UPDATE AT BOTTOM
We find a band, a pretty good band that's doing good but sometimes not spectacular music, but they gots alotta heart and passion. We nurture that band, talk about it to friends, pass around copies of albums and complain that the local radio station doesn't play them. Eventually, as
Arlo Gurthrie put it:
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.
So eventually said band, which ideally should be Big In England, starts get a push from the label, which then gives the radio station "an incentive" to play the track, and then before you know it they've "crossed over" and are Big Not In England.
And then those fans go to the show, complain about all the people who listen to them now, and turn their backs and give the band the finger when they play The Hit.
I'm here to talk about Kings of Leon.
I was one of the early adopters after reading a review of their first album while in France. The first two albums were almost unapologetic southern rock which earned them a U.S. cult and British superstardom (Europe's obsession with "American" rock is a whole other thang I'll talk about later). Their third album was a little more polished, felt like it had actual overdubs and production values. They opened for Pearl Jam and were "ready".
"Sex on Fire" came out and was a hit. "Use Somebody" was a bigger hit. They got mad airplay. They got new fans, and those old fans went into the spiral described above. I'll admit, the two Kings of Leon shows I've seen since the crossover did annoy me a little with all the Tourists.
But I wasn't there to see the Tourists. I was there to see the band. A band that put out three previous albums and an awesome live EP (Day Old Belgian Blues). A catalogue that most people, however, seem unaware off. I've lost count of the number of people I've talked to who think that the Followill boys started with Only by the Night.
Now I wanna talk about Tusk.
Fleetwood Mac bared all their neuroses on Rumours, an album that was a mix of California pop and Buckingham's guitar rave ups. It sold, at last count, 5 copies for each person who has ever lived in the history of this planet.
How did they follow that up? Tusk.
Tusk is one of the most uncompromising (and expensive) double albums of all time, with little of the pop that made Rumours ubiquitous. Lindsey Buckingham described the process of recording it as finding out what sounded good, taking a note of where all the dials were and then tuning them 180 degrees. The resulting album was called everything under the sun and lost a lot of the fans they won with their previous outing. It's also a remarkably under-rated album that still sounds ahead of its time today.
What came next: Mirage and Tango in the Night, albums that took the sound experiments of Tusk and married to them Rumours. People called it a "return" when both were still miles ahead of what Fleetwood Mac had been doing before. But because of Tusk they sounded safer.
Members of Kings of Leon have mentioned that they want to go "grungier" on their next album, back to their roots. This is a great idea, and I like any band that resists resting on their laurels and coasting (Hi, Weezer. You tried the same with Pinkerton, but seemed to forget that trick as soon as the lucre got filthier). I think that they should go even further: become self indulgent for the simple sake of doing so.
Want to do a 15 minute tom-tom solo? Do it! Do the words "Jazz odyssey" strike a fancy? Explore that avenue. King of Leon Sing the Catalog of Wesley Willis? I'll take seven copies, one for each day of the week.
The point is, cleanse the palate, remind yourself of the rebellion that got you away from your fundamentalist family and into the life of international rock stars. Don't worry about the bad reviews: Just think how much ink was spilled over Metal Machine Music and how Lester Bangs was able to build his career around it. It's a symbiotic relationship, the critic and the experimental album. And then when you come back to your roots, you'll have your acclaim back.
Neil Young famously described the time after "Heart of Gold" as time he spent "headed for the ditch". The result were albums that shed his casual fans and a lot of critics, but which over time created an entire genre of music. I don't think Kings of Leon are going to be the next Neil Young, but the are fans of his work. And you have to think, you have to hope, that they are planning a little side trip right now.
UPDATE
Or, you know, don't give me any reason to hope that this might happen.
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