Rather Unexciting Rock

I had no idea why many people seemed to think that the latest slew of garagey or post-punky rock bands are completely abysmal. I know we've probably heard it all before and we've surely heard it done better but there's still occassional songs that make my ears perk up and my toes start a-tappin'. But this week I got a little inkling of the reasons...

The Kings of Leon have a new album out called "Aha Shake Heartbreak". Strangely, if you live in the capital of the record companies - the USA (where they're from, btw, and where they're currently touring) - you'll have to wait until February 2005 (!!!) to buy a local version of this exciting piece of plastic coated aluminium. It was released in my little country - Australia (and, I think, the UK) - 2 weeks ago. I had some money in my PayPal account and I couldn't think of anything else to buy so I ordered the import version that CDUniverse had to offer. I got this on Monday and, from the notes on the back, found out that it was made in Australia! So it travelled from my neck of the woods to the USA and back across the Pacific to my door. Stupid but quite enlightening.

I'd enjoyed their 1st release and I quite liked them live (they were much better than their touring partners The Strokes) but this really is a mild mannered, dull little record with intermittently good patches. The thing I can't stand is the post-modernism of the sound. It really drives me to hatred. Can't these people just play rock music without thinking about it too much? Can't they ignore being "proper" musicians who never flub a note or display a hint of sloppiness? Or, if they aren't very good at their instruments, can they at least sometimes play without the safety switch on? They've also decided to include the lyrics as well which, as is often the case, was a major mistake.

Despite all this, they've still got some great tunes (even if they're reminiscent of everyone from Franz Ferdinand to the White Stripes):

mp3: King of the Rodeo

Now, for real wagon train jumpers extraordinaire, please listen to Zolar X's fabulous take on glam rock / hair metal - it's quite hilarious but, fuck, those power chords are some of the best I've ever heard.

mp3: Rocket Roll

[ps, the pic is all 4 of the KoL in younger days - from the inside of the cd case of their latest record]