Track #2

If it seems as though I've given up on my project, fear not! I've just had an incredibly busy/yucky week-- busy in that I started going to free classes at a local recording studio, and yucky in that I've been sick since Wednesday. It hasn't been one of those "skip school and screw around at home" types of illnesses. It's been more along the lines of me passed out on the couch, exhausting my DVR while coughing up both my lungs into a bowl. So yeah, this week's been a blast.

I am back now, giving my blog a hearty hello (although I don't get anything in return because nobody ever leaves me any pretty comments) and continuing what I said I'd do. So now, I post the second track off Youth and Young Manhood, titled Happy Alone, in Youtube form.






It's a swell video. Shot in a studio in London, in 2003, when the boys were still grungy, young and manic, this high quality video gives a glimpse of the boys when they were unknown nobodies, just starting out on the road. In fact this era of Kings of Leon is still relatively unknown to those individuals who only know them by "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody." Sure, now the boys are becoming megastars, and though anyone listening to the Top 40 could claim to be familiar with KOL, it doesn't mean they remember where it all started.

The Kings began in Nashville, with Caleb and Nathan, who had moved away from their preacher father and were trying to make it with music. They had to call up their sixteen year old brother Jared and the not-much-older cousin Matthew to help out, but in making it, they succeeded. And then the boys started making the nasty rebellious country-rock that dominated Youth and Young Manhood.

Happy Alone fits right in at spot number two. It's got that chugging groove and the sleazy lyrics and the rawness of a band that's just come together (they really just had; I believe a few instruments had to be studied and learned before the band really took off). It alerts the listener that the sexiness/borderline raunchiness isn't going to disappear and that a testosterone tsunami is going to be unleashed in the next nine tracks (if you count Caleb singing about dancing around in high heels and cherry-red lipstick as manly). Regardless, it sure brings on a load of excitement.

Give this track a listen. It embodies the spirit of KOL back when, before all the fans who originally purchased this album and listened to this song 806 times began whining about Only By the Night. We get it. They sound different now. But I dare you to listen to Revelry, Manhattan and especially Cold Desert, and argue with me that these aren't gorgeous, chilled-out southern-rock grooves Caleb wails to in that drawl of his (and I say especially Cold Desert, because that must be the saddest, chillest, wailing, lazy groove). What am I getting at, you ask? Shush and appreciate, please. I love these fellas.

New Project

Back in 2003, a little band by the name of Kings of Leon dropped their first album and made their presence known to the world. I, at the time, was eleven, so their presence was still unknown to me as I was likely listening to Avril Lavigne or some other atrocity. But I caught on eventually and fell in love with the band of brothers and that cousin of theirs, along with the four albums they've released to date. Looking back, though, it is surprising how I first regarded Youth and Young Manhood, the stellar debut from the boys; I was indifferent. It didn't rub me the wrong way but I didn't fall in love with it either-- not upon the first listen anyways. Now it has grown on me so much that it's made its way into my top 5 CD rotation, a coveted spot all the CDs in my car WISH they could be in. And nothing is better than driving down the road singing in your best "Caleb voice" to Joe's Head. Nothing.

I come to you now, ready and willing, if not eager, if not frothing at the mouth, to share with you Youth and Young Manhood. This is when the boys were hairy; before they were superstars screaming about fiery sex; before they played The Today Show; before they grew up. I still love them now, but oh my, were they hot when they first started out (in the musical sense.. though in the physical sense, as well). So, I'm going to scour youtube (my favorite hobby) and find, track by track, the best live performances of these songs. It'll be fun. And it will help me kill so much time I could spend doing something progressive. But here goes...


Everybody loves Jools Holland.



Red Morning Light is the staunch, dirty, southern, energetic opener and a classic example of the boys' style 6 years ago; Caleb's mumbling and growling almost incoherently through the lyrics, not allowing you to hear how dirty they really are; Jared's about 16 and always seem to be brimming with energy and excitement; Matthew gives facemelting solos; Nathan's singing just as heartily as Caleb in his southern drawl. The boys were brand new to bandhood-- it seems that Matthew was a little rusty on guitar, and Jared didn't even know how to play bass, yet they certainly came together pretty quickly. The haphazardness of their Youth and Young Manhood songs only add to the excitement, really, and these songs really wouldn't work if they were clean. I mean, Caleb's talking about an individual who "couldn't take it on the tightrope, no you had to take it on the side," and then they apparently give all their cinnamon away. You can't see that music being crystal clear and snazzy and sharp; although they are pretty sharp, in the sense that their music is so tight (seriously, they are amazing amazing amazing live performers... and I would like to see them sometime SOON).

So please, take some time, watch this three minute segment; remember this is only a sample for there is much more dirtyness yet to come.