yup. first 2 are fantastic. last 2, kinda terrible save for a few good tracks off because of the times

This really isn't news to me. While "Sex on Fire" is their first top ten (and number 1) hit in the UK, they've always had a greater presence here. Youth... is a fun album, and "Sex on Fire" is unbelievably catchy.

I think the first album kind of sucks. I think the second is really fucking good, the third, agree, a fucking beast and the new one just never really grabbed me.

That's kind of the point of the thread Mick. Until recently, they've been pretty much a mid-sized club act here in the States.

A quick check shows that BOTT didn't crack the top 20 here and the last one went #5 the week it was released but quickly dropped. Apparently "Sex On Fire" got a lot of play on modern rock stations and really raised their profile here. Most of us here don't really listen to mainstream modern rock radio......hence the surprise that they are playing arenas here now.

Put me in the camp that liked the first 2.

I went and saw them play for the first album just as it was breaking at a medium sized, packed bar and they were fantastic. Saw 'em a year and a half or so later and they had put out the second album and were working on the third. they looked and sounded bored. I was disappointed in the songs they played from the third album and when it came out I was done.

I still go back and listen to the first 2, which I love for their short, energetic, catchy Strokes meets CCR vibe. But, that's it for me. I wanted to like the third one and tried a couple times. But, the first time I played it I was just fairly shocked at the changes and couldn't get into it. After that, I played it a couple more times and just found it boring.

Comments like this are so funny.

I'm not calling you a liar or anything, but you're a liar. I do not understand how anyone who pays one fraction of attention to music doesn't know who these guys are. It's impossible. It's not like their a random pop act or something.

It sounds exactly like they're a random pop act to me. I know that Gar and his assorted hangers-on spooge over them, and that's about enough of a reason for me to ignore them. Where would I have heard them? New Yorker's year in review? Meet the Press's music edition? I don't read Spin. I come here and only listen to hardcore gangster-ass rap music and NPR podcasts. Are these guys in beer commercials or something?

In all seriousness, for once, are these guys really that ubiquitous? I'm 31 and have a baby and a wife, a kitchen disaster 25% complete and 3 cars, none of which are in any state of respectability. How would I know anything about Kings of Leonz? If anything, I'm sincerely surprised that everyone else knows them as being bigger than U2 like they invented finding money and wrote the Twilight books in between titty-fucking.

If you don't listen to shitty FM radio (the only decent stations in Cincy are NPR and the classic rock station), it would be very easy to only be familiar with their name and not their music.

I see your point...I guess I just can't see how anyone can miss them. I like the two popular songs okay, but that's as far as it goes for me. At the same time, it feels to me like if someone knows anything at all about what's going on in music these days, they know who these guys are and have heard them.

My wife knows NOTHING about music...really. And she doesn't know who the fuck these guys are and could care less. But she also doesn't doesn't spend time on a music message board.

But hey, if you don't, you don't...what the fuck do I care.

for me, they peaked with aha shake.... i still own all of their albums and have even come around on their first one lately. but they are probably one album away from really becoming shit.

Pretty much. I don't see the fascination, but find them fairly harmless.

I will say, KoL and the Strokes are the two bands that most people at my work always name drop when they say they are into "indie" music.

I saw them last year opening for Son Volt (they traded off from night to night who was headliner) at the Fillmore. I was right at the edge of the stage and the guitarist stepped on my hand.

They are solid. I totally get how someone could think they wear the mantle of real American Rock and Roll. And live they had more energy than soporific depressive Jay Farrar. But the substance of their music... evaporates for me. The thought and heart in Son Volt's music exposed the Jack Daniel's show biz glitz of their....

Oh shit, I though Kings of Leon were Drive by Truckers.... I saw K of L open for U2... they totally suck... ha, ha, ha,,,, nurse... oh nurse, my meds please....

I only know this sex in bonfire song because of mainstream rock radio pollution through my former flatmate. she loves that song and cranked up the radio all the time when they played. which was almost 3 times every night.
it's just a radio pop song. I can ignore this band perfectly.

Lol, Chase has a TV in the kitchen but can't hang any music art on his walls.

Frankly, I've been on these guys since almost the beginning, made my statement on them early and often, and resent being lumped in as a Gar hanger-on. I know that Chase doesn't get involved in this shit that often, so I feel bad that this is directed at him. Board factions seem to have to be included or implied now anytime anyone says anything about music on this board, though.

No offense Gar or any hanger-on in any of the implied cliques.

its easier to draw lines

less thinking that way

haha

I think Bloor burned me a disc of theirs waaay back, which I listened to a few times and then put down. And I think I know which song that Sex On Fire one is, because, as Busty said, it fucking plays everywhere all the time. Like in stores, in the Applebee's a vendor took me to lunch at last week, and 6 months back (?) it was in heavy rotation on xmu. I don't listen to any radio anywhere, other than a few minutes of xmu when I get home (before Jeopardy starts) and it still found me.


Other than that song, though, I don't think I know any of their songs. Sounds like they went Snow Patrol though, or are about to.

The factions change from band to band. Makes it confusing. Also makes it way more fun and easy to besmirch an anonymous cross-section of dummies... er, I mean fans.

To be fair, it's not because I can't, but because it looks ridiculous. You keep the pictures that come with the wallet too? Let's face the fact that all musicians are douchebags and I don't want pictures that I didn't take of random douchebags I don't even know in my house.

To be fair, no band members are included in any of my "pictures".

Never heard them to my knowledge. I've also never seen Lost, Mad Men, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, or lots of other TV shows that are strongly ingrained in popular culture.

Up until the early 90's, it might have been true that it would be likely for me to hear them without seeking them out. I haven't listened to radio though in over five years. I don't watch MTV. I generally don't hear things that I don't actively seek out unless they are used in a TV commercial or a movie soundtrack. Where would I have heard them without pro-actively seeking them out? To my knowledge, none of my closest friends are KOL fans.

I have some knowlege of who they are and what style of music they play. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't dislike their music but I don't think I'd be a big fan either so I've never seen the need to check them out.

If you think that DBT is less substantive than Jay Farrar I have to re-evaluate every opinion I have ever held of you, my friend.

And yes - I like rock music. I don't like loser rap or whatever it is chase is into. But he's a respectable middle aged connoiseur with 3 cars now.

I'm pretty sure I got a mix from someone a couple years ago that had one of their songs on it. I wasn't encouraged to explore anything more.