Black Rose Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 I still prefer their debut album, although because of the times comes a close 2nd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talkingonsquareone89 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times are my favorites. ...I'm not too much of a fan for this latest album. :embarassed: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Only By The Night for me! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Kol are here tomorrow..and i dont have tickets :(:(:( Same here! They have gigs in Berlin and Cologne, but both sold-out. I'm hoping for new dates in autumn. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad-Cold Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 I hope they'll come to pinkpop or lowlands ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad-Cold Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 You should listen to because of the times! Its really good :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad-Cold Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Download? :uhoh: Youtube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talkingonsquareone89 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 last.fm is the way to go! they've got the full tracks ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Rose Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 So does spotify :) If your in a country lucky enough to have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauiwi Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I've been getting into their older material lately, and there are some good tracks! Going to see them live in Melb in March you see.... Still think CRAWL is the best thing they've done 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dejan Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Watch Nathan Followill breeze into his local Nashville watering hole, and it's obvious that he's well-known and well-liked by the crew at McCabe's Pub. Clad in sweats and a Yankees cap, the Kings of Leon drummer comes off more as cool local guy than international rock star. Nothing in this manner indicates that his band's fourth album is finally making the Kings as big in the United States as they have been in the United Kingdom and Europe since 2004, when it had back-to-back No. 1 singles in the United Kingdom. The band's label, RCA, says "Only by the Night" has sold almost 3 million copies worldwide, going platinum in Canada, Australia, South Africa and Belgium. They've been multiplatinum in the United Kingdom for quite a while. Until now, that kind of success has eluded them at home—the band's three previous albums never broke the 300,000 mark—but that's beginning to change. So far "Only by the Night" has sold 397,000 in the States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and Kings of Leon are now making their home country their target market. Ken Levitan, founder and president of Vector Management, which handles the group, says the game plan was to first break the band overseas, partly because of the chance that Americans weren't ready for a Nashville-based rock band and partly because of staff changes at RCA. "We tried to break it out of Europe first. We thought they really might get the music and the story quicker there than they did here," Levitan says. "So basically we hopped on a plane, got the guys over, hired a publicist, got the label fired up and away it went." The band—brothers Nathan, Caleb and Jared and their cousin Matthew—has a well-documented back story. But the Followills' childhood of traveling with their Pentecostal preacher father didn't resonate at home as it did in Europe. "Over there, we stepped off the plane and they were amazed we had socks and shoes, had all of our teeth and didn't have our tongues stuck in a bottle of Jack Daniel's," Followill says. In retrospect, Followill reckons, the story has helped more than it has hurt. "Nobody believed it," he says with a laugh. "They thought some publicist spawned this whole story, [that] they stuck us in with [producer] Angelo [Petraglia] [and] he wrote all our songs for us. We actually had a publication in Europe that brought swabs to an interview—they wanted DNA, didn't believe we were all related. My idea was to take the swabs and get samples from a black fan, a little person, a Japanese fan and a woman and send them back. They'd get the results and say, 'See, they're not related.' " Although the band's U.S. growth was slow, it was also steady, which suits Followill fine. "We had friends in bands that came out and sold 4 million records in their debut and that's amazing," he says. "Then they come back and sell 3 million on their second and it's considered a failure. The bar gets set so high, you have so much pressure to replicate what was so successful about the other one, which kind of sticks them in a rut." "Only by the Night" has already topped the domestic sales numbers of 2007's "Because of the Times" (226,000), 2005's "Aha Shake Heartbreak" (262,000) and the band's 2003 debut "Youth and Young Manhood" (218,000). "We've had our frustrations" in the States, Levitan says. "Obviously, it would have been great if the whole thing would have blown up really quickly. But when you're doing it this way, laying it brick by brick, your foundation gets much stronger and I think you're in for a much longer ride." The band is still riding on the new album's debut single, "Sex On Fire"—it spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Modern Rock radio airplay chart and has sold 460,000 digital downloads—while the second single, "Use Somebody," is starting to make noise at the format. "This has been one of those projects where the band makes the right record, you lay out a plan and the plan works," RCA VP/GM Tom Corson says. "The market has come around to the band. It's just their time. The band has put in the work over the years, they have their finest album to date, and consumers are into it." Nashville is notoriously nonchalant about its stars in public ("Even your freak fans here are still nice, sweet people," Followill says), but Followill's days of going to bar without being mobbed are numbered. By his own estimation, Followill has spent only a few months at home in the four years he's lived in the West Nashville neighborhood, a testament to the Kings' nonstop touring/recording cycles since debuting with "Manhood." The band has played live in a wide range of configurations, from opening for U2 in arenas and playing secondary stages at festivals, to headlining their own club, theater and arena shows and topping the bill at the largest outdoor events in the world. Only a few days earlier Kings of Leon marked a career milestone by selling out New York's Madison Square Garden for the first time. "It was cool to see we had that many fans," Followill says, "especially considering we never really had a hit." More recently, the band performed at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party for an audience that included Prince, Jay-Z and Jennifer Hudson. BROTHERS IN ARMS The band's genesis wasn't auspicious, to say the least. "Jared had never picked up a bass, Caleb had never picked up a guitar, Matt had taken two guitar lessons," Followill says. So what made them think they could pull this off? "Boredom. Stupidity," Followill says. "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 & Jaron. We're gonna buy our little brother a bass, he's a freshman in high school. Caleb will teach himself to play guitar. Our cousin 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.' " Levitan worked with the band from its most formative stages. Nathan and Caleb "came into my office and sang a cappella in the corner about eight-and-a-half years ago," Levitan says. Later, when informed they were recruiting their teenage brother and cousin to round out the lineup, "there were some raised eyebrows. But when we heard the music and saw the determination and that they had a vision, it was like, 'Let's put this together and roll with it.' " Armed with a Led Zeppelin boxed set, "we kidnapped our cousin from Mississippi, told his mom he was coming for the week and just never let him go home," Nathan Followill says. "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. And at the end of that month the label people came and we had 'Molly's Chambers,' 'California Waiting,' 'Wicker Chair' and 'Holy Roller Novocain.' " Principal lyricist Caleb continues to impress his older brother. "He's my brother, I've grown up with him, but his songwriting is a part of his personality he really doesn't let out," Followill says. "He's kind of a reserved guy. He doesn't really do that much talking when he's sober. He does a lot of shit talking when he's drunk." Followill says he considers the Kings fortunate "to get a record deal where the label was willing to grow with us, let us take our bruises and figure out the kind of band we were and the band we wanted to be." When touring the world early in their career, oldest brother Nathan pretty much assumed the father role for the band. "I definitely worried the most," he says. "I mean, that was my 14-year-old brother; we're in Hamburg, Germany, and he's out with God knows who. Now it's definitely democratic. Every decision we make, we all four sit down and talk about it." But just as the Vector team sorts through the band's options, "me and Caleb will weed through the shit and then take it to Jared and Matt," Followill says. "They could give two shits less about some of this stuff. The same way there's stuff me and Caleb could care less about but Jared and Matt are really into, like who styles us on our photo shoot. As far as publishing or something like that, me and Caleb are like, 'That's the money side of it. We need to really pay attention to it.' " Caleb Followill calls the new album "the least cringe-worthy album that we've made. I'm pretty proud of these last two records we've made; maybe there's a little more professionalism than previous records. Maybe it's because we're stronger musicians and I feel as though I'm a stronger songwriter. I just didn't want to be the weak link." Kings of Leon are definitely not a "formulaic" band in their studio approach, even though they once again tapped Petraglia as producer, with engineer Jacquire King as co-producer. "We spent six weeks doing this record, and out of the six weeks the most we spent was two hours [recording] in one day," he says. "We'd drink and play wall ball. Most people would record then reward themselves by taking a break. We play wall ball and reward ourselves by going in and recording." And if the Kings can't play a song live, it doesn't make the album. "There's nothing worse in the world than having a record you love and going to watch that band play and they've either got two guys on keyboards behind a curtain, they're playing to tracks or they don't have that and the song sounds empty," Nathan Followill says. "We've got a couple songs on [the new] record that have keyboard parts, so our cousin, Nacho, is our stage manager and we have him play keyboards on a couple of songs. We make sure people can see him. We're not trying to be the Wizard of Oz." Now the game plan is to make the global footprint of Kings of Leon even bigger. "This band has doubled or tripled their audience in every market where they had a meaningful audience already, from Germany to Australia to the U.K. to the U.S., Holland and Denmark," RCA's Corson says. The team will attempt to maximize the impact of "Sex On Fire," then of "Use Somebody, "which is already off to a huge start at rock radio," Corson says. "We have a real opportunity to solidify the rock formats and then get into the pop formats." The band's first U.S. arena tour, announced last week, will keep the Followills far from McCabe's Pub. Before the year is up, the band will headline arenas in Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe; headline a number of large festivals; and make another run through U.S. arenas. Scott Clayton at Creative Artists Agency books the band, and Vector's Andy Mendelsohn handles day-to-day managerial duties. "All the success we're seeing right now, it's great, we love it," Nathan Followill says, "but if it ended tomorrow, we've had an amazing run. We've made enough records to put out a mini boxed set if we wanted to." And, as he heads out the door of McCabe's, he adds, "Wish us luck at the Grammys." (For the record, Kings of Leon won for best rock performance by a duo or group with vocals for "Sex On Fire.") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Way too overplayed here for me to fully enjoy them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauiwi Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 I am watching the brits at the mo, and their performance wasn't superb. Still excited to see them in March because their other 3 albums aren't overplayed!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hihi Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 ive probably enjoyed aha shake heartbreak more but bott is there best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauiwi Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 Yeah, Aha is a good pace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDFSX1 Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 Love the KOL's. Seeing them in April! -Jesse- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Planning on seeing them in this month in New Zealand. It would be my first time watching them. :D Does anyone know what the setlist is like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauiwi Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Try this. It's the most recent. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/kings-of-leon/2009/arena-joondalup-perth-wa-australia-3d6c94f.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thanks! I'm only familiar with songs from their last two albums so a lot of stuff are unheard of for me. I really thought they would play more songs from the last two albums since it's more popular. I'm glad they played Knocked Up and Closer. Two of my favourite tracks. I hope they play them in NZ as well. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauiwi Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Yeah, hopefully it's consistent with their Aus/NZ tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad-Cold Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 KOL gone crazy! They will come here again. They will play in a stadion for more then 40.000 people. I wonder if it will get sold out.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A RUSH OF VIDA Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Ive never beena fan...but i really like the songs Fans!.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prospekt. Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Manhattan is a freaking great song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Love Knocked Up and Closer. Would love to see it perform live. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonikaM Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 They are amazing! This is another band that I am totally obsessed with. I love, admire and worship them. Their music is wonderful and superb! What's more, I'm seeing them in July because they're coming to Poland. They will be performing at Open'er Festival and I can't wait! It would be really difficult to choose one album or one song that is my favorite. Everything what they do is excellent! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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