KINGS OF PAIN

Kings of Leon explore the darker side of sex and drugs and rock and roll on Aha Shake Heartbreak.

By Brian Baker

Cliches are nothing more than redundant truths. A truth becomes redundant when it occurs so often that people become disaffected by its repeated presence, and so a cliche is born. One of the music industry's greatest clichÈs is the sophomore jinx. It is also happens to be one of its greatest truths.

"It takes 25 years to come up with your first album and nine months to come up with your second." That's the old saw that explains quite pithily why so many sophomore albums sound forced and unfocused and rushed and ultimately inferior to their predecessors. And if an artist somehow manages to buck the odds and come up with a debut album that captivates enough people to become a hit, the potential for that second album to nosedive hard is even greater.

The specter of the sophomore jinx was certainly hanging in the air when Kings of Leon began the process of creating their second album, Aha Shake Heartbreak. But given the differences in the circumstances surrounding Youth and Young Manhood, the 2003 debut of the Followills - brothers Caleb (guitar), Jared (bass), Nathan (drums) and cousin Matthew (guitar) - it was plainly apparent that the industry's clichÈd truths held no sway with Kings of Leon.

"You kinda worry about coming out with a second record, especially coming out with one so fast after people seemed to really identify with Youth and Young Manhood," says drummer Nathan Followill. "But I think a majority of that was probably the fact that we were all related, that we had more hair than a pack of monkeys, and that our dad got kicked out of the church for drinking moonshine. I think the story had a lot to do with it. But the story's been told a thousand times...we were kinda worried about having to go out just on our music. "

The Followills' history was compelling, to say the least. Early on, the brothers had tasted the touring life traveling with their father, an itinerant Pentecostal preacher who rode the gospel circuit while schooling his sons on the finer points of the Bible, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, and classic country music. Almost as if by divine predetermination, the Followills chose a similar path of preaching the rock gospel to their own unique version of the faithful. When the Followills began their musical journey in 2000, they were impossibly young - at least two of them were underage - and none of them were particularly adept at their instruments. Still in all, when RCA saw the raw potential in the Followills' rudimentary performance in their parents' Tennessee basement, they signed them and allowed them to blossom without interference or pressure.

By the time Kings of Leon (a variation on their original choice of Kings of Zion, adapted to include the brothers' father's Christian name) were ready in 2003, they were ready with a vengeance. First came their stunningly well received EP, Holy Roller Novocaine, a raucous hybrid of classic Southern rock fused with the raw vitality of punkish garage pop. College and indie radio gravitated toward "Molly's Chambers," and a growing legion of fans anxiously awaited the band's full length debut. They didn't have long to wait; before the end of the year, Youth and Young Manhood was released to almost universal praise. The album was issued in Europe before its appearance in the States, which inspired an almost slavish fan response overseas, a pattern that has sustained through the release of their darkly satisfying sophomore full length, Aha Shake Heartbreak.

Musically, Aha Shake Heartbreak reveals the emerging sophistication of a band that is becoming more comfortable as instrumentalists and arrangers and taking more chances in their compositions. When Followill namechecks influences like the Pixies, Patsy Cline, and the Who (bassist Jared sounds like he's channeling John Entwistle on "Slow Night, So Long") on Aha Shake Heartbreak, it's not particularly hard to hear.

"The UK tour was completely sold out; it sold out in hours," says Followill. "It was amazing. We played the biggest shows we've ever played over there. They loved the new record. We were in awe. When you're on tour, you can't wait to get home because it's the holidays, but we're all sitting in the Admiral's Lounge on Christmas Eve at Heathrow, depressed because we have to go off the road."

The response both here and abroad to Aha Shake Heartbreak has once again been overwhelmingly positive, even though this album shows a considerably darker and more contemplative side of Kings of Leon. Lyrically, it's obvious that the Kings' experiences over the past year and a half have had a profound impact on the band's musical and philosophical perspectives, as they examine the joys and vagaries of fleeting sexual encounters ("Slow Night, So Long," "Taper Jean Girl") and the dissipating effects of life on the road ("Soft," "Day Old Blues").

"We like to say that the first record was 95% of the shit that we wanted to do and 5% of the stuff we did," says Followill. "This record was 98% of the stuff we experienced."

After extensive multiple tours of England, Europe, Australia and Japan, the road weary Kings were finally given three weeks off last year to detox from their travels. The vacation didn't last long. "We were home about a week before we got cabin fever and just started writing and recording demos in our basement," says Followill. "We were actually just bored off of our asses. We called the label and said, 'Hey, we want to go make another record.'"

Even without a bona fide U.S. hit, Kings of Leon has earned the respect of their label, which means the band could probably have chosen any producer to work with. They chose to go back to the studio with Ethan Johns, who produced Youth and Young Manhood; Johns was assisted by equally hot producer Angelo.

"The first record, we didn't know what the hell we wanted to do. It was a crapshoot," says Followill. "This record, we knew going into it the kind of sound we were going for. We knew we wanted to do it all live, there was no vocal booth, we did everything all at once with hardly any overdubs at all. It was fun going in there having an idea what you wanted it to be and then leaving there with it as close to that idea as you could have gotten it.

It was kind of risky; we didn't even let the label hear it until we were done with it. Luckily, they came out with smiles on their faces, so we were like, 'Whew, all right.'"

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