Lion Cub has just released a FREE EP for Christmas! Get it here now!

http://www.mediafire.com/?63mwfmcsqhsrc82

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful Christmas vacation!

Remember Lion Cub?! See interview here:http://skeletonme.tumblr.com/post/602077689/lion-cub-interview-lion-cub-is-a-new-lovely

Chad and Chelsey stopped to talk to me last month about Seneca their first full length album on Topshelf Records that was due to come out this month. Well it’s here now! Lion Cub sent me a digital copy a week ago and it’s absolutely fantastic. I was determined to pick a favorite song from the album to suggest, but I’ll simply tell you to listen to the entire thing it flows really well so no skipping songs ok? (threatening fist). You can pre-order your copy of Seneca at Topshelf Records today!

http://www.topshelfrecords.bigcartel.com/product/lion-cub-seneca-cd-pre-order

Be sure to add them @ http://www.myspace.com/lioncubband and check out any of their upcoming shows!!!

Here’s another from LION CUB enjoy!

Song: Meridian

LION CUB-INTERVIEW

Lion Cub is a new lovely indie pop band who emailed a week or two ago about my blog, and I’m extremely glad that they did their music is absolutely wonderful. Their single, Pilgrim, is perfect for those long drives through the country with a full tank and no where in particular to go, just you and some great music. Lion Cub just announced today on their blog that they have just signed with Topshelf Records! So congratulations and good luck to Chad and Chelsey! Also, they were kind enough to include a second song that I will feature here during the weekend, it’s titled Meridian and happens to be one of my favorites from them. Listen to: Pilgrim (Be sure to look out for Seneca, their first full length album out next month!)
Check them out @: http://www.myspace.com/lioncubband

1.Where are you from?
We’re from rural Massachusetts.

2. How did Lion Cub come to be?
Well I was in a lot of louder, faster bands when I was younger but
people move away, people go off to school and I decided to write and
record songs in my downtime from college. Chris and I started making
the record, which took a few years. Chelsey helped me out and became
the other official member of Lion Cub and we’ve been playing shows for
about 5 months now and the record will be coming out in June.

3. Who are your musical influences?
Like a lot of people who end up playing music most of what really
helped me form who I am artistically is the music my parents listened
to or gave me. I listened to the Big Chill soundtrack a lot, which had
a ton of great classic Motown and soul on it, The Temptations, Smokey
Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye. They also bought me a Beach
Boys tape which I listened to constantly. I remember to this day
hearing “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and thinking I couldn’t wait to get
married. That kind of pop music, simple yet sophisticated and really
bright and lovely. That is what is in my bones.

4. What are your non musical influences?
Literature for sure; William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery
O’Connor, a lot of that rural imagery is there in songs like ‘Southern
Salt Baptist’ and ‘Paintings of Hungry People’ and ‘Seneca’. There are
a few directors Chelsey and I adore, the Coen Brothers, Ingmar
Bergman. I suppose all of that must make its way into what I write
lyrically, the kind of sounds we appreciate, the sort of scenes we try
to set.

5. Your new EP Southern Salt Baptist is out on cassette now, tell us a
little about that.
Well, we spent a very long time making ‘Seneca’ which was very
orchestral and had dozens of instruments and parts on each track,
almost a dozen different musicians involved, and the live versions of
these songs that Chelsey and I created were much more austere and
electronic-based, so I suppose we just wanted to document those
versions too. Sometimes the new ‘Southern Salt Baptist’ versions
became my favorite takes on the songs.

6. What made you decide to go with a cassette only EP?
I really love the act of getting a piece of music and having to sit
down and listen to it. There are some albums that I will make myself
wait for, until I get the actual article the way the artist intended,
so I can read the liner notes and look at the art while I hear it. I
guess a tape ensures that experience, that ritual. And all of the hiss
and the maleability of tape, it will always be a changing piece of
music, which is attractive as well. We wanted something special for
people outside of the CD/MP3 digital thing. It’s all hand made with a
lot of love from Chelsey and I.

7.Gregory and the Hawk is one of my favorites, how was it to be able
to play a show together?
It was great! We’re a little loud compared to her, which worried me at
first, but she attracts a very thoughtful, open-minded audience and
they were really sweet and welcoming. Her set was a nice calm after
the storm. It was a nice night.

8. Your first full length, Seneca, will be out next month!
Congratulations! What inspired the songs on Seneca?
All sorts of things. Love, fear, growing up, books I’d been reading,
what it means to be American; the question of God and faith is a big
theme, what to believe and why. For instance “The Bird On Your Sill”
is sort of a song about generational conflict, wishing I could be more
proud of my elder’s decisions; “Southern Salt Baptist” is about trying
to be a good, devoted man. It’s a love song for grown ups. “Seneca” is
about God, trying to figure out destiny and faith.

9. Best show experience so far?
Probably the Space in Connecticut with Gregory and the Hawk. The bands
were great and the people there were so nice and receptive and
gracious. We prefer all ages shows both for idealist reasons and
because alcohol doesn’t mix with thoughtful music; at 21+ shows people
are there for the $6 pitchers, not bands that are giving their all on
that stage. The Space is a great antidote to that awful rock club
vibe.

10. What made you decide on your name, Lion Cub?
Really, it just popped into my head day while I was driving home along
some lovely, bucolic Massachusetts back roads and it struck me as an
interesting, precocious sort of name. I started making this record at
20 years old, so to make something with about 10 musicians on it and
dozens and dozens of instruments and then call it something diminutive
like Lion Cub, seemed to work. A small lion, a young person with big
ambitions. But more than anything I find it catchy.

11. Please tell us a bit about the song you sent us.
Well, “Pilgrim” is my favorite song on the album, it’s also the most
representative of the very wide-screen, orchestrated sound of the
record. There are seven different people either playing or singing on
the song and a lot of different instruments and sounds and samples and
it just sounds so big and wide-eyed. It really appeals to me, even
after having lived with it for almost four years, so it just feels
like the song that best sums up ‘Seneca’. Chris did a lovely job
producing it and getting it to this really interesting place where its
both pastoral and electronic.

12. What do you think is your favorite song to perform?
“Seneca” for sure. It’s this big, loud pop song that we all get to let
loose on, punctuated by these really pretty, cerebral moments. It’s
just always fun. “Meridian” is fun too, usually Chelsey and I play it
just ourselves and it’s a cool austere break from all the loud guitars
and keyboards and samplers.

13. What is your song writing process like, do you write as a group?
Well generally I either program the beats or write the music on guitar
first, then I add bass or other things like that, then Chelsey and I
will finish off the rest after I’ve come up with lyrics and a melody.
But it can happen in any order really.

14. What can fans expect from your live performances?
A lot of fun, smart pop music that can be really pretty at times and
really wild at others. Chelsey and I are nice too, so there’s that.

15. What are your favorite albums of all time?
You’ve opened a can of worms with this question, but I will give you
the shortest list possible:

The Beatles - ‘Revolver’
Tom Waits - ‘Mule Variations’
The Elected - ‘Me First’
“The Big Chill” Original Soundtrack
The Replacements - ‘Let It Be’
Saves The Day - ‘Stay What You Are’
The Vince Guaraldi Trio - ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
Bright Eyes - ‘Lifted’
The Clash - ‘London Calling’
Wu-Tang Clan - ‘Wu Tang Forever’

16. What do you guys like to do when your not making music?
I love to read and I write fiction. Chelsey is really into arts and
crafts and yoga and animal rights and a lot of other things. She’s a
very, very active person. I just like to read and write and listen to
records. I’m a big Celtics fan too.

17. What have you been listening to lately?
This is a slightly smaller can of worms.

The Appleseed Cast - ‘Peregrine’
Braid - ‘Frame and Canvas’
Fugazi - ‘In On the Kill Taker’
Fleetwood Mac - ‘Rumours’
Bright Eyes - ‘Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005)’
Simon and Garfunkel - ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’
Bear vs Shark - ‘Right Now, You’re in the Best of Hands…’

18. If you could go back in time to any decade and be part of the
music scene then, which would it be?
I would love to be a part of the Motown scene. To me nothing sounds
better than “The Tracks of My Tears” or “My Girl”, those mid-60’s
recordings that just leap out of the speaker and create this golden
world. I would love to hear what these messy indie-rock songs would
sound like with the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers, playing
them, with Smokey Robinson producing them. That or Chapel Hill about a
decade and a half ago.

19. Where can your fans find Seneca when it comes out?
Well, if folks are interested they should always check out
lioncubband.wordpress.com and www.myspace.com/lioncubband for
information. We update regularly about shows, work on the record and
just various thoughts and goings-on in the Lion Cub world. But to
order the album go to www.topshelfrecords.org . There will be a nice
pre-order up soon with all sorts of bonus material. We’re actually
working on a 30-40 page book that will go along with the album.

20. Anything else you would like to include?
I suppose just thank you very much to Amanda and check out our friends
in Aeroplane 1929 (www.aeroplane1929.com). Thanks everyone for
reading!!!

Interview by: Amanda Rodriguez http://skeletonme.tumblr.com/

Interview coming later tonight! =D