whats up with this it just takes me to a sing up thingy
aaaahhhhh help me britchick
this is it:
Kings of Leon take aim at TLA
Group's 2nd album released this week
By JONATHAN TAKIFF
takiffj@phillynews.com
Sometimes you have to venture halfway around the world before you can go home again. So it's been for Kings of Leon, that worthy young rock band from Mt. Juliet, Tenn.
The band's edgy debut album of tremulous punk, North Country twang and blues-tinged music, "Youth and Young Manhood," achieved a fair amount of critical approval in the United States on its release in 2003.
But where the set really caught fire commercially was overseas.
In England, France and Germany, the Followill clan - mush-mouthed lead singer/rhythm guitarist Caleb, brothers Jared on bass and Nathan on drums and first cousin Matthew on lead guitar - were quickly anointed the best American rock export since the Strokes and White Stripes.
Celebrity groupies fell head over heels for these rail-thin, Southern-drawling cutie pies.
So, too, did the media, which loved their backwoods backstory almost as much as their rough and ready, instinctively original breed of rock.
Now, with the belated American release this week of their twice-as-good, boldly honest second album, "Aha Shake Heartbreak," it looks like the Kings of Leon are going to conquer their homeland, too.
"More radio stations here have already picked up on the first single ['The Bucket'] than they ever did for everything from the first album," allowed Caleb Followill, in a recent phone chat prompted by the band's show tonight at TLA. And the prospects of a big U.S. breakout are looking even brighter since Kings of Leon have been annointed as featured opening act for U2's upcoming U.S. tour.
"The wine's definitely better overseas, but it's good to be home," Caleb declared. "We like being able to find our favorite snacks in the convenience store."
Preachers' kids, the Followills "learned to play music alongside our parents in the revival tent," said the "just turned 23" Caleb.
"We grew up on gospel and black choir music. We were in services five nights a week, and sometimes the music was so strong and the crowds so crazy that there was no time for preaching.
"You could say we were in a bit of a bubble, dumb to everything in contemporary pop culture.
"But Dad [whose name is Leon] was a hippy before he became a [United Pentecostal] preacher, and he still loved classic rock music.
"When we were driving at night from town to town, and Mom fell asleep, he'd put on a Rolling Stones or a Neil Young tape, and subconsciously some of that got into our heads."
I'd wager it was the Stones' blues-and-country-inspired gem "Let It Bleed" that really got under their skin, along with maybe some Creedence Clearwater Revival, Allman Brothers and Velvet Underground.
That odd co-mingling of mystery and hurt in Caleb's badly enunciated vocals shows special kinship to the oft- misunderstood singing of Messers Jagger, Fogerty, Allman and Reed.
Caleb and his brother, Nathan, two years older, started writing songs "about a year before we became a band," Caleb continued.
"We kind of got a buzz going from that, and the record labels started swarming around. But rather than give the songs away, we decided to form our own group, so we could do them ourselves.
"We bought our little brother [Jared, now 18] a bass and told him to learn how to play it, and called our cousin Matt [now 20] to get down to the house. Three months later, we got the first offer to record."
They went with RCA " 'cause of this guy Steve Grabosky who's signed everyone from the Strokes to Russell Simmons to the Beastie Boys. He's the only label guy who didn't want to change us, who let us grow on our own.
"I wound up quitting school three weeks before graduation, even though I was at the top of my class. Jared and Matt also had to drop out. But we've gotten a much better education."
While "Youth and Young Manhood" was mostly about aspirations and "70 percent fiction," "Aha Shake Heartbreak" details the joys, emotional drain and debauchery of life in the rock-'n'-roll fast lane that's been the Kings of Leon's story (mostly overseas) for the last 18 months.
And the new project, smartly helmed by producers Ethan Johns and Angelo, stretches out in a much wider musical circle, from the speedy punk of "Slow Night, Slow Long" and off-kilter "King of the Rodeo" to the yodeling (!) infused, acoustic "Day Old Blues" and the retro-rockabilly "Four Kicks."
Thematically, the band's favorite topic is getting it on with the girlies, though the song "Soft" reveals in telling, poetic detail how alcohol and sex don't mix.
And yes, the God-fearing Caleb does seems at least somewhat remorseful in the morning.
He's also hung up about his prematurely receding hairline, mentioning it in two different songs!
When we talked last week, Caleb was still feeling another sting of conscience and consequence - a pained middle right finger, which he'd hurt so bad a couple weeks ago that the group had to forego some scheduled European concert dates.
"We were at this photo shoot for a Rolling Stones magazine spread, and there were all these hot girls there.
"So we were playing and showing off. I lost my pick but kept on strumming. My strings are very hard. And I ripped a nail off, got the finger all bloody and infected. But at least I got laid."
on letterman b/c they were wasted !!
