Kings Of Leon

Just imagine if you’d dreamed up your perfect band, perfectly placed for the times....and then they turn out to be real.

It’s the early 2000’s and on the one hand you’ve got New York New Wave skinny sounding Strokes with their nervous tics and Swiss Finishing School of Rock. Kings of Leon are their fairground mirror image.

Three Southern sons of a travelling Pentecostal Preacher form a band with their cousin. Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill and their cousin Matthew Followill. They even get to share the same last names...just like The Ramones. And The Nolans

Their Dad preached in tents and revival meetings and their childhoods were spent touring the Southern States in an Oldsmobile. Now any car that’s good enough for both Public Enemy (“Suckers to the side I know you’ll hate my 98”) and Jonathan Richman (“The Oldsmobile’s got the top down on it”) is just fine by me.

The boys grew up on strict gospel only musical diet, with the Devil’s music sneaked in through a radio under the pillow like a Jamie Oliver school dinner busting mum. When their parents divorced and their dad left the church, the good ole boys were ready to go right off the rails. And to Nashville.

"We realized that our dad, the greatest man we ever knew, in our eyes, was only human. And so are we. People are gonna fuck up. They're gonna want to experiment with drugs, have premarital sex. This whole new world was open to us."

Between bouts of debauchery they sang at Rodeos and were in the West Tennessee Mass Choir.

With the southern accents, long hair and full range of facial hair, early reviews always seemed to mention Lynrd Skynrd and The Allman Brothers although Kings Of Leon were a long way from that kind of stadium boogie band. They were actually closer to a hillbilly grunge Pixies.

Two guitars, a thick sound and Caleb's tight throat slurred vocal drawl. He sounds like his beard was on the inside of his face.

After signing to RCA in 2002 they bought a house on the same lake as Johnny Cash in Mt Juliet Tennessee. I'm just really impressed by that. Not the same town, not the same street, but the same lake.

In a Rolling Stone interview, Caleb talked about the lyrics. “Why should we be held to our own experiences? Why not do like our dad did as a preacher: Every day, he saw something that inspired him and told a story about someone different. I had to put myself in other people's shoes." Which must be why their two albums are predominantly about shagging.

“Red Morning Light” was an early single and is “Youth and Young Manhood's” opening track. It's a corker. A descending sequence of filthy overblown guitars run down the stairs to answer the door...and then collapses in a heap as a jaunty, almost ska like rhythm, with loads of cowbell takes over.

The lyrics are baffling “Hey Hey, Nah Nah, you're giving all your cinammon away” (I still think it's about sex though.)

“California Waiting” has the same epic sweep as Blondie's “Union City Blue. “ Obviously that's an epic sweep in a good way rather than a U2 way. “Molly's Chambers” has got a similar feel to Rocket From The Crypts excellent single “On A Rope.”

“Trani” is a Velvet Underground type song both in terms of its mix of delicately played chords (like the end of “Ocean”) and it's subject matter...sleaze, violence, the transvestite and the transistor radio. When Kings of Leon toured with Bob Dylan, the band claim he told them it was a hell of a song. What he actually said though was “Pha eshe war agnong”.

The second album “Aha Shake Heartbreak” is actually better. “Slow Night So Long” has got a Strokes type feel, Caleb's vocal is more of a yelp and there's a section where the guitars hammer along like a Wedding Present banjo strumathon.

“The Bucket's” recurring drum motif puts me in mind of an inbred 6 fingered(well it makes it easier to play the chiming chords) bastard son of Altered Images “Happy Birthday” and the chorus is cleverly written. Everything stops for it as the instruments drop out to accentuate the vocals before piling back into the riff.

“Soft” is certainly no let down. Even if it's subject matter is about exactly that. It's angular bass and guitars are rampant.

The new album, “Because Of The Times” is due out next month. The title comes from the huge Pentecostal conventions in Louisiana that the brothers used to go to.

The band have been better received and sold more records outside of the States. Part of that must be due to the fact that to British fans, this is a band playing fine fine music, with excellent lady scaring beards and the whole mix of religon and brotherhood just gives it that extra irresitible appeal.

Whereas to vast swathes of America the back ground story will either feel uncomfortable or irrelevant.

Just how would a British version of The Kings Of Leon work? Would it be like The Wicker Man? Ok...I'll have some of that too then.