Kings of Leon
Youth & Young Manhood
RCA
Formed in Nashville, Tennessee, by three brothers and a cousin -- Caleb, Nathan, and Jared and Matthew Followill in 2000, Kings of Leon, which blends grainy southern garage with psychedelic pop, was signed by RCA in 2001.
The band's sound, which has been dubbed "deep-fried Southern rock" by the international the music press, only came to the attention of the masses earlier this year when the Kings debut EP, Holy Roller Novocaine was finally released.
Lauded by radio stations and critics alike, the EP became a major hit and paved the way for a lengthy European tour. Riding on the back of the EP's huge success RCA released the band's debut album, Youth and Young Manhood, two months later.
The album is packed with honky-tonk guitar, rudimentary 1970s hooks and riffs, has the trappings of Creedence Clearwater Revival, a little bit of the Velvet Underground as well as fragments of early Rolling Stones. What, or whoever you compare it to, though, the album is undeniably classic guitar rock at its contemporary finest.
The King's kick off with Red Morning Light, a tune on which guitarist Matthew Followill puts Tom Petty to shame, possibly establishing himself as the most influential figure in southern rock.
It is a feat he repeats on the fantastic paisley underground tinged corker, Joe's Head and then continues to confirm on numbers such as the honky-tonk laced Spiral Staircase and the album's
highlight, the gritty, Wasted Time.
Youth and Young Manhood might not be a very adventurous debut, but it is one of the most uncontaminated guitar-driven albums you could ever wish to hear.
Alfie
Do You Imagine Things?
Regal
Manchester, England, quintet Alfie and up-to-date elevator music got its big break in the late 1990s on the basis of a review that appeared in the UK music weekly, NME.
Shortly after this the band met up with Damon Gough, or "Badly Drawn Boy" as he's better known, and Gough promptly signed them to his Twisted Nerve label. There Alfie released the EPs The Alfie, Bookends and Montevideo, with its full length debut, If You Happy With You Need Do Nothing arriving in 2001.
Since the band's early days with Gough, the combo has moved on. Moved on label-wise that is, as the all too bland and repetitive musical compositions have remained much the same.
Inoffensive Alfie may be, but after two albums, half a dozen singles and a handful of EPs, one would have thought somebody with studio smarts would have had the gall to tell the band that there's only so much you can do with hash-cake inspired music.
Sadly no one has and Do You Imagine Things? is yet another fluffy Aflie release. There's no denying that the band is talented, it's just that the album is an all too forgettable piece of work.
From the opener, the melancholy post-rock inspired, People to the final cut, the nauseating Hey Mole, the listener could easily be forgiven for begging the question, "What happened in between?"
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Take Them On, On Your Own
Virgin
When Black Rebel Motorcycle Club debuted in 2001 with its self-titled and heavily Jesus and Mary Chain-inspired, B.R.M.C., music critics lauded both the album and the band as the greatest things to happen to the music business since the invention of the electric guitar.
Named after the Marlon Brando-led motorbike gang in the 1953 movie, The Wild One, B.M.R.C. returned to record store shelves late last month with Take Them On, On Your Own, an album that is slicker, more belligerent and less reliant on the Reid brothers for motivation than the band's debut.
The trio mixes and matches indie rock with noise and takes the best of bands such as The Verve and The Strokes, turns them on their heads and comes up with a scowling, psychedelic, new wave-tinged assortment of sounds that kick serious butt.
Pounding in with trademark snarling B.M.R.C. -- sounding tunes Stop and Six Barrel Shotgun, events take a turn for the out of the ordinary shortly thereafter, when the trio's slow, rhythmical and psychedelic 1960s-based We're All In Love ambles in.
What follows are nine tracks in which Peter Hayes, Robert Turner and Nick Jago prove that B.M.R.C. is more than just you're common or garden garage band.
Various
Fei Hsiang Yang Guang Fei Hsiang Ni (
Fei Records
While the nation is not short of testosterone fuelled youths more than willing to amp up an electric guitar and a distortion box, very few have the talent to pull it off with the necessary conviction or believability.
Taiwan's newest indie label, Fei Records, however, has found a bunch of bands that (although their nice middle-class members have little to rebel about) do have the chutzpah to try and pull it off. And several of the bands actually do a decent job.
Fei Hsiang Yang Guang Fei Hsiang Ni (廢向陽光廢向你) features tunes by seven bands, Reproduction (複製人), Fire Extinguisher (滅火器), Land of Mess (混亂之島), The Nerve Band (神經樂隊), Silly What? Fire Extinguisher (滅火器), Oi and Liberty System (自由式).
The album might have its ups and downs, yet the material is what it claims to be -- punk rock -- and nothing but. Highlights include Reproduction's Question Mark, a tune that proves that the popular punkers are easily Taiwan's answer to Indianapolis' hardcore act Toxic Reasons, Oi's Let's Break the Law (想一下犯法呀), a number with an offensive chorus and the clout of Sham 69, and Fire Extinguisher's catchy rabble rouser, Let's Go.
Cheng Ching-hsiang (鄭青祥) turned a small triangle of concrete jammed between two old shops into a cool little bar called 9dimension. In front of the shop, a steampunk-like structure was welded by himself to serve as a booth where he prepares cocktails. “Yancheng used to be just old people,” he says, “but now young people are coming and creating the New Yancheng.” Around the corner, Yu Hsiu-jao (饒毓琇), opened Tiny Cafe. True to its name, it is the size of a cupboard and serves cold-brewed coffee. “Small shops are so special and have personality,” she says, “people come to Yancheng to find such treasures.” She
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