This post is from Out the Other's 2010 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I will be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2010 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
Nashville has a strange relationship with hometown boys Kings of Leon - there's a lot of antipathy around town for the band, pretty much ever since they started gaining popularity. The skinny jeans, the lack of local love, their seeming ability to skip straight to stardom without paying their dues in our neighborhood dives - or maybe it's just that the Nashville rock scene hates a popular band. Whatever it is, it's gotten even weirder since the Followill boys reached blockbuster, superstar status. On one hand, it's bringing our town a shitload of attention. On the other hand, it's all "woah, who knew there were rockers in Nashville?" kind of attention, from the likes of the British and big city press who think Nashville still equals Music Row. But love 'em or hate 'em, Kings of Leon are still Nashville, and they're doing some good things with their fame, like taking Nashville's The Features (one of the best bands in town) under their wing, bringing them on tour and releasing their album. And you've gotta respect that.
Over the course of Kings of Leon's career - from the Holy Roller Novocaine EP to Aha Shake Heartbreak to the epic Only By the Night (which has gone platinum six times around the world) - the band has evolved and changed from gritty, Southern garage-rock yowlers to arena-filling U2 soundalikes, all in the space of less than ten years. My favorite Kings of Leon sound is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum - the first time I saw them here in Nashville on a bill with Be Your Own Pet and The Features, I left before Kings were halfway through their set. To me, their country-ish garage rocking all sounded pretty uniform, and I wasn't incredibly impressed (ironically now, their older albums are my favorite). Years later I got to see them on tour for Because of the Times and the band managed to win me over, but I almost wish they had stopped developing their sound when Caleb's vocals were still muddy and their songs had more grit. I respect the appeal of tunes like "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody," but I have to admit I haven't revisited Only By the Night since I first heard it.
The band is still touring on the strength of their 2008 album, but they've been working on a new record as well - reports from their New York studio say the songs are "chilled-out" "beachy" and more of a throwback to their Youth and Young Manhood days. "Darker " and "grungier" sounds damn good to me, and since Nathan claims they'll be trying out the new material at Bonnaroo this week, I might just check out their set after all.
"Sex On Fire"
"Holy Roller Novocaine"
Kings of Leon will play the What Stage on Friday night from 9:30 - 11:30 p.m.
Not being a Nashvillain (really? that can't be right, can it?), it's fascinating to me that KOL are regarded as not having paid their dues. I love the progression of their albums and I can't wait to see how they incorporate their new-found "chops" in the context of their older, dirtier sound. They could be a band that, thirty years from now, may be remembered as our Rolling Stones (of course, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, owing to advanced cybernetics and voodoo magic, will still be alive and touring then).
Having said that, damn Nathan Followill for hogging Jessie Baylin all to himself. That's selfish.
Posted by: Cousin Matt | Wednesday, June 09, 2010 at 02:03 PM