Thursday, Jan. 08, 2009

Seattle's Lyons Mane puts indie spin on grunge

By Bethany Lee, Herald staff writer

For having a name about hair, Seattle group Lyons Mane is surprisingly not a hair band.

"We thought it would be a funny joke," bass guitarist Nick Dunlap said. "Kind of like an '80s hair metal band even though we don't sound like that."

The name stems from singer and guitarist Brent Lyons who used to have a lot of hair. Lyons started the band after writing and recording his own songs and recruited Dunlap, who'd been in a previous band with him. Drummer Brian Young joined the equation and the rest is history.

Their EP album Everything Costs Money contains four very different songs. The indie, grunge band has tough rock elements, but also has a softer, ambient side.

Some tracks are dreamlike with Lyons playing with pedal effects, while others are more moody with Young dominating on drums.

Lyons -- a mix of the Deftones' Chino Moreno and The Spill Canvas' Nick Thomas -- describes their sound as "really beautiful, soft, introverted elements intertwined with brass, aggressive noise."

Whatever it is, the band has cultivated a great indie sound that would quench most music lovers' ears.

"We're not one of those bands that takes themselves too seriously and is always concerned with how they are presented," Lyons said in an e-mail. "I mean, we take the music and what we do seriously, but we have a sense of humor about ourselves. We can take a step back and laugh at the whole thing."

-- On the Net: myspace.com/lyonsmanemusic.

*Bethany Lee: 582-1465; blee@tricityherald.com