Interviews / Articles

[bellestarr]

poor baby...




Brothers and kings

Kings of Leon find their rock-and-roll dreams

By Kenneth Aguar

Correspondent





Eighteen-year-old Jared Followill is a weary young man.
"When I wake up," he says, "the first thing I think about is going back to sleep." Jared (bass) along with his brothers Caleb, 23 (vocals), and Nathan, 26 (drums), and cousin Matthew, 21 (guitar), tour 11 months out of the year as Kings of Leon. With this sort of punishing schedule, they certainly need their beauty rest. "It's tiresome," he says. "That's why I sleep so much."

The quartet from Millington, Tenn., named themselves Kings of Leon after their father, a Pentecostal preacher named Leon Followill. The family moved around constantly and the brothers led a sheltered childhood. Their mother, Betty Ann, played piano for their father's church services.

"She had a piano at our house," Jared says, "but she didn't play anything for anybody, except for people in the church."

Still, the brothers had an early exposure to music.

"The first concert I went to, when I was 8 years old, was Kenny Rogers. ... I got my first bass when I was 15, and the bands I was listening to were a lot of weird stuff, like The Pixies, The Cure and Joy Division. My Mom wanted me to finish school, so I got home-schooled for the first year I was in the band. Then, I went for my GED. I was, like, if I can pass it, then cool; I get my diploma. So I went and did it and passed it on the first try. My parents were kind of cool with it."

Resembling cast members from a production of "Jesus Christ Super Star" with their long hair and bell-bottom trousers, the Kings of Leon released their debut EP "Holy Roller Novocaine" (RCA/BMG) in 2003. They immediately followed with their first full-length album, appropriately titled "Youth And Young Manhood."

The group became noticed first in England and managed to sell 800,000 copies of this recording by constantly touring. "Aha Shake Heartbreak," their 2004 release, is a tight collection of 12 songs clocking in at around 30 minutes, with each song blending seamlessly into the next.

Keeping it in the family appears to be a good philosophy for the Kings of Leon. Earlier this year, the group toured with U2, playing arenas and stadiums across the globe. Jared nonchalantly says the experience "was pretty cool. You get to play music every night and all these different things happen while traveling around America and meeting thousands of people."

Like most young rock stars, Jared has aspirations of living out his rock'n'roll fantasies, to "hopefully marry super-model wives, drive foreign cars and all that stuff. That's what everybody kind of wants, so that you don't have to tour 11 months out of the year to pay for it."

Despite the rigorous schedule, being on the road isn't all bad, he says.

"There are two completely different sides of touring. You write songs and you get so excited about it, like Bob Dylan writing a song during the day and then going out that night and playing it," he says. "There's a certain type of feeling you get when you're on stage, if you put your heart into anything and truly believe in it."

Kings of Leon

The Like

When: Doors open at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12

Where: 40 Watt Club, 285 W. Washington St.

Cost: $20

Call: [phone]

Advance tickets available at Schoolkids Records, [phone].


Click here to return to story:
onlineathens.com/stories/100605/roc_20051006013.shtml

[cornflake]

Thanks Bellestar, great article. Karma for you

[Alexis]

Yeah thanks I liked it too - he seems so sweet in interviews sometimes - bless him.

[bellestarr]

thanx y'all...

Posted on Thu, Oct. 06, 2005


Kings unfazed by celebrity

COURTNEY DEVORES
Special to the Observer

Kings of Leon has opened for U2, been joined on stage by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, counts the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde among its fans, and hangs out with fellow rockers the Strokes and various supermodels -- but the band members aren't impressed by celebrity.

"I guess because of the way we grew up, we don't put people on a pedestal as high as other people do because we didn't know the pedestal existed," drummer Nathan Followill told the Observer while basking shirtless in the sun outside a venue in New Hampshire last week.

The Followills -- brothers Nathan, Caleb and Jared and cousin Matthew grew up sheltered in rural Tennessee, traveling from church to church with the brothers' minister father, Leon, after whom the band is named. Exposure to rock 'n' roll on the revival circuit was rare.

"That was against the rules," said Nathan, who began drumming to accompany his pianist mother at church. "We grew up in a bubble. We hardly heard music other than what we heard in church. Occasionally we'd get to listen to oldies. That was considered wholesome, I guess."

So when the boys decided to start a band, they had few reference points.

"The music that came out was the music we could make," he said. "It wasn't that we set out to emulate a certain band or certain sound."

The Kings, who have gone platinum in England and are considered the Next Big Thing in the states, came up with a sound that's a swampy mix of modern Southern rock and big-city garage with Caleb's muddy vocals -- a sort of Chris Robinson-meets-Jet's Nic Cester -- reciting veiled lyrics. The band plays the Neighborhood Theatre with the female trio the Like Monday night

On the band's second album, "Aha Shake Heartbreak," the guys 'fess up to the hard-partying ways that are well-documented in the press, as well as in their songs. But they don't name names in their lyrics.

"We couldn't actually just come out and say we had sex with Kate Moss," Nathan said of their rumored exploits with supermodel groupies. "We have to make it subliminal. It's amazing how much you remember after you sober up."

Despite their willingness or unwillingness to blab, Nathan said guys' ignorance of celebrity endears them to their well-known friends.

"Half the time we'll hang out with someone all night and not know who they are," he said. "I guess it makes us more human to these people who are always around fake people kissing their butts."

The Kings weren't even nervous about opening 35 dates for U2.

"We really didn't know their music when we took the tour," he said. "All of our friends were freaking out because we were going out with the biggest band in the world. We weren't worried. I think that actually helped us out. We just did our own thing."

Although family bands are often volatile, Nathan doesn't worry about Kings of Leon's fate. Despite their taste for skinny blondes and alcohol, the close knit quartet is more Hansons than Jacksons.

"There are no boundaries," nathan said of his relationship with lead singer Caleb, with whom he shares a car and a home. "We'll have trips to the grocery store where we don't talk if we get stumped on what kind of cereal we want. Then we'll make up on aisle seven."







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2005 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
www.charlotte.com

[bellestarr]

the ending makes it worth a read!


Posted on Thu, Oct. 06, 2005


Young band the Like raised in music world

COURTNEY DEVORES
The Charlotte Observer

The Like, which opens for the Kings of Leon on Monday at Neighborhood Theatre, isn't shaken up by meeting musical idols, often because the members already have.

As the children of music industry vets, drummer Tennessee Thomas, bassist Charlotte Froom and vocalist/guitarist Z. Berg (daughters of Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas and producers Mitchell Froom and Tony Berg), have lived and breathed music since birth.

"Growing up, the only thing my dad ever talked to me about was music," Berg said last week while traveling to a gig in Massachusetts. "I never knew what he did in the industry. I only knew he introduced me to all of my favorite bands."

Her favorite band was the Beatles, which she said was one of the many likes that the three then-teenage girls shared when they first met.

"The Beatles were basically the only thing I listened to until I was 10 years old," Berg recalled. "I think I've been brainwashed. I have this ingrained sense of what songwriting is supposed to be from the Beatles school of music."

The Like's sound, while rooted in Beatles-like pop-rock and defined by feminine harmonies, also finds footing in lush British shoegazer, power-pop, modern rock and folk.

The band's first full-length release, "Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?" came out in September.

"It's neat to see how they're growing," Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill said of the relative newbies, who toured with Phantom Planet and Tori Amos before hitting the road with the Kings. "The other night they were on Carson Daly. It was their first TV appearance ever. It was neat to see how they acted. It reminded me of how we were. They're still looking at their guitar while they're playing it."

But the Kings aren't taking on a big-brother role with the young group.

"They're all good-looking," Followill said. "So we don't want to play that card."

[mickey o'neil]

oh nathan

[cornflake]

Some reason, I got a little giddy when I saw Tori Amos and Kings of Leon written in the same article. I'm such a geek.

Hehe....yes I saw The Like when they opened for Tori and you could tell that they are a new band (I could so see what Nathan is talking about them looking down at their instruments), but they really have potential and are very beautiful girls. I was like 1-2 metres from the stage, and I really enjoyed them. "They're all good-looking," Followill said. "So we don't want to play that card." Go for it boys.

Thank you for the articles bellestarr. Karma for you hun.

[bellestarr]

The Gamecock - The Mix
Issue: 10/10/05

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Concert Review: Kings hold raucous court at Charleston's Music Farm
By Chas McCarthy

Two critically acclaimed albums in two years and touring with bands like U2 have turned the Kings of Leon from indie rookies into rock veterans. The Followills (brothers Nathan, Caleb, Jared and cousin Matthew) play one of the most high-energy concerts in live music today. On Saturday the Kings visited the Music Farm in Charleston and treated fans to the kind of performance that's talked about long afterward.

Though the set was a shade under an hour-and-half long, their breed of bare-bones rock 'n roll keeps fans coming back again and again. It's the kind of music that could've been written and played alongside bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who in the early 1970s, and got Mick Jagger to come to after parties and sing the band's praises.

The 15 or so two-and-a-half to three-minute songs the Kings chose for the night were particularly powerful. After opening with "Molly's Chambers" (from 2003's Youth & Young Manhood), the band rifled through selections Manhood and 2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak at a blistering pace, with drummer and eldest band member Nathan Followill propelling the Kings forward.

Their chemistry makes them a more dynamic band and has allowed their talents to blossom. Caleb's howl is as effective as ever, Matthew has distinguished himself as the band's lead guitarist and Nathan and Jared drive the band with rhythms and basslines that would make John Bonham and John Entwistle proud.

Standout tracks of the night included "Razz," "Four Kicks," "King Of The Rodeo," "Taper Jean Girl," "Soft," "Rememo" and "Milk," all of which are on Heartbreak.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Bonham!

[cornflake]

Karma smack! Thanks for the article

[cornflake]

Here is an interview that I recently found www.gaesteliste.de/texte/show.html?_nr=873. It is an older interview and it is in German(anyone who does understand, may you please help, thanks). I used an online translator (babelfish.altavista.com/tr) so it might have some improper english in it, but I don't know German. There were some key quotes that I liked so I highlighted them;


If one considers that [they] completed [their cd] only last November their first Deutschland-show and into the summer inside with Headline concerts and festival-auftritten - among other things with the Haldern Pop - which bereiste whole world, one [rubs their eyes with surprise] that Kings OF Leon found the time with all the stress to bring for it in these days appearing second album "Aha Shake Heartbreak". "the only possibility, which we had, in order to interrupt the constant tours for one while, was, to take up a new album", explains bassist Jared Followill Gaesteliste.de with the interview in Cologne and has also equivalent still another explanation for it ready, why the Songs failed around some dark than those of the vielgehypten debut "Youth and Young Manhood": "it is because of the fact that we wrote the Songs in the winter, when it was grey [imside], grey outside, constantly dark and everything. [We were] completely consciously that we write rather depressive Songs, however not in the kind, like for example the Morrissey or The Cure do."

With the new plate really recent times break on with Kings OF Leon. As "a aufmuepfiges communist manifesto in things self-determination" described the colleague Ullrich bricklayer it already appropriate in its review. "nearly, then it seems, the Kings it put on the disk as complex and frickelig as putting on possible, so that only no comparisons to the oldfront are more possible. By means of strange stop & Go-tactics work themselves young by 12 extremely strictly through-composed adventures, with which one actually never knows, the what behind the next curve lies." Remarkably is likewise that there is this mark no tracing between - audibly more complicated knitted - the Songs, what the ambitions that volume to produce an album instead of only one collection from individual Songs to effectively underlines.

Among the highlights of the LP interestingly enough calculated two Akustiksongs rank. One would have from volume, which is considered as an advocate skirt of the N roll Revivals and in addition approximately one year continuous on route was, but rather increases raue, blunt tones expected. "these two Songs are the only one, which we did not write in Nashville"... "you developed in L.A., where everything is marvelous - the girls, the weather, simply everything. We [were] each evening [partying and]...then these two Songs, ' Milk ' and ' Day old Blues ', [were] written. We wrote [the] latter number in 20 minutes on the balcony. Actually the Song was meant only for a b-side, but then [it] pleased us so well that [it had to also go on the cd]." Clear it is however that the short production time did to the album rather well to harm as it. Also with Kings OF Leon seems to apply the rule of thumb: , are frequent the results remain the better for the fewer time you to the Songschreiben. "absolute correctly!", confirms Jared and adds that however already to the first album applied. "a Song like ' Molly Chambers ', which I long as our best did not regard, however nevertheless the [songs], developed completely within only a [day]. ' Wicker Chair ' of our first EP we wrote also in only 30 minutes, because we had at that time a [record] deal, which prescribed us to deliver per year a certain number of Songs. We wrote the number thus only, in order to fulfill our target, but in the meantime it is one of our absolute favorites." In such moments the Kings OF Leon has then again correctly fun to their volumes, they learned in the time since their debut that despite the inspiring wave, which against-sloshed them particularly in Great Britain all gold is not, which shines, as Jared knows: "many people want to play in volume, because in its life all routine is. Everything constantly repeats itself. The first year in that volume is then madly - the first route, the first video, the first album - however thereafter goes everything again from the front loosely, and you state that everything repeats itself also here exactly the same like before."

[csolis]

bellestarr said:

Her favorite band was the Beatles, which she said was one of the many likes that the three then-teenage girls shared when they first met.

"The Beatles were basically the only thing I listened to until I was 10 years old," Berg recalled. "I think I've been brainwashed. I have this ingrained sense of what songwriting is supposed to be from the Beatles school of music."

thats my kind of girl
maybe theyre not so bad after all

oh the whole "looking at the guitar while theyre playing" part nat said, Matt BARELY stopped doing that!!!! when they were promoting ASH here in the US, in all the late night shows they appeared in, Matt always had his head down looking at the guitar!!! i have a tape to prove it!!

[bellestarr]

Vermont Cynic - Arts
Issue: 10/11/05

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Kings of Leon Occupy Higher Ground
By Dave Sachs

Indie rockers Kings of Leon came to Higher Ground in South Burlington last Tuesday, liberating their vocal chords and guitar strings from idle dullness. The Tennessee kinfolk played a set of pure electricity, but one would think the audience was made of proverbial rubber, as the show was underappreciated at best. Taking nothing away from the Kings' ridiculously powerful performance, the concert experience as a whole was mired in mediocrity. Often though, the after-party outshines the party.

The night began at Higher Ground with a performance by The Like, L.A.'s all-girl version of, well, they were definitely all girls. Their sound is hard to pinpoint but the lead-singer and guitarist, Z Berg, sounds remarkably like Garbage front-woman Shirley Manson singing to a background of simple but arresting percussion, and a bass that counterpoints Z's voice effectively, if tritely.

Regardless of The Like's lack of celebrity, the she-band's passion and talent deserved more than what the sullen crowd furnished. At one point Berg got on the microphone to ask, "By the way, we're The Like. Are you guys alive out there?" It was a valid question. The crowd was so...like...dead.

Standing at the bar with some friends, I attributed the audience's middling reaction to the time of night-it was still early. More people would arrive by the time Kings of Leon took the stage, and maybe they would not be so reserved.

The Kings of Leon, made up of Caleb, Matthew, Jared and Nathan Followill coolly strolled onto the stage around 10:15 in front of a crowd less than half the capacity of Higher Ground.

A couple flicks of drummer Nathan's sticks, and all of a sudden the Kings were shooting shards of rough, toned glass from their amps into the ears of the waiting audience. Matt Followill scraped a clean but loud harmony from his lead guitar. Caleb's voice punched high-pitched holes in the air, answered by measures of healthy kicks from Jared's bass. They were on. Their energy was unfathomable, their emotion out of control. The sound was pure, forceful, rock & roll. The crowd was completely and utterly-stagnant.

Save for a small group of people huddled at the front of the stage, this crowd (which should no longer be referred to as a crowd but rather as an assembly of Quakers) was lifeless. The Kings rocked away on stage while the on-looking congregation wasted away on the ground.

At this point I was reveling in the personal and genius lyrics hand-penned by the band, and every time I took a precious second to look away from the stage at the crowd behind me, I could not but help think of one specific Kings of Leon lyric: "People can be so cold when they're dead..."

I have been to more concerts than I can count, and some of them have been short of expectation, less than wonderful. But such instances are a result of bad acoustics, a weird venue, or, every once in a while, because the band flops. Never has the audience played such a part in diminishing a band's potential effect.

Regardless of the audience, the Kings were still reigning sovereign over my head, pumping out obscure anthems like "Razz", "Four Kicks" and "Spiral Staircase." After 45 minutes at the most, lead singer Caleb, who had been throwing guitar picks into the crowd like a kid feeding pigeons, spiked the microphone stand to the ground and the band exited.

Encores have become adjacent to any performance. They are practically presumed. The Kings of Leon, who went double platinum in the U.K., could not have been impressed with the showing Tuesday night, as the band sells out venues all over the world. Still, perhaps out of common courtesy, the band came back on stage and provided a perhaps undeserved encore for the fans who barely coaxed them into it. Just as Caleb was opening his mouth to grace us with at least one more tune, the fire alarm went off and the band, along with everyone else, cleared the building as fire trucks roared to the scene. An apt ending to a mediocre night.

The party was not necessarily over though, because earlier, in an attempt to get a pre-show interview with the band, myself and a fellow Cynic writer (who was extremely effective) managed to talk with their manager, who told us that the band always gets a couple of drinks at the bar after a show. Naturally, we waited and they came.

We did not exactly get the interview we were looking for, but we did get to take them to Church Street, buy them some beers, and give them a little taste of Burlington.

My Companion Soledad and myself, along with some mutual friends, sat at a table with Caleb Followill outside on Church Street while other Followill band-mates mingled about sparsely. We conversed about stupid things, things we would certainly not remember in the morning, things we didn't remember five minutes after they were said. Caleb, who is one of the band's songwriters, told us with a smile that their song "Milk" was written about a girl who only ate her cereal with water. He had a dry sense of humor and could have been pulling a fast one on us, but we wouldn't have known-or cared for that matter.

There was no hesitation in jabbing each other with sarcastic jokes about what it means to be a rock star-whether it is a lifestyle or a state of mind or, in conclusion, a whole lot of good, fun stuff. These guys were class acts; nonchalant for the most part, but quixotic at the same time. From hippies to heaven, I'm pretty sure we talked about it all. Maybe, if the Longtrails had not been flowing so freely, there would be a more specific picture to paint. But how fun would that be?

At the end of the night, we had attended a semi-disappointing show, been threatened by bouncers on various occasions, and still had no official interview with the Kings of Leon. We were content.



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[Naboo's Miracle Wax]

thanks for that ^^^ KArma!

[bellestarr]

Kings of Leon come to Knoxville
Emily Ledbetter - Features Editor

2005-10-11 20:41:14

Coming straight from a summer of successful touring, including a stint with the men of U2, Kings of Leon are throwing a homecoming at Tennessee Theatre for the first time in their musical career. Having never played in Knoxville, but being residents of Tennessee, students of the university are well aware of Kings of Leon and their gritty musical style that has transformed the boys into international sensations, credited by Mick Jagger and the like with restoring rock to its rightful place. Drummer Nathan Followill, who is accompanied on stage by his brothers Jared (bass), Caleb (vocals and rhythm guitar) and their cousin Matthew (lead guitar), spoke with The Daily Beacon for a few minutes about their future plans, dishonest paparazzi and marriage advice from Bono.

The Daily Beacon: What have you guys been doing in the past few months? It’s been a little bit since the release of “Aha Shake Heartbreak,” what have you been up to?

Nathan Followill: We just did the U2 thing and then did a tour in the United Kingdom and in Europe. And then The Secret Machines tour and we’ve got another two and half weeks then we’re going to Rio [de Janiero] with The Strokes and The Arcade Fire and then we are probably going to do the next record at home in Nashville to make it a bit easier in the studio. We’ll be in around mid-November.

DB: Is Nashville still home to you guys even though you’re flying all over the place? I know there are a lot of bands from Nashville that have been working a lot longer than you, but still you’ve started having so much success, is it hard to play a show there and get a lot of support because of that?

NF: We live in Nashville but we’re gone so much, and we never really set out to put Nashville on the map. There are good bands like The Features who have been out longer. They built the foundation and we built the house. Last time we played Nashville, at the Ryman, it sold out. No one was sitting down. We run into the occasional band who have been working hard forever and are wondering why they are still playing the Mercy Lounge and we’re so young.

DB: A lot of tabloids and other media like to give this story of you being extremely sheltered and almost exploit the idea of your upbringing as a gimmick, how do you guys feel whenever you hear things twisted like that?

NF: They would talk about wherever we’re from. Luckily for us they can only write that so many times and we were able to put out a second record that everyone dug on a musical level. We used to get comparisons to the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, so it got to the point that they’re going to say what they’re going to say, so, oh well.

DB: Apparently the Kings of Leon have gotten a lot of attention in Europe? Is the paparazzi as obsessed with you guys as it seems?

NF: On our first trip, they took some (photos) of Jared. I think he was kind of drunk. They got pictures of Jared at the urinal, they got some pretty good shots and that was our first experience with the paparazzi there. It’s everywhere. It’s crazy.

DB: Has the fan base picked up any here in America? In Nashville?

NF: It’s good, we like it [in Nashville], for one we could come home and the only person at the airport was mom but now it’s crazy, you get a lot of 45 year old moms at Wal-Mart that recognize us. It’s starting to get a little crazy at home. We have as many people between the ages of 40 and 45 as we do between 18 and 25. Our fan base is pretty broad. There’s more 40 year old couples wanting to talk instead of girls.

DB: All four of you are related, do you think this adds to your chemistry or just distracts from it with sibling/cousin fights and whatnot?

NF: I think it helps out more than it hurts. Definitely, because at the end of the day you’re related and you’re going to have to put up with the shit and it will be forgiven sooner or later but it’s a double edged sword. It’s good to be brutally honest but sometimes it sucks, we try to balance it out.

DB: Were the U2 guys fun to deal with or old fogeys who stay in their dressing room at all hours?

NF: They were awesome and very cool guys, very nice to us and gave us whatever we wanted, they were cool. In Seattle, we were at the after party and we were all in a circle drinking and it was Caleb and I, Eddie Vedder, Bono, Bill Gates and someone else and we were so hammered ... God only knows what we said but the next day everyone was cracking up.

DB: Did they give you any parting words at the end?

NF: They gave us some good advice about how to achieve longevity and keep our heads on straight. Bono said don’t get married until you can live with a woman for two years off the road.

[bellestarr]

Kings with humble roots
ROCK: Preacher's sons shatter stereotypes with their Southern-styled punk sound

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, October 15, 2005

By CRAYTON HARRISON / The Dallas Morning News


Kings of Leon started with a story.

Three brothers, sons of an itinerant preacher in Tennessee, grew up unexposed to much secular music. In their late teens, when their father left the church, they recruited a cousin and started a band, embracing modern rock music suddenly and earnestly.

It's the kind of rock 'n' roll yarn that gets the attention of record labels and journalists, and Kings of Leon milked it.

"We knew getting into this, the way the labels reacted when we were shopping a deal, when they heard the story, you could see mouths water," says drummer Nathan Followill, speaking by phone from Athens, Ga., after a sound check. "They were ready to take it and run with it."

Still learning to play their instruments, the Followills – Nathan, singer-guitarist Caleb, bassist Jared and guitarist Matthew (the cousin) – signed with RCA and began developing a gritty, rootsy style that has earned them acclaim overseas and a steady following in the United States.

The band's first album, 2003's Youth and Young Manhood, had critics calling it the Southern Strokes.

With this year's Aha Shake Heartbreak, Kings of Leon have started breaking away from easy categorization.

The band, which performs Sunday at the Gypsy Tea Room, gets pegged as a mix of Southern rock in the Lynyrd Skynyrd tradition and feisty U.K. punk, but that description doesn't quite cut it. The pingpong guitars in "Slow Night, So Long" come straight from the Kinks' book, and "Day Old Blues" is equal parts country, blues and Velvet Underground.

The genre-hopping is due in part to the Followills' sudden immersion in pop music after years of underexposure.

"Our influences were gospel music growing up," says Nathan Followill, 26. "We didn't listen to rock 'n' roll, and all across the board, there's so much music to discover that we've never even listened to."

His first big musical inspiration, he says, was Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover."

"It had so many different parts, so many guitar tones," he says. "It sounds like he's singing underwater. From a production standpoint it's ... [expletive]. That was the first time I realized that music doesn't have to be piano, guitar, drums and some country guy singing."

Lately, Mr. Followill has discovered David Byrne, the Secret Machines and the Arcade Fire, and he's still occasionally struck by a Led Zeppelin song he has never heard before.

He acknowledges that the back story, a family of innocents making decadent rock, got the band where it is today.

"That's kind of the reason we signed with RCA," he says. "They saw more of what we could be as opposed to what we were right then. All the other labels liked us, but they wanted to turn us into Evan and Jaron," a band known as much for youthful good looks as anything else, he says. "That's why we grew beards and mustaches and tried to be as hideous as possible. But that was the biggest thing that got us recognized in the U.K."

The band's popularity overseas still puzzles Mr. Followill.

"It seems like it's so odd to them that we still have a North and we still have a South," he says. "They're just mesmerized. I think they were surprised that we had socks and shoes when we stepped off the plane."

Southerners seem to identify with the band's roots, even though Mr. Followill doesn't consider its sound in the tradition of Southern rock.

But if Aha Shake Heartbreak is any indication, the band will continue to shake any label that comes its way. The Followills are already writing their third record, putting together songs during sound checks.

"We'll probably start recording in November," he says. "I think we're getting better at our instruments. We can go to a territory musically that you never knew existed. We're all relatively young on our instruments. I'm the only one who's been playing more than three or four years, so we're all growing with each other."

E-mail [e-mail]

Kings of Leon performs Sunday

at the Gypsy Tea Room's ballroom. Doors at 8 p.m. $20. Front Gate

Tickets, 1-888-512-7469.

[ILoveTheRazzleKid]

hahahahahha!!! nathan you jester! ''Then we'll make up on aisle seven."

[caroline, maybe]

bellestarr said:

Kings with humble roots
ROCK: Preacher's sons shatter stereotypes with their Southern-styled punk sound

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, October 15, 2005

By CRAYTON HARRISON / The Dallas Morning News


Kings of Leon started with a story.

Three brothers, sons of an itinerant preacher in Tennessee, grew up unexposed to much secular music. In their late teens, when their father left the church, they recruited a cousin and started a band, embracing modern rock music suddenly and earnestly.

It's the kind of rock 'n' roll yarn that gets the attention of record labels and journalists, and Kings of Leon milked it.

"We knew getting into this, the way the labels reacted when we were shopping a deal, when they heard the story, you could see mouths water," says drummer Nathan Followill, speaking by phone from Athens, Ga., after a sound check. "They were ready to take it and run with it."

Still learning to play their instruments, the Followills – Nathan, singer-guitarist Caleb, bassist Jared and guitarist Matthew (the cousin) – signed with RCA and began developing a gritty, rootsy style that has earned them acclaim overseas and a steady following in the United States.

The band's first album, 2003's Youth and Young Manhood, had critics calling it the Southern Strokes.

With this year's Aha Shake Heartbreak, Kings of Leon have started breaking away from easy categorization.

The band, which performs Sunday at the Gypsy Tea Room, gets pegged as a mix of Southern rock in the Lynyrd Skynyrd tradition and feisty U.K. punk, but that description doesn't quite cut it. The pingpong guitars in "Slow Night, So Long" come straight from the Kinks' book, and "Day Old Blues" is equal parts country, blues and Velvet Underground.

The genre-hopping is due in part to the Followills' sudden immersion in pop music after years of underexposure.

"Our influences were gospel music growing up," says Nathan Followill, 26. "We didn't listen to rock 'n' roll, and all across the board, there's so much music to discover that we've never even listened to."

His first big musical inspiration, he says, was Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover."

"It had so many different parts, so many guitar tones," he says. "It sounds like he's singing underwater. From a production standpoint it's ... [expletive]. That was the first time I realized that music doesn't have to be piano, guitar, drums and some country guy singing."

Lately, Mr. Followill has discovered David Byrne, the Secret Machines and the Arcade Fire, and he's still occasionally struck by a Led Zeppelin song he has never heard before.

He acknowledges that the back story, a family of innocents making decadent rock, got the band where it is today.

"That's kind of the reason we signed with RCA," he says. "They saw more of what we could be as opposed to what we were right then. All the other labels liked us, but they wanted to turn us into Evan and Jaron," a band known as much for youthful good looks as anything else, he says. "That's why we grew beards and mustaches and tried to be as hideous as possible. But that was the biggest thing that got us recognized in the U.K."

The band's popularity overseas still puzzles Mr. Followill.

"It seems like it's so odd to them that we still have a North and we still have a South," he says. "They're just mesmerized. I think they were surprised that we had socks and shoes when we stepped off the plane."

Southerners seem to identify with the band's roots, even though Mr. Followill doesn't consider its sound in the tradition of Southern rock.

But if Aha Shake Heartbreak is any indication, the band will continue to shake any label that comes its way. The Followills are already writing their third record, putting together songs during sound checks.

"We'll probably start recording in November," he says. "I think we're getting better at our instruments. We can go to a territory musically that you never knew existed. We're all relatively young on our instruments. I'm the only one who's been playing more than three or four years, so we're all growing with each other."

E-mail [e-mail]

Kings of Leon performs Sunday

at the Gypsy Tea Room's ballroom. Doors at 8 p.m. $20. Front Gate

Tickets, 1-888-512-7469.

oh, how I love my dallas morning news

[bellestarr]

Snapshot review: Kings of Leon
POP: Subdued show finally gets punky


08:16 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 18, 2005



THE SHOW: Kings of Leon, Sunday at the Gypsy Tea Room's ballroom

CHOIR BOYS GONE WILD: Brother bands seem to be a trend these days, and Kings of Leon are the contemporary template: three siblings (with a first cousin added), raised in an environment insulated from most secular music, who decided to start a rock band from near-absolute scratch. Now based in Nashville, Caleb, Nathan, Jared and cousin Matthew Followill have two full CDs out that essentially track how the outfit's singular sound has evolved. The band's evolving live, too.

NEW AMERICAN PUNK: The Followills are true punks in the musical sense; they learned their instruments and wrote songs as they absorbed modern styles and lived the rock-band life. Their aesthetic is established: a stripped-bare Southern rock base accented by folk, rock and pop sensibilities and Caleb's odd lollipop-in-cheek vocals. Now polish has taken over. Per punk tradition, the 18-song, 65-minute set was all business. A slinky and ponytailed but still-stiff Caleb talked little, and the band trudged through the first 40 minutes. It felt as if the band were filling a work order instead of tickling the souls of the sold-out crowd.

RAISING A RUCKUS: Holding back that much is a sign that a band is tiring of its routine. November apparently can't come soon enough for the Kings, who will begin recording their third disc then. But after inert versions of "Milk" and "Rememo" lulled the chat-happy throng to a whimper, the Kings abruptly leapt to life. Starting with a bubbly version of "Red Morning Light," the set's last six songs seared the venue with unexpected melodic fire, punctuated by Caleb's destruction of two microphones in a conniption. Matthew's sassy guitar solo during "Wasted Time" and Jared's poised bass work (he has turned into a good player) added to the fury

BOTTOM LINE: A slow, deliberate smolder led to a clamorous but contrived tantrum among the Followills. Careful with those mikes and lovely Gibson guitars, boys.

Mike Daniel

[caroline, maybe]

I read that review in the paper this morning... is it just me, or does it not make any sense?

[smiler]

All those reviews are brilliant,love the way they say whatever they want,
Half the time i reckon they do it just for the sheer hell of it!