The Whiskey Rock Of Kings Of Leon


The Glimmer TwinsTony Alva has this picture prominently displayed on the front page of his blog.

I’ve been thinking of The Glimmer Twins and their whiskey rock period which in my mind spans three records; Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile On Main Street. Whiskey Rock is based in the roots music of the southern US and is raw, raunchy, and sometimes plain mean. Like a man drunk on whiskey and high on whatever. You don’t hear much whiskey rock these days. Maybe from My Morning Jacket now and then.

But there’s a new Whiskey Rock sound emanating from Nashville, TN in the form of the Followill clan; Caleb, Jared, Matthew, and Nathan. They are the Kings of Leon and they are also the kings of whiskey rock. They’ve made four records to date, the EP Holy Roller Novacaine, the debut LP Youth and Young Manhood, the new release Because of the Times, and the epic Aha Shake Heartbreak.

Aha Shake Heartbreak reminds me of Exile and that is high praise because Exile is to my mind the greatest rock and roll record every made. I can’t yet put Aha Shake in that camp because Exile has stood the test of time (35 years to be exact) and I’ve only beein listening to Aha Shake for the past six weeks. But in that six weeks, I have become obsessed by this record, this band, and this sound. It’s not new by any means, this boozy bluesy music been around for longer than I know.

But these boys (the oldest is 28 and the lead singer Caleb is only 25) have made it sound new, modern, current. My brother and his friend Tony Alva have been singing the “rock is dead” chorus and it’s starting to get inside my head. But music like the whiskey rock that Kings of Leon make pushes that chorus right back out. And I am going to find some of the clear vinyl LPs of Aha Shake Heartbreak and give it to them to push it out of their heads too!

I don’t know if Newcritics allows mp3 blogging so I’ll refrain. If you want to hear some of this music, take a visit to a blog post on my personal weblog that inspired this one and you’ll get two choice tracks from Aha Shake Heartbreak.

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May 20th, 2007
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Viewing 3 Comments

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    Seems like a lot of music I've been listening to lately has some echoes of Exile era Stones. Frank Black's "Black Letter Days", The Dexateens' "Hardwire Healing" and Drive By Truckers' "A Blessing and A Curse" come to mind.
    BTW, I visited Nashville Fri. night to see the White Stripes in a little venue downtown. First time seeing the band and the city and they both left me wanting more. Entertaining opening act, Dan Sartain as well.
    Thanks for the mp3s.
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    I love that picture - says it all, and they're having so damned much fun.
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    My favorite rock photo ever... I posted about a while ago here. Tom's right though, I forgot to mention just how much damn fun their having. I have photos of myself and friends striking the same pose in various studios making much less impactful music, but you can bet your ass we were having fun!



    Anybody looking to hear some great whiskey rock, pick up any used copy of any Georgia Satellites record.



    Fred,



    Have the Kings record you recommended and am through 5 or 6 tunes on it thus far. I'll give it a few more spins and get back to you as to it being a sign that there is water flowing under the ground that was once fertile rock soil. While I remain skeptical, I'd like to hear that hope exists.



    Rock is dead, long live rock!

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