I Can't Impress Myself Tonight

I saw Living With Lions for the first time last year. For some reason I had confused them with this band, but then I read a review of the album that said they "continued in the vein as Saves The Day and Lifetime pop-punk." Well if you know me, then you know that saying someone sounds like Lifetime is pretty much the best thing you can do to sell me on them. I checked out their myspace and really liked what I heard a lot.

I was super stoked to see them and grabbed their debut full-length at the show. It fucking rules. 10 tracks and an outro, no filler. I had huge expectations for it and it didn't let me down at all. Looking back on it now, it was probably my favourite album from that year.

I just saw them again yesterday and they were just as great. It was an absolutely incredible show.

Reasons why they rule and are doing what they do right:

1. Their sound.

Nowadays in pop-punk too many bands fall into the blink-182/New Found Glory trap (don't worry I love both those bands to death, don't bust my balls for using them as an example), they just rehash the signature sound that both of those bands have. In blink's case they put simple guitar lines over the "pop-punk T" and try to be funny and try to write songs about girls but aren't the lyricist that Mark is. In NFG's case they write poppy songs and then try to throw a breakdown into every song. The lyrics are usually pretty brutal, because let's face it, New Found has had some pretty cringe worthy lines in their career. Living With Lions on the other hand, look to the bands that influenced those bands. They play poppy songs, but play them very very fast. The guitar lines have more to them than just your standard Tom Delonge d-string riff. They have a bit of a hardcore sensibility, not in that they try to put "posi" breakdowns (they don't) but that you can tell they all listen to hardcore.

2. Their merch.

First I got the brightest neon yellow shirt that has ever existed at their first show. At the last one I got a tank top with an exploding budweiser can and bikini girl on it. They also had a shirt that was Star Wars characters spelling out the band's name with "Shred Hard and Prosper" underneath it. I'll forgive using a Star Trek phrase on a Star Wars shirt because the band rules so much.

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE?

I'm sure the band wouldn't crucify if you downloaded their EP and full-length and then came out to a show to scream the words with me.