Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
There was Mania inside B-Side last Thursday night.
Local rockers Mania featuring Ryerson journalism student Marco Ursi on drums brought their excessive enthusiasm and catch-a-riffic' sound to the crowd at the Peter Street night club.
Lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player Graeme Lang twisted, shook and stomped on the stage while his powerful, soulful voice belted out melodies so catchy that audience members could sing along by the second chorus. Phil Snell's entire body bobbed along with the music as if he was attached to strings while Daniel Primerano hunched way over his keyboard, his fingers flying over each note.
The thumping bass from Matt Cameron's guitar kept everyone's feet tapping, and Ursi's heart-racing, up-tempo beats and comical faces behind the drum set drove the songs on.
"Those are my orgasmic faces," he says.
At one point, Snell picked up a drumstick lying in the middle of the stage, smashed it against the cymbals and strummed his guitar chords with it. The band started to play one of their songs "Do what you gotta do."
Until recently, the members of Mania weren't feeling so good. Previously known as The Remedy, the boys say there was a lot of tension with a former band member.
"We had a falling out with him," Ursi says. The remaining members formed Mania and brought in Cameron. "Matt Cameron was a friend of ours. He'd come to our shows, he was eager to join, so it was an easy switch," says Ursi.
While The Remedy's sound was influenced by 70s rockers like Led Zeppelin, Ursi says Mania's sound is the original sound of rock and roll.
"Catchy melodies, good hooks, fun, danceable, quick, that's Mania," says Ursi. "You had to really be into seventies rock to like The Remedy's stuff, whereas what we're doing now has a mass appeal."
The songs certainly appealed to the crowd at B-Side, who asked for an encore, forcing the band to break out their new material. "We didn't really know what we were doing at some parts," Ursi admits.
- Matthew Chung (The Eyeopener)
Discography
"Do What Ya Gotta Do" Single.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
The rustle of an anxious crowd, the hum of a readied stage, the lights go out and you start to feel the first shivers of excitement. You hear the soft seduction of an organ and you start to sway, a single punchy guitar jerks you to attention and suddenly you are riveted. The lights go nuts, cymbals crash and the most ear-catching verse you’ve heard in a long time commences. The bass thumps in your chest and you start to move like never before. An ecstatic chorus explodes and you ascend to a new level of dizzying ecstasy, unable to contain your urges to sing along at the top of your lungs, you indulge. Before you know what’s going on, you lose yourself in an intoxicating state of Rock ‘n’ Roll bliss. You emerge at the end and don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Then, it happens, you begin to flail and stomp, you throw your arms over your wildly shaking head and scream for more. You freak out and you love it. If this happens to you, you are experiencing Mania.
Get ready to lose it. Mania, a well honed thrill ride of a rock ‘n’ roll group, want to exhilarate you. And why not, you deserve it. In an age of manufactured and processed music, there are very few choices for truly exciting rock ‘n’ roll out there. Many of us often ponder the existence of musical salvation. Offering brilliant pop/rock gems laden with soaring vocal melodies, catch-a-rific guitar crunch, swirling organ and piano passages, big, bouncy bass and pulse pounding, get you on your feet drumming, Mania deliver. From songs like the rollicking “Do What You Gotta Do”, and the rip-roarin’ “What She’ll Say” to the pure pop candy of “I’m On Your Side” and the menacingly addictive “Can’t Get Over You” Mania possess the necessary elements for world class rock ‘n’ roll.
Rising from the ashes of local roots rockers and Toronto favorites the Remedy, Mania are a fiery phoenix of re-birthed rock ‘n’ roll. Shedding the 70’s rock fleece and forging a truly timeless sound, these five young men are on a mission to save rock ‘n’ roll.
“I wasn’t really feeling where the Remedy was going anymore, but now, with Mania I’m totally turned on,” Says vocalist Graeme Lang, “the music we’re making is invigorating like it never has been before and I can tell our audience feels the same.”
“We feel a responsibility to music lovers everywhere,” adds keyboardist Daniel Primerano, “and if we didn’t do what we do as well as we do then we wouldn’t do it, would we?”
With several eps floating around and a full length album on the way, Mania have already awakened a slumbering music scene in Toronto and are poised to ignite a world wide firestorm of rock ‘n’ roll rejuvenation
“I believe music is a profoundly powerful force, and I feel that most mainstream stuff is really detrimental to our culture,” concludes Lang, “so much of it is manipulative trickery designed by people other than artists to separate you from your dollars, and to me, that is not what music is about. It’s about creating; it’s about conveying real emotions. It’s about people coming together, connecting, and feeling real passion… and maybe partying, yeah, definitely partying too.”
So when the chills return and you feel your brain burst with elation, when your very soul is singing and you want nothing more than to let go and embrace the hysteria. When the music moves you and you climax in auditory joy, you know it’s Mania. Get ready to lose it.
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