Kings of Leon: Your Thoughts?

This thread is more enjoyable than having a bikini wax...but not by much.

Unfortunately it is like a bad car crash, I can't not look.

Lol but was Kanye really hostile? I thought he was more disrespectful and ignorant. it's the fans that were hostile (but for good reason)

Just watched Caleb's rant from Reading....

What a joke. They suck.

Also from the Reading festival the next day very NSFW, but very funny.

Shit Sundae. The inforoo kind of nuts

*stokes the fire*

I love it.

KOL complains about the audience and everyone thinks he's a dick.


Jack White does it......nobody complains




Of course.......there is no comparison to the genius of Jack White and KOL. I just find it funny.

I'm not trying to stir the poo, but I read in either Rolling Stone or Spin that they did make this record to be a hit in the US. The article stated something to the fact of: a) they have always been huge in England and wanted that kind of success here b) they were changing the sound of the new record in hopes that they would gain more popularity in America. I'll try to find the source later.

For the record, we've seen KOL 3 times (Roo 07, The Pagent St Louis in 08, and The Summit Center Nashville in 09). I can't speak with authortiy on the Roo show because I was heavily intoxicated at the time of the show:). The Pagent show was AMAZING. Everyone in the crowd sang the words to every song, great vibe, and I even got a setlist. The Summit Center show was the complete opposite. The vibe sucked because of the amount of people who were there to hear Crawl, Use Somebody, and Sex on Fire. I have read in Rolling Stone that they are no longer promoting that album (OBTN) and want to act like it never happened.

Hopefully, they realized the error of their ways and will bring back some of that old KOL sound with this new album. I really do like them and want to see them do well.

that

How about instead of King of Leon we get The White Stripes, Racentours, and Dead weather.... zoinks

i echo the same sentiments as everyone else...i wouldn't mind them being there, just not as a headliner.

i do respect the fact that they really are living the dream. a band formed by brothers who just got nominated for song of the year. i mean, that's not too shabby. although, it is easy to get annoyed by certain songs of their's b/c they are everywhere right now. and i've seen them several times, they aren't bad in a small venue but it would be lackluster on a large stage like what (it was on the large stage at ACL).

ya gotta bear in mind, the Grammys is an industry awards platform built around self-propagation and revenue maximization. When they say "Best" it means something a lot different than when you or I say it.

Thought I'd weigh in on this conversation. I have several points here, so bear with me.

First and foremost, I am a Kings of Leon fan. Whether that's old sound, new sound, whatever. My preference is the grungier, bar-room brawl of Aha Shake Heartbreak, but I do not discount Only By The Night. I am usually not a fan of arena rock, which is the genre that I would throw OBTN in, but as I wrote in a review of the album upon first coming out, that does not discount the album as a worthwhile musical endeavor. The first five songs on OBTN are perhaps the best stretch of complex, melody-driven songwriting that KOL has ever done. As I said before, not really my cup of tea, but does not discount the musical merit of the songs. I am also a fan not so much of what KOL has done, but what I see them having the potential to do. I believe that they have a truly classic album in them at some point over their career, and now they have the ability to craft music for the rest of their lives, and hopefully realize that potential.

Let's consider a of couple of other things before writing off KOL, or calling them "sellouts", whatever that means now-a-days anyway (more on that later). First, one must consider the difference in the size of audiences the band was playing to in the US vs. the UK prior to OBTN. In the UK, the band was filling arenas, playing to 20K+ every night. This is important to note because this drove the sound of the music they were making (moving strongly towards arena rock, i.e. filling a larger space with their sound). They consistently said before the album was released that they wanted to play to same size crowds in the US, which again involves bringing in a pop element to your music (i.e. sing-a-long choruses and larger sounds), so as to draw in a larger fanbase.

Let's also consider that the band is signed to a major label, RCA. They have ALWAYS been signed to RCA, who has ALWAYS promoted the hell out of their music overseas. Remember, KOL came into the music scene in the post-Strokes era, and were lumped in with the "young, cool" band trend that was sweeping through the music scene at the time. RCA jumped on it, knowing they could make a buck or two off of them. The first album that they really promoted Stateside was OBTN, mainly because they knew they had a hit single on their hands (Use Somebody). The reason things get played on the radio is because they're catchy and the record company can put it in the hands of DJs across the country (i.e. pumping money into the product).

As far as "selling out" is concerned, the argument many give in this thread and beyond is the development of KOL's sound. As I've pointed out above, I don't believe this to be the case, given the arenas they were playing in the UK, etc. If you're saying they are selling out because they are on a major label, then you should probably say the same thing about MGMT (Columbia), who had their record label pump 1.3 million dollars into their record to push their brand of neo-hippie, Flaming Lips acolytes just as it was tanking. And look, they got nominated for Grammys too!!!

I guess what I'm saying with my essay here is that people are a little too quick to judge KOL because their fanbase Stateside grew the way it did after this album. The fact as far as headlining is concerned, is that they are homegrown boys from Tennessee, and can draw a huge crowd now because of their popularized "it" status. I hate to say it, but winning 3 Grammys only helps their cause in this situation.

MGMT sucks, too.

I'm glad the one line from my post about another band hijacked the thread into hating on someone else