Austinist Interviews SXSW: Lions In The Street

"What the Stones were; what the Dandy Warhols should have been."* Strong words, even in today's desensitized rock-critisphere, but Lions In The Street have already opened for Kings Of Leon, been shopped-and-dropped by major labels, and recorded their debut EP in a dingy basement with an 8-track and broken mics because they could hardly afford beer. What are you gonna tell them, be less rock and roll please? This is the kind of band SXSW exists for. (Said EP, Cat Got Your Tongue, is available as a free download on their website, so you downloaders aren't getting away with anything.) Besides that, it's obvious that frontman Chris Kinnon has plenty of love for the ATX:

Is SXSW fun or business?

Like our hair, SXSW is strictly for party – drink, women and song. We don't have a manager or a label, though.

If you could open for any artist living or dead, in any era of their career, who would it be?

Little Feat, 1972.

What's your mode of transportation for the week going to be? Tell us about your van, car, caravan, bus or donkey.

We'll be in our Chevy van. "Call of the Wild" is her name, open road's her game...she's tackled all your interstates, and loves Tejas. Not so good in the city...if she fails us, it'll be rickshaw city for us, with Enzo "pulling the train."

What album of 2006 can you not leave at home? All-time?

The first couple tracks off the new Jerry Lee Lewis are all we got really excited about this year. The MMJ live album is good, same with the Eagles of Death Metal. All-time? The Chess Records Chuck Berry box set.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

Already sold our passes on Craigslist...need the cash for booze. Naw, we're gonna try and catch a bunch of stuff; anything that rolls and isn't too "art." Booker T's #1 on our list.

Pitchfork: Do you even read it?

Can't read it...too many big words.

Any previous trips to Austin? Betcha something fun happened-share it please.

Our show at the Hole in the Wall almost broke out in a Canadian hockey-style donnybrook, when we crash-landed on the last song. One guy in the band gave up on the song, mid-jam, and kinda got beat up by his buddies. Then we watched some Austin rockers refuse to yield the sidewalk to some emo dudes---first time we've seen that. Last night there, had some drinks and BBQ then walked right in to your Capitol building at midnight, signed the guest book (look for Dick Goyzinya's sig)…thank you, Austin. If you ever get an NHL team, we'll move here.

[LITS website]

*Quote taken from Magnet magazine