you, lion

You, Lion are from Massachusetts, but you wouldn't know it by the music they play. The music is best described as a moody combination of World Music, Art Rock and Alternative Rock. Names like Peter Gabriel, The Police, Minus The Bear, Talking Heads and Vampire Weekend come to mind.

The guitar playing is quite interesting with lots of open notes and jangly sounds as opposed to traditional chords. Bassist/vocalist Ian Johnson has a voice perfectly suited to the music and can reach some fairly high notes when he so chooses. Drummer Alex Baker is very good and the guitars supplied by Jamie Dervishian and Terry Amiro are always doing something different. "End It On The Bridge (Western Cape)" and "Pangaea" are the strongest songs here. - Peter Braidis

Filled with swirling guitars and haunting vocals, You, Lion’s songs seem to float atop the steady waves of Al Baker’s drums. On the title track, the intricate guitars of Terry Amiro and Jamie Dervishian weave in and out of each other creating textures for singer Ian Johnson to cloak himself within and then soar above. It’s the perfect music for those days when melancholy gray clouds cover the skies, but slivers of sunlight still manage to sneak through. - www.foundwaves.com

You, Lion's guitars tiptoe in and out of dissonance, with Baker driving things with a tidy arsenal of compact post-hardcore beats. Johnson's vocals are a love-it-or-hate-it thing — insistently melodic, but always up in Thom Yorke territory, wandering over knotty rhythms in a spaced-out whelp. It's inventive, inward-looking indie prog, done with a brazen lack of transplant scenester self-consciousness. (Just check their beach-party video on Facebook.)



Read more: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/music/98472-bands-of-brothers/#ixzz0hsMxVNvz
- The Boston Phoenix - Matt Parish