Sex on Fire

Walk the Leon

There was once a time in rock n’ roll when the riffs were smooth and heavy. When that guitar cried and wept in the hands of a Page or an Angus or even a Slash, one could feel the passion and emotion which charged their music and filled stadiums with manic fans. It was more about the swagger and the intensity on stage, the decadent lifestyles and insane performances more than just clearing records for a label.

And then we had the 90’s in the middle of it all. Nickelback became the epitome of modern rock and that clean, processed pop rock sound cleared a mountain of records. Ensued a Nu-Age phase when DJ consoles and Rhythm Pads were legitimate hard rock instruments. Thank god, the Kings of Leon never heard any of the stuff produced in the 90’s.

So, who are the Kings of Leon? And why are they being hailed as the saviours of Rock and Roll?

Well, for starters, The Kings are a ‘family band’ consisting of four Followill brothers - Nathan on drums, Caleb on vocals and rhythm, Jared on bass and Matthew on Lead; hailing from the Bible belt of Tennessee. Wikipedia says the band performs a mix of southern rock, garage rock, hard rock and blues. But that’s a different story altogether.

Growing up as the sons of Leon Followill, a travelling Pentecostal minister, Caleb, Nathan and Jared were never allowed to listen to secular music —gospel was all they’d heard. Anything else would lead to a caning. Yet, from the beginning, the boys' musical influences were forged as a combination of the church choirs they attended each week and the rock ‘n’ roll songs they listened to on the sly. Home schooled by their dad, they were brought up in the most protective environment possible, where rock and pre-marital sex sent you straight to hell.

All hell did break loose in 1997 when their parents got a divorce and the brothers ‘lost their way, disillusioned by the harsh realities of an imperfect world’. As Caleb likes to put it – they’d always wanted to make Rock n’ Roll music. They just hadn’t known where to begin. One fine day (thankfully for all of us) their good friend Mary Jane came visiting with a Led Zeppelin box set. Needless to say, it blew their mind. What followed was an orgy of Lynyrd Skynrd, AC-DC, The Stones, Dylan, Cash, Springsteen…..

The Kings had violently lost their musical virginity and were ready to craft their own distinct sound. Their debut album Youth and Young Manhood came out in early 2003 (preceded by a smaller release, Holy Roller Novocaine in 2002). The American audience gave them a warm reception but the more rock-savvy Brits and Australians just lapped up Youth and Young Manhood. The Kings were now hailed as the saviours of Rock n’ Roll along with The Killers and The Strokes. Their first hit single Red Morning Light was famously used as the title track in FIFA 2004, giving them a wide audience for the first time. Shortly afterwards, they opened for the U2 and The Strokes World Tour, and the Kings haven’t looked back since.

The Kings have a trademark Rock n’ Roll feel, with most of their songs introing slowly into a single-guitared main riff. The other instruments join in soon after with Nathan’s Zeppelinesque drumming giving the band its heavy feel. Caleb has a vocal style which has been described by Rolling Stone magazine as ‘Dave Matthews being torn apart by rabid Wolverines’ (something I’d love to see). Lead guitarist Matthew has been likened to everyone from The Edge to Angus Young. He has a very dynamic style which isn’t restricted to just Bluegrass or Southern rock, as he occasionally dabbles with a more expansive U2-like sound. Needless to say, the Kings’ mind-blowing, over-the-top performances on stage, where Caleb’s (drunken) alter ego ‘the rooster’ usually makes an appearance, are what has cemented their place in the World of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

The Kings took to touring and the Rock n’ Roll lifestyle like any red-blooded male would, with fire and gusto. By the end of it they had done it all –drugs, alcohol, sex with groupies, thrashing equipment- you name it. There were, too, those occasional heartbreaks when a fan would come to mean more than just that; as Caleb puts it, they were still ‘good southern boys at heart’. Out of this came their second album, which firmly planted them as rockstars- Aha Shake Heartbreak. With a mix of Latin influenced songs like Slow Night, So long, acoustic tracks like Milk (Caleb’s showpiece track till date) and explosive tracks like King of the Rodeo, Taper Jean Girl and The Bucket, this album marked a remarkable maturity in the styles of these Retro Rockers. Some lyrics heaved of a quiet intensity, speaking of the moral conflicts the boys faced whilst leading their decadent lives, while others like The Bucket oozed pure energy, with lyrics and meaning becoming secondary. (A Facebook drinking game called The Bucket pays homage to the legendary prowess of the Kings; the champion of the game is titled Caleb.)

When things couldn’t get any better, The Kings hit the world with their third album, Because of the Times. Losing all pretensions, they unleashed an album driven by pure energy and anthemic tracks about the only topic the Kings really ever seemed to care about: no-good women, the kind who turn nice country boys into thieves, fugitives or corpses, and make them love every sordid second of it. The Kings recently released a new album Only by the Night in September. Their first single Sex on Fire does not fail to live up to expectations. The Brit media calls them the ‘Bob Zeppelins’ for a reason! It’s about time someone downloaded all the tracks and put it on DC. If you also believe that rock n’ roll is about excess, swagger, attitude and knocking everyone else’s socks off, please do listen to the Kings of Leon. They kick ASS.