To Say The Most begins bare with only a kick drum and bass accompaniment and then those gleaming guitar tones and chords begin ringing through. Pé Tolfo’s voice is the icing on the indie pop cake. Their rhythmic prowess and sweet harmonies will carry you through this musical foray.

The last track, Sunsets, is exactly that: a lovely sunset to an all-to-brief beginning. I know this theme is getting old, so I will make it short, but as I’ve mentioned over and over, this is another shot of musical sun rays, beating down on one’s ears. It’s a great song to end the album as throughout the outro, a chorus of voices sing, “Don’t take the time we shared for granted!”. A parting message and a little, subtle reminder to come back for more.

As much as Shake The Dust does right, it may be too much of a sunny disposition for some. I personally don’t mind (and quite enjoy) the upbeat positivity and optimism that’s ever-present in their music, but one can’t help but wonder if there’s a darker, moodier side of Crossing Lions that we haven’t been treated to. One may also wonder what that music may sound like…

But one should know better than to mess with a good thing.

Besides, if too much “bright side” music isn’t your thing, I still recommend listening to Shake The Dust, but after you do, pop in Chris Isaak’s Forever Blue, sip some Syrah and dream of what may never be.

Or don’t. (In fact, unless you are recently heartbroken and actually enjoy the pain of your heart shattered, I wouldn’t recommend Forever Blue. It’s that depressing)

But I digress…

If you are like me and a little sick of this rainy weather, do yourself a favour and give these young lads from Vancouver a listen. I’m pretty sure they will brighten your day, one track at a time.

Crossing Lions on Facebook (<– click the link!) They’ve only released 3 tracks from the EP and one older song called Forgery, but take a listen!

Thanks to the Crossing Lions crew for allowing me the pleasure of listening. My apologies for the delay in review!

-Dylan - More That A Feeling Blog

Band on the run


BY JESSICA BARRETT, NORTH SHORE NEWS FEBRUARY 11, 2010


Singer/songwriter Pé Tolfo (short for Giuseppe) has nothing against North Vancouver but he's the first to admit it's a little sheltered when it comes to the music scene.

"You grow up in North Vancouver, so you kind of grow up in a bubble," he says, still a little groggy during an early morning phone call. "When I was growing up, the major thing was to rock out to Blink 182. I grew up listening to pop-rock."

At just 18, it's arguable the lead singer of Crossing Lions may still have a bit of world experience to gather under his belt, but his musical tastes have definitely matured.

"Obviously my generation was when Fall Out Boy and all those groups came into being successful rock bands. In the music we play, that's the really frontal thing you hear, I based my singing off all those guys. But as a song writer (I'm influenced by) Dashboard Confessional and as a musician I listen to Stevie Wonder and Tom Waits."

Tolfo adds Elton John and Billy Joel among his chief influences but he also looks to his band mates for inspiration. The crew, comprised of guitarist Adam Vajda, bass player Marek Olsen and drummer James Higgins bring influences from Led Zeppelin to Jason Mraz into Crossing Lions' indie pop sound, which will be on display at Olympic celebrations on the North Shore over the next week.

All recent graduates of Handsworth secondary, Tolfo says it took the band a few years to find each other and gel as a group, despite a huge band culture at the high school.

"Handsworth had a lot of emerging little bands coming up when I first got into the school and there wasn't really a place for me in one of them," says Tolfo, an acoustic guitarist who dabbles in piano. "So I just started to play by myself and sing and stuff. Then I met the guitarist (Vajda) and we started to play together and it just kind of kept growing from an acoustic side project. We never really performed, just played together."

After adding bassist Olsen and original drummer Jake Gehlen (who has since moved away to go to school) the quartet saw some potential in the project and decided to take things a little more seriously, rehearsing weekly and playing gigs around town.

Getting into the swing of performing for an audience was a big leap, says Tolfo, noting he and Vajda suffer from a bit of shyness. The turn came after the duo earned an invite to play at Vancouver's Vogue theatre during charity concert West Fest last May, opening for headliners Marianas Trench -- a big deal for Tolfo.

"Mariana's Trench was my favourite band in the world when I was in to pop/punk," he says, noting the band also incorporates influences from past music greats into their radio-friendly sound, for example, basing harmonies off of the Beach Boys.

Looking to his idols, Tolfo and the Lions crew experimented with other influences, like Beatles' style chord progressions ("If you're not influenced by the Beatles in your music you're not really writing good music," he says) while recording their upcoming EP, Your Chase, with Creativ Music's Jamie Kuse in North Vancouver. It was a huge learning process for the band.

"After going into that process you understand how important a band is because we incorporate harmonies, we had to take out guitar parts to make way for bass parts, we had to change chord progressions to really fit what was going on in the rest of the song," says Tolfo.

The resulting four-song disc is a bit of a smorgasbord of sounds. The first release, "Your Chase" available online is "catchy and mindless like everything else on the radio," Tolfo says. The band delves into more interesting territory with tracks like "Forgery" which demonstrate complex harmonies and sophisticated manipulation of time signature. The EP also includes an instrumental cut.

Tolfo admits the band is still a little schizophrenic as it tries to narrow down its sound. But one thing seems certain, the way things are headed, Tolfo is going to have to get over his stage fright.

Crossing Lions play several shows on the North Shore over the next week including West Vancouver's Spirit Square tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. and Lynn Valley's Valley Fest Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. To find out more, search Crossing Lions on Facebook.

GIG GUIDE

Tonight -- Haiti Benefit Concert at the Ambleside Youth Centre from 7-11 p.m. on a bill with Nowadaze, Sam Scholes and Citizen Joy.

Saturday, Feb. 13 -- Lonsdale Quay 6-9 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 13 -- West Vancouver Community Centre Spirit Square: Olympic Youth Music Showcase. Crossing Lions hit the stage at 10:45 p.m. (show runs 6:30-11 p.m.)

Saturday, Feb. 20 -- Lonsdale Quay 6-9 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 21 -- Valleyfest at the Library Square, 3-4:30 p.m.

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Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/Band/2556223/story.html#ixzz0spV81MNl - The North Shore News