Lineup: 2010
Paper Lions
Belfast, Prince Edward Island
Paper Lions are composed of ten time East Coast Music award nominated artists John MacPhee, Rob MacPhee, Colin Buchanan, and David Cyrus MacDonald. They have performed for tens of thousands of people, earning critical acclaim and regional and national awards including Touring Artist of the Year from the Canadian Arts Presenters Organization (2007) and Pop Recording of the Year from the East Coast Music Awards (2005).
Paper Lions self titled 2007 album was produced by Danny Blume of Grammy award winning team Good and Evil. The eleven song record spans eras of influence, shamelessly evoking the work of the bands musical mentors; The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Police, Queen, Michael Jackson, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens. It crosses genre lines as though they don’t exist, with tracks incorporating classic rock, pop, folk, blues, and barber shop.
Paper Lions performed over 250 shows in 2007 alone. Their live show has been compared to the Police on speed. A turn at The Warped Tour in the summer of 2007 spawned this review from Vancouvers premiere arts magazine, the Georgia Strait; “… the lucky few that wandered over to the unenviable Hot Topic stage, at the other end of the T-Bird field, were treated to a performance by Prince Edward Island’s Paper Lions, a quartet playing its first Warped gig. Sounding like Franz Ferdinand and moving like the Talking Heads, this group put on a real show, complete with fantastic tunes and stage presence, and enough charisma to draw more than 300 fans by the end of its too-short time on stage… you couldn’t help but feel that their kind of magic was the true reason to go to Warped – the off chance that you might discover something great.”