Kings of Leon
Early years (1999–2002)
The three Followill brothers spent much of their youth traveling around the Southern United States with their father, Ivan Leon Followill, a United Pentecostal Church preacher and their mother, Betty-Ann, who taught them when they were not in school. Caleb and Jared were both born in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. They all attended Mount Juliet High School. Nathan and Matthew were born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. According to Rolling Stone magazine, "While Leon preached at churches and tent revivals throughout the Deep South, the boys attended services and were occasionally enlisted to bang on some drums. They were either home-schooled or enrolled in small parochial schools at this time. Except for a five-year period when they settled in Jackson, Tennessee, the Followills' childhoods were spent driving through the southern United States in a purple 1988 Oldsmobile, decamping for a week or two wherever Leon was In an
interview with Billboard, Nathan Followill described how the band was formed. "When we signed the deal [with RCA], it was just me and Caleb. The label said, 'We're gonna put you a band together', and we were like, 'We don't want to be Evan and Jaron. We're going to buy our little brother a bass, he's a freshman in high school. Caleb will teach himself the guitar. [Matthew] played guitar when he was 10. I'll play the drums, I played in church when I was little.' They said, 'All right, we'll come down in one month and see you guys.'" Later in the interview the brothers admitted to "kidnapping" their cousin Matthew from his hometown in Mississippi in order for him to join the band. They told his mother that he was only going to be staying for a week and just never let him go home. "We locked ourselves in the basement with an ounce of marijuana and literally spent a month down there. My mom would bring us food down", added Nathan. "And at the end of that month the label people came and we had "Molly's Chambers", "California Waiting", "Wicker Chair" and "Holy Roller Novocaine"."[5]
interview with Billboard, Nathan Followill described how the band was formed. "When we signed the deal [with RCA], it was just me and Caleb. The label said, 'We're gonna put you a band together', and we were like, 'We don't want to be Evan and Jaron. We're going to buy our little brother a bass, he's a freshman in high school. Caleb will teach himself the guitar. [Matthew] played guitar when he was 10. I'll play the drums, I played in church when I was little.' They said, 'All right, we'll come down in one month and see you guys.'" Later in the interview the brothers admitted to "kidnapping" their cousin Matthew from his hometown in Mississippi in order for him to join the band. They told his mother that he was only going to be staying for a week and just never let him go home. "We locked ourselves in the basement with an ounce of marijuana and literally spent a month down there. My mom would bring us food down", added Nathan. "And at the end of that month the label people came and we had "Molly's Chambers", "California Waiting", "Wicker Chair" and "Holy Roller Novocaine"."[5]
On January 31, 2010, Kings of Leon took home the Grammy award for Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Song for "Use Somebody" at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.
A remix album has also been announced by the band, which apparently came to life after Kings of Leon learned that other artists had started working on revisions of the band's songs. Mark Ronson, Kenna, Justin Timberlake, Lykke Li with her cover of "Knocked Up", Pharrell Williams and Linkin Park among others, have been recruited by Kings of Leon and will be contributing to the album.[32]
Come Around Sundown (2010–present)
In May 2010, Nathan Followill reported that the band had been recording in New York City since March 2010, and that, to their surprise, the tracks were coming out "chilled out", "beach-y" and more like their Youth and Young Manhood sound.[33] They had previously said, prior to getting back to the studio, that they would be looking to record a "darker" and "grungier" album.[34] The band's fifth album is called Come Around Sundown and was released on October 18 (UK) / 19 (US), 2010.[35] It was recorded in New York between February and June 2010 with Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King once more at the helm.
In June 2010, the band embarked on a tour visiting over 50 cities in North America and Europe. The tour dates ranged for 4 months, from June 5 to September 23.[36]
The first single from the album, "Radioactive", was released on September 13, 2010,[37] however, it was scheduled to receive its premiere on Australian radio four days earlier. The band released the music video for the song on September 8.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Leon
‘Come Around Sundown’ is none of those things. It’s not a leftfield swerve. It’s a stately modern
rock album that’s so desperate to prove its own authenticity it forgets to be remotely moving. This is music designed to be blasted from drive-time FM radios, and to waft around arenas big enough to have pigeons nesting (and shitting) in the echoing rafters.
Sonically, it consolidates the band’s gradual shift from ramshackle charm to clean-lined grandeur. Guitars twinkle and shimmer, rather than scratch or chug. The album contains one indisputably great song: ‘Back Down South’, a beautifully subtle country-rock stomp that showcases Kings Of Leon’s knack for conjuring sonic drama from the simplest of ingredients: for the first two and a half minutes it’s just one bass note and one chord.
That track, combined with the going-back-to-your-roots theme of ‘Radioactive’ (“It’s in the water, where you came from”), would suggest ‘Come Around Sundown’ is all about the band reconnecting with the Southern soil after the rootless hedonism explored on ‘Only By The Night’. Fine. That’s a good subject. Trouble is, they don’t see it through.
Caleb Followill has admitted he ad-libbed the lyrics (“I free-floated everything”). In other words: he was on auto-pilot. The frontman always had a conflicted relationship with his own voice. On early albums he deliberately sang indistinctly to obscure the fact his lyrics didn’t mean anything. The point is: he overcame that on ‘Only By The Night’. Say what you like about ‘Sex On Fire’, it is at least about something: a transcendent one-night stand.
‘Come Around Sundown’, though, represents a return to opacity. Witness a song like ‘The Immortals’, which finds Caleb stretching out those trademark grizzled vowel sounds. “Ride away?” “Right away”?. Something about a rooster? Who knows – he could be singing about Subbuteo in Elvish and we’d be none the wiser.
Ultimately, too many of these tunes are rehearsal room grooves in search of a hook. They’re clearly meant to convey a sense of wide-open highway: the feeling of a band cruising in effortless fourth gear. Actually, it just sounds like they’re spinning their wheels.http://www.nme.com/reviews/kings-of-leon/11653
Sonically, it consolidates the band’s gradual shift from ramshackle charm to clean-lined grandeur. Guitars twinkle and shimmer, rather than scratch or chug. The album contains one indisputably great song: ‘Back Down South’, a beautifully subtle country-rock stomp that showcases Kings Of Leon’s knack for conjuring sonic drama from the simplest of ingredients: for the first two and a half minutes it’s just one bass note and one chord.
That track, combined with the going-back-to-your-roots theme of ‘Radioactive’ (“It’s in the water, where you came from”), would suggest ‘Come Around Sundown’ is all about the band reconnecting with the Southern soil after the rootless hedonism explored on ‘Only By The Night’. Fine. That’s a good subject. Trouble is, they don’t see it through.
Caleb Followill has admitted he ad-libbed the lyrics (“I free-floated everything”). In other words: he was on auto-pilot. The frontman always had a conflicted relationship with his own voice. On early albums he deliberately sang indistinctly to obscure the fact his lyrics didn’t mean anything. The point is: he overcame that on ‘Only By The Night’. Say what you like about ‘Sex On Fire’, it is at least about something: a transcendent one-night stand.
‘Come Around Sundown’, though, represents a return to opacity. Witness a song like ‘The Immortals’, which finds Caleb stretching out those trademark grizzled vowel sounds. “Ride away?” “Right away”?. Something about a rooster? Who knows – he could be singing about Subbuteo in Elvish and we’d be none the wiser.
Ultimately, too many of these tunes are rehearsal room grooves in search of a hook. They’re clearly meant to convey a sense of wide-open highway: the feeling of a band cruising in effortless fourth gear. Actually, it just sounds like they’re spinning their wheels.http://www.nme.com/reviews/kings-of-leon/11653
