Talihina Sky Fanzine

TALIHINA SKY THE NIGHT THAT TORE THE KINGS APART

The last time the Kings of Leon started a major tour, they were arguably the biggest young rock band in the world, before a disastrous Dallas gig

KINS OF LEON THE DOCUMENTARY The film gives a strong sense of what it was like to grow up the sons (and nephew) of a Pentecostal minister, learning to perform religious songs at backwoods revivals where the truly devout often spoke in tongues

BACK ON THE ROAD

The three brothers and one cousin reflected on their wilder, hairier early days and the more sobering responsibilities of new families and filling arenas in 2014

KOL NIDIA ALEJANDRA ÁLVAREZ FLORES

The roots Kings of Leon have a backstory so steeped in rock mythology that it almost sounds made up. The Followill brothers — Nathan, Caleb and Jared — are sons of a preacher man who were raised on the road throughout the South, traveling from one Pentecostal church to the next. After being shattered by a divorce, the brothers were transformed by illicit substances and the stoner music of Led Zeppelin. Soon, they were a rough and ready band, enjoying the pleasures of the road while playing grinding, garage-y jams tinged with Southern rock and gothic lyrics. By the end of the 2000s, they were famous.

band’s retro-chic look and blend of Southern boogie and gritty garage rock inspired comparisons to both Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Strokes. The British press hailed the Kings as the second coming of rock & roll; according to The Guardian, they were “the kind of authentic, hairy rebels the Rolling Stones longed to be.” But the band failed to make much of an impact in the United States, where reviews were generally lukewarm and the modern rock audience generally disinterested. In the U.S., their debut sold only 100,000 copies, compared with the 750,000 copies it moved abroad.

The Followills grew up watching their father Leon, a Pentecostal minister, instill the fear of God in parishioners across the South. Forbidden to listen to secular music, they spent their early childhoods being home-schooled, watching church choirs and occasionally banging on drums during services.

The boys’ fates as followers of fundamentalist Christianity seemed sealed until 1997, when Leon Followill resigned from the church and divorced his wife. The divorce rocked the Followills’ world, and afterwards, the Nathan and Caleb moved to Nashville, hoping to break into the music business.

They quickly ran into Nashville songwriter and former new waver Angelo Petraglia, who turned the brothers on to the secular music of the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash.

The group’s highly anticipated second album, Aha Shake Heartbreak (Number 55, 2005), released in November 2004 in the UK, debuted at Number Three on the British charts. Kings added more newer sounds, including an angular guitar attack that recalled British art-punk band Wire, to their raw Southern aesthetic. A tour supporting U2 upped the band’s profile in the U.S., and in late 2006, just before the release of Kings’ third album, the band opened for Bob Dylan at a handful of shows. Because of the Times (Number 25), released in April 2007, found the Kings moving even further away from their short songs with immediate hooks, but the general sound and substance remained the same, with lyrics about pregnant girlfriends and black Camaros. The British love affair with the band continued, and the album debuted at Number One in the UK. In 2008 Caleb Followill admitted to struggling with anorexia.

Kings of Leon, named for their father, were born in 2000 when youngest brother Jared and a cousin, Matthew Followill, joined Nathan and Caleb in Nashville. Jared, who had briefly attended public school, had learned about the music of the Pixies and Velvet Underground. The boys began woodshedding, and by 2002 Kings of Leon had interest from nine labels.

A bidding war ensued, and the band ultimately signed with RCA Records.

The group’s debut EP, Holy Roller Novocaine, and LP, Youth and Young Manhood (Number 113), both produced by Petraglia and Ethan Johns (son of Led Zeppelin and Who producer Glyn Johns), were released in 2003. The

Also in 2008, the Kings released Only by the Night (Number Four). With a slicker pop sound, the album drew mixed reviews but y cracked the Top Ten in the U.S. and topped the British charts for the second time in as many years. The band also found success on the U.S. singles chart when the album’s second single, “Use Somebody,” a plaintive ballad that showed off Caleb Followill’s increasingly ragged croon, reached Number Four. They picked up their first Grammy for Only by the Night’s first single, “Sex on Fire,” in 2009.

The boys talk new documentary Talihina Sky and Upcoming Tour

By Jennifer Vineyard Kings of Leon Talk New Documentary ‘Talihina Sky’ and Upcoming Tour Courtesy of the Followill Family Every year, the three brothers and one cousin who compose Kings of Leon make a pilgrimage to Talihina, Oklahoma, for a weeklong family reunion – but not this summer.

The rapture of crowds at rock shows – cheering what was considered “devil music” in the band members’ childhoods – isn’t all that different from the frenzy of their revival days. “When you see the scenes of people with hands in the air, imagine that in a small, sweaty club with 250 people,” singer Caleb Followill said.

“That’s what it feels like at the old-time revivals. Anyone who got on stage, the people giving testimonials would turn them into songs, just off the top of their heads. ‘Today I went to the market…’

When I was a little kid, I thought that was awesome. Some woman singing about her day? That was cool.”

“This is the first year we have to miss it,” drummer and vocalist Nathan Followill told Rolling Stone a few days after a striking new documentary about the band, Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon, screened as a work-in-progress at the Tribeca Film Festival. “You gotta do “It was like the blues,” Nathan said. what you gotta do.”

There’s plenty of footage of the pre- and The reason? A just-announced 29-date post-stardom Followills. But some of summer tour, kicking off July 25 in the footage chronicling the making of Orange Beach, Alabama and wrapping up the band’s first album Youth & Young on September 12 in Seattle, Washington. Manhood in Los Angeles is missing from “We’re still in the honeymoon phase with the movie. “We had filmed every bit of the Come Around Sundown,” Nathan said of process,” Caleb said. “Us in the garage, the band’s last album. “We haven’t done writing songs, learning E chords and G a ton of shows in the U.S. for it yet, and chords, really good stuff. But we had a we hadn’t played it much on the previous rental car, and we left the camcorder in tour, because we didn’t want the whole the car, and it was stolen. They stole the record to leak before we released it.” most priceless footage. People are going to want to know more about those early The annual reunion – and what family days, but we don’t have it.” means to the Followills – is the subject of Talihina Sky, which is also showing As the documentary demonstrates, the this Thursday and Saturday. The film rest of the Followill family has made gives a strong sense of what it was like its peace with rock & roll, and is now to grow up the sons (and nephew) of a among the group’s biggest fans. (A Pentecostal minister, learning to perform moment when the cover of Rolling Stone religious songs at backwoods revivals featuring Kings of Leon is shown on “The where the truly devout often spoke in Price is Right” prompts a flurry of proud tongues. “We wanted to keep it as we phone calls.) were, as real as possible,” Nathan said of the film, “just to show that we’re the “Our dad still enjoys the celebrity of same kids who were crawdad-hunting in being Leon,” Nathan said. (Leon is their the creek when we were 10 years old.” dad’s middle name.)

“If that was it, and no one else saw the movie, I’d still be pretty proud of what we’ve done,” Caleb said. “We got to bring our family to New York [for the premiere]. They got to walk down the red carpet and be stars themselves for a day.”

After the band finishes showing the film for acquisition and distribution, the next step is to figure out the live show for this summer.

“Everything has been done,” Caleb said.

“We’ve toured with Bob Dylan, who is the most minimal, and U2, which is the biggest of the bigs. Pearl Jam is kind of the happy medium, but they move around a lot more than us. Eddie Vedder has a death wish – he’ll swing from the rafters.

If someone throws a cake on stage, he’ll run and go slide right through it.”

“That’s where we draw the line,” Jared said. “How is it going to make our hair look?”

Taken from www.rollingstone.com

The night that tore the Kings apart The last time the Kings of Leon started a major tour, they were arguably the biggest young rock band in the world, filling arenas on the strength of their huge hits “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire,” from 2008’s Grammy-winning Only

By The Night. But the follow-up, 2010’s Come Around Sundown, sold poorly in comparison. “I pretty much checked out for that record,” singer Caleb Followill says now.

Caleb says he felt blindsided by the band’s comments following the incident (“Fucking hate Caleb not us,” bassist Jared Followill said onstage). “I was fucking pissed,” Caleb says. “I got on a plane and went to New York and was like, ‘Fuck them,’ you know. And, you know, it hurts. It hurt when I heard that, because I’ve always stood behind them.

I stood behind them when we fucking walked offstage because of pigeons. I’ve always been like a one-for-all, all-for-one In a new Rolling Stone feature written by type. And when I heard that, I was like, associate editor Patrick Doyle, the band ‘Wow. Maybe it is time to step back for a open up about the rocky past two years while.’” leading to their new album Mechanical Bull, including a disastrous Dallas The bandmates didn’t see one another gig in July 2011 when Caleb Followill until days later, when they met at a announced, “I’m gonna go backstage Nashville steakhouse. Several news and I’m gonna vomit, I’m gonna drink outlets reported that the band ordered a beer and I’m gonna come back out Caleb to rehab. When asked if this is true, and play three more songs.” He never Jared and Matthew Followill responded returned; the band ended its tour early, with long silence. “I can’t say no one canceling 26 dates. necessarily thought that,” says Matthew.

“If they had, they knew I would have laughed at that,” Caleb responds. He adds that he stopped drinking for nine months to prove to the band he could: “I have way too strong of a will to ever need to go somewhere.”

The Kings are back on the road supporting Mechanical Bull, and their goals have changed since their pop radio-dominating days. “Back then, we were trying to do something that people remember,” says Caleb. “Now I’m trying to do something that makes my daughter proud. One day, hopefully I’ll still be here, but if I’m not, she’ll be like, ‘My dad was fuckin’ cool.’”

Taken from www.rollingstone.com

BACK ON THE ROAD

T

he Kings of Leon are growing up. In a teleconference with reporters to plug the band’s tour that hits Minneapolis on Thursday, the three brothers and one cousin reflected on their wilder, hairier early days and the more sobering responsibilities of new families and filling arenas in 2014. Just don’t think they’ve gotten complacent.

“It’s easy to feel like what you’re doing is a routine,” said vocalist Caleb Followill. “But I think there’s something inside us that drives us ... we come from a very competitive family. For me, every time I see a young band and I hear a song that I think is really good, there’s a part of me that gets a little angry. It’s like, ‘S---, man. We should have written that song.

do something special and something different.”

ON HOW THEIR LATEST ALBUM, ON WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS “MECHANICAL BULL,” COMPARES WITH THE REST Caleb: “There are so many things that we’ve done Jared: “We were super, super young (when we made our debut). That could have been our first and last album, and I don’t think it would have surprised any one of us. We had no real direction. We were just doing what we thought was cool at that time and kind of imitating the bands that we thought were cool. Now, we’ve grown up a little bit and we have a little bit more of an identity. Going into an album now, we know what we want to do and it’s not really like we’re free-throwing.”

and we’ve done them a million times. And after a while you start to look for something else. For me at this point, I’m excited to go out and step up our game, to go out there and try to compete with all forms of music as far as our show goes.

It’s not just about being in a rock ‘n’ roll band ... and it’s not all about the party for me anymore.

Or at least not this week. But we’ll see what it’s like next week.”

IF YOU GO Who: Kings of Leon, with blues guitarist Gary

Caleb, Nathan (drums), Jared (bass) and Matthew (guitar) Followill signed their first record deal a dozen years ago and quickly earned a cult following in the U.S. thanks to the foursome’s freewheeling songs that drew from Strokesstyle cool and Southern-rock stomp. The British mainstream embraced them on a wider scale, turning them into major stars abroad. The States caught up in 2008 when Kings of Leon scored a pair of massive hits with “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody.”

Two albums later, the band has yet to match the success of those singles, so attendance for their current U.S. arena tour will show if there’s enough interest to keep them operating at this level. Here’s what the guys had to say about making it in the music business and making babies in the real world.

ON LOSING EARLY FANS AS THE BAND Clark Jr. BECAME MORE POPULAR When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday Nathan: “We’ve experienced the full gamut as far as fans go, from our early days where you couldn’t understand a word that Caleb was singing and it looked like we had walked off the set of ‘Almost Famous’ to (the worldwide success of ) ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody.’ Once you get into the game of trying to make the music that you think people want you to make, that’s kind of thin ice. For the longest time, I don’t think any of us listened to our first few records. I don’t know if it was because we were embarrassed at how horrible of musicians we were or the way we sounded or what. I feel a little guilty for giving up on those records because looking back on them now, we were making fun music that I actually enjoyed playing every night.”

ON WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE TOUR ON RETURNING TO THE ROAD NOW THAT 3 OF THE 4 BAND MEMBERS ARE Matthew: “We’re going with a bigger show. I don’t FATHERS want to give away too much, but it should be better. I think now we’re trying to pay attention to what’s going on around us and we’re trying to pay attention to what people want to hear in the set list.”

Nathan: “If people are going to spend their money to come watch you, you might as well have them leave thinking that it was quite the experience. I think this is the first tour where we’re like, OK, this is the beginning of trying to

Nathan: “It changes your perspective on what you do after the show. Because your daughter’s waking up at 7 a.m. whether Daddy went to bed at 10 p.m. or 4 a.m. I actually enjoy the thought of my wife and daughter being able to come out on the road. I’m pretty sure the back of the bus will be turned into a nursery instead of a nice luxurious king-sized bed for Daddy. But hey, it’s worth the sacrifice.”

Where: Target Center, 600 First Ave. N., Minneapolis Tickets: $59.50-$29.50 Information: 888-929-7849 or targetcenter.com Pop music critic Ross Raihala can be reached at 651-228-5553. Follow him at Twitter.com/ RossRaihala.

Taken from www.twincities.com

DISCOGRAPHY Youth_and_young_manhood August 19, 2003. Youth and Young Manhood was where these little red roosters, who range in age from 16 to 23, really kicked down the door, already sounding like old-school greasers who’ve been around long enough to know how to savor a moment. The Kings are also a hot rhythm section: They know when to lay back and let things simmer or when to jump up and testify with tambourines banging. Their staggering-drunk guitar solos either suggest calamity is just around the corner (dig that firecracker dance in “Happy Alone”) or ooze blues slop until it melts into feedback (“Dusty”).

Frontman Caleb Followill doesn’t sing so much as slouch into his narratives of waywardness. On “Trani,” he sounds so busted up he can barely hold a conversation, and it only magnifies the sense of dissolution. Most of the time, every slur and mumble sounds as if he either has just had sex or is dreaming about it, never more so than on “Molly’s Chambers.” Mannish boys, they do grow up fast.

AHA_SHAKE_HEARTBREAK November 9, 2004. On Aha Shake Heartbreak, the grown-up Kings sound as if they’ve been listening to a lot of British art punk. The fuzzed-up garage rock is still evident on tracks like “Four Kicks” and songs like the dark, swaggering “Taper Jean Girl” drip with dark, sexual tension. But elsewhere they lay down angular, minimalist rhythms that sometimes recall Wire (“King of the Rodeo”) and other times Gang of Four (“Razz”).

because_of_the_times April 3, 2007. Only By The Night, which catapulted the band into the mainstream.

The multi-platinum-selling album debuted in the Top 5 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, hit No. 1 in five countries, sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide, and earned Kings of Leon four Grammy Awards, including wins for their Modern Rock radio multi-week No. 1’s “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” (which led to what drummer Nathan Followill describes as a “surreal and drunken” trip to the podium to collect an award for “Record of the Year” from Ringo Starr). The album’s success also led to the band’s gracing the covers of Spin and Rolling Stone, performances on Saturday Night Live and The Today Show’s summer concert series, a sold-out show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and headlining slots at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits festivals.

ONLY_BY_THE_NIGHT September 23, 2008. The Kings dove headlong into mainstream arena rock on Only by the Night, which begins with electronic bleeps on “Closer” and some feedback and noise on “Crawl” but turns fully anthemic on the pop hit “Use Somebody,” which is built on a Journey-like melody and air-guitar-worthy solo. The rhythms and ideas are still interesting, but the album feels entirely calculated to catapult the Kings to the mega-stardom. It worked: The disc eventually peaked at Number Four.

COME_AROUND_SUNDOWN October 19, 2010. On Come Around Sundown, they didn’t haven’t sacrificed any of the rich, anthemic quality that made Only By the Night so appealing. While both albums combine a grand and propulsive rock sound with intimate post-punk moods, the band has upped the ante on the new one by connecting the dots between the blues, classic rock, and gospel influences of the Followill’s childhood to the alternative and indie rock Jared introduced them to in adulthood. Come Around Sundown gives the listener a sonic tour of the band’s entire career, from the garage-rock feel of their first two albums, 2003’s Youth and Young Manhood, 2005’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, to 2007’s expansive Because of the Times, on which they began to experiment with a shift in sound.

“Come Around Sundown” colors in the picture of us as a band, in terms of where we’ve come from musically,” Nathan says. “And I think it took a record like Only By the Night to be so successful to give us the courage to put a song like ‘Mary’ on the album. It would have been so easy for us to go in there and try to have a record full of just polished radio smashes. In fact, I’m sure that was expected by a lot of people, but I’m glad that when a song like ‘Mary’ or ‘Back Down South’ comes on, people will know immediately that we didn’t try to capitalize on being the flavor of the month.”

MECHANICAL_BULL September 24, 2013. Although their sixth album hardly feels like a comedown, or an apology, it’s loose and down-to-earth; you can imagine them bashing it out in a shed, albeit a very large one. “Rock City” suggests T. Rex going down to Muscle Shoals, with grotty-glam swivel and Caleb Followill “looking for drugs” while evocatively advertising his ability to “shake it like a woman.” It takes a true man to make that kind of boast.

Drummer Nathan Followill calls “Bull” an “unofficial greatest hits,” given how it taps into the finer points of previous KOL releases. “In some weird way this record was kind of a reflection for us, kind of a trip down memory lane to where we didn’t police ourselves so hard, ‘that’s not gonna fit on this record, that doesn’t go with this or that,’” he says. “This time, it was just get in there and jam, if it sticks it sticks, go on to the next song and try to make it better than the one you played before.”