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New Music: Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire”

I’ll admit, I didn’t jump onto the Kings of Leon train until last year. Promotional copies of “Youth & Young Manhood” and “Aha Shake Heartbreak” landed on my desk and were played once and then filed away. Articles screaming their praises in the rock press were glanced at, thumbed through and discarded.

Then I happened to hear “Because of the Times” as I was shopping in a record store. Holy shit, did that album sound good. It wasn’t jammy, noodly swamp-rock, but these dudes had a little bit of a kick to them. If you have a really good sound system, listen to a song like “On Call” and have your mind blown. The groove alone will get ya even without vocals, and once I obtained a copy of the entire album, I was officially a member of the KOL fan club.

“Sex on Fire” is the first single from their upcoming fourth album, “Only by the Night” and damn it, does this song smoke. The video’s appreciably weird as well, and the Followill guys (three brothers and a a cousin, for those who are uninitiated) are continuing their metamorphosis from greasy, long-haired bearded dudes to guys who have every right to be singing a song entitled “Sex on Fire” (actually, I’m waiting for diehard fans to start grumbling about how they sold out by cutting their hair). Their legion of fans has grown with each album, now’s the time to make sure Kings of Leon get their propers as one of the best young American bands out right now.

September 10, 2008
Infatueighties: #89: “I Wonder if I Take You Home”

I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a lovely little neighborhood called East Flatbush. Among the many memories of my adolescence, some of the more distinct ones involve playing football or punchball (a form of baseball in which the ball is one of those blue rubber thingies and the bat is your fist) and then having to practically dive back onto the sidewalk as an expensive sports car barrelled down East 45th Street. The driver of said sportscar was often Bow Legged Lou, who you may know as one of the muscle-bound relatives that made up the R&B band and production team known as Full Force. Not only did these guys score a handful of hits on their own (not to mention the fact that they starred in the “House Party” movies with Kid ‘n Play), but they’ve also built up a fairly impressive resume as writers and producers. They’ve had a hand in music by everyone from 80s pinup ho Samantha Fox to teen dreams Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync to TV actress-turned-singer Jasmine Guy to LaToya Jackson. They also discovered a stable of acts that included UTFO of “Roxanne Roxanne” fame and the group that comes in at #89 on this countdown-Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam.

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September 9, 2008
“Out There!”- “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” by Hanoi Rocks

When most people think of “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”, they think of the smash hit from Green Day off the American Idiot album. Not me! When I think of this song title, I think of the rockin’ little ditty from a lesser-known 80’s hair band, Hanoi Rocks. Music fans usually know very little about this hard rock band from Finland except for the fact that their drummer Razzle was killed by Vince Neil of Motley Crue in a terrible automobile accident. The fact that Vince Neil got away with manslaughter was outrageous (read the Crue’s bio The Dirt! for more info), but he also killed the future of Hanoi Rocks. The band was on the cusp of greatness until this unfortunate incident which really affected the band in a major way. Two members of the band left right after the incident and Hanoi Rocks faded away.

Hanoi Rocks

1984 saw the release of their final album, Two Steps From The Move, which features the classic tune, “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”. Although the song wasn’t officially released as a single, a video was still made and aired briefly on MTV. The song has a fun chorus that immediately sinks into your head. “Take me Baby..(Guitars- NUH NUH NUH NUH) on the Boulevard Of Broken Dreams!” Who knows how big Hanoi Rocks could have been if Razzle hadn’t died, as the hair metal explosion really wouldn’t take full effect until two years later. Perhaps Hanoi Rocks would have been ranked in the Top 5 on one of VH1’s plethora of music lists if not for the tragedy. For my fellow “hair metal” aficonados who may have overlooked this great song, take a ride down the boulevard of broken dreams.

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September 9, 2008