The Kings

I started listening to the Kings of Leon late. By late I mean just as they were becoming the “sex on fire” band that would be the best evidence that money erodes creative talent, since Elvis Presley went to Las Vegas. The kind of throw away trash pop rock music that should have been left to a Lenny Kravitz album filler track.

So I came in late but being somewhat of a geek when it comes to music I went back and bought all their previous albums. Listening to their first album Youth and young manhood and not understanding many of the words coming out of the lead singers mouth I found myself nodding my head along to it, not really knowing what he was saying but enjoying it none the less. The track Red morning light opens the album and instantly kicks you square in the jaw with its strong and fast guitar riffs then keeping you going with Happy alone a song about something you don’t really understand because you can’t hear the words but it doesn’t matter because you can hear and feel that it has soul and meaning whatever he is saying. The album seems to bring you back down with Wasted time but only for a few seconds before again lashing out at you with another quick slap to the face. The album continues very much in the same vein of slapping and kicking you with its drunken mumbling rock n roll and eventually leading to its big finish and possibly the best track on their album, if not their best song ever, Holly Roller Novocaine and then the eventual hidden bonus track to show off their bluesy soulful side 8 minutes and 21 seconds into the final track. All in all a great album.

Fast forward to Because of the times and the change is ridiculous. Now you can you hear every word he is saying but you wish you couldn’t. It seems that Caleb Followill was a little embarrassed by his somewhat flimsy lyrics in the early days that he used to mumble them through long curly hair and a distorted microphone.

Their latest offering Come Around Sundown includes possibly their worst ever song Radioactive where they become what they were inevitably heading towards which was a U2 tribute band. The video is enough to make you want to puke as it feature the band frolicking in the sun with a load of seemingly peasant black kids as if to say we love everyone and we are all the same. Although I agree that we are all equal and all that, this just feel like the most patronising way to show it. It could be said that they are protesting too much even? Who knows? The Guardian had this to say about the album “the Kings of Leon have largely chosen – albeit through audibly gritted teeth – to stick fast to the Bono-approved stadium rock that caused Pitchfork to dub them Y'all 2.” They go on to finish by calling them “a band who've established, in a rather passive-aggressive way, that they don't want to make the music that made them famous any more, but haven't really thought what they want to do instead.”

Somewhere along the way it seems that two major changes have taken place with this band. The first major change is that they have become majorly successful. This has led to a change in attitude towards lyrics and their embarrassment towards them. It seems that the band no longer worry that they never actually say anything that is interesting or even makes sense in their songs.

The second major change is that the band has gone through a change of dress sense. In the early days they were a true rock band with the long hair Cuban heeled boots and a generally scruffy look. They were the kind of guys that could have looked equally at home in a soup kitchen line as well as onstage at the Hammersmith Apollo? Is it still called that?

Anyway somewhere down the line it seems that they have become victims of “the stylist”. Someone’s job it is to pick what clothes people should wear and how they should have their hair. Now days Kings of Leon look like they are being sponsored in equal measure by Top Man and Allsaints.

Kings of Leon recently cancelled a US tour amid “problems” within the band. It seems that maybe after years of making substandard Sky Sports Super Sunday soundtracks they are going to get back to making the kind of music that isn’t popular with stag parties. Either that or just hang up their guitars and Top Man store cards. Fingers crossed x

London

The United Kingdom has experienced its worst few days of violence, rioting and looting for decades. I’m sure by now you know how it started in Tottenham on Saturday night. Since then it has spread across London to places such as Hackney, Peckham, Croydon, Enfield, Camden and many others with varying degrees of seriousness. The rioting has not been confined to the capital with scenes of moronic and selfish violence playing out in Birmingham and Liverpool as well as other small towns up and down the country.

There are many people trying to understand why and how this has happened. Some feel it is to do with the economic depravity in certain areas and within certain racial groups. Others feel the reason may be to do with racial issues involving the police and their stop and search policies. There are some people who still think this is a protest about Mark Duggan and the lack of information surrounding his killing. The most popular opinion is that these are simply copycat crimes being committed because the police have no power to stop it.

As well as people trying to understand why these events are occurring there are many armchair police commissioners sharing their “ideas” for how best to control the rioting. Some call for water cannons to be used. This is totally unsuitable for this situation as they are best deployed in situations where there are a big number of people in one small space. As in London for the last few nights the rioters have been spread out and trying to use this tactic would be completely useless not to even mention the fact that no one is trained to use them. Another popular and equally moronic idea is to use rubber bullets or “baton bullets” to control the crowds. These bullets were used in Northern Ireland during the 70s and 80s and were responsible for the death of a 12 year old girl Carol Ann Kelly. Not only could firing these bullets on crowds be counterproductive but deadly.

The most ridiculous idea being thrown around is the idea of involving the army. Some people are actually suggesting implementing Martial Law, something that is usually only ever seen during dramatic moments of a terrorist attack in an episode of 24 rather than being used to disrupt small groups of British youths. Having Army patrolling the streets would be a complete disaster and certainly fuel the flames of tension and not to mention set a scary and irreversible precedent.

I have been watching the news for nearly 24hours straight trying to get to grips with what’s going on where I live. The news has been a helpful tool for me to find out the latest news about what is happening across London and the rest of the UK. However it has also made several mistakes and been guilty of shoddy irresponsible broadcasting at certain times during these riots.

My attention has been focused on the BBC as I can’t bring myself to watch a Rupert Murdoch news broadcast. On several occasions the BBC News channel has repeated things that in my opinion could be stirring up tension and encouraging people to commit these crimes. My favourite irresponsible piece of information that is being said at the moment is that all the police cells in London are full. Now call me crazy but telling violent youths that if they go on to the streets and loot businesses and torch cars, there is a good chance they won’t be arrested as there is no room in London jails for them, is a fucking ridiculous thing to say on live television! I am a fan of the BBC and I feel it’s a vital service that should be protected at all costs but during live broadcasts there are very bad decisions made.

During the last 24 hours I have noticed time after time news reports saying this sentence “what does this mean for the capital economically and the Olympics in 2012”. This is a textbook example of the government and the broadcast media turning people into numbers and transforming a human issue into and economic one. What everyone seems to be missing so far is that these are people hurting other people. They are not just businesses affected by this, there are families being made homeless and peoples futures being taken away from them by violent selfish criminals.

I am now waiting for inevitable suggestion that either violent computer games, music videos or scary films are somehow to blame for the violence that has been seen across the country. This usually comes in the form of a conservative female MP suggesting that young people can’t separate reality and fiction like they are somehow hypnotised by these “evil” games and music and encouraged to go out and cause destruction.