"we all belong" by dr. dog

they tell us of the days when the beatles and the beach boys put out records one after the other, each outfit trying to out-studio the other, and they say they were the magic days of rock-n-roll. all the meanwhile, john, paul, george, ringo, and brian wilson kept a keen eye on how bob dylan's backups were collaborating, and it caused them to engage in envy. now, there is a group of musicians in philadelphia, with a great record collection, adding their response to the rock-n-roll lexicon. dr. dog's latest record "we all belong" hearkens back to the beatles, the beach boys, and the band, without loosing sense of the times they live in. they employ live sounding production qualities, with meticulous and spot on restraint. the result is a calculated grouping of songs that sound organic and free without meandering off coarse. dr. dog proves that there is a place for the indie-rock aesthetic in our influences, and they lead us to believe that as long as there is still rock-n-roll, there are still "magic days."

dr. dog on the web

kurt vonnegut (1922 - 2007)

"no matter how corrupt, greedy and heartless, our government, our coorporations, our media and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. if i should ever die, god forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC"
- kv

"because of the times" by kings of leon

there is a lot of mythology concerning the origins of the followill clan. a brief biography of the brothers and cousin reads like great southern fiction, complete with pentacostal tent meetings, scandal, and prodigal sons. at one point the boys declared that they were discouraged from listening to "secular" music, and the first record of "the devil's music" they ever listened to was their own. after hearing their first record "youth and young manhood" however, it became obvious that somebody had snuck the preacher's kids "sticky fingers", "damn the torpedos", and "rust never sleeps." it was like the scene in "close encounters of the third kind," when the scientists discovered the missing airplains in the mexican desert. the kings of leon seemed to have stepped out of a time warp, as primitive artists, with a chip on their shoulders and something to prove.

their latest effort, "because of the times" is a nice step in the maturation process. it sounds as if they have been exposed to a few new influences, captured a modern sensibility, and yet decided that they still hadn't heard anything better than the stones, neil, petty, and themselves. the record is darker than previous releases, and as crazy as it sounds, a little more aggressive and contemplative at the same time. lyrically, they have sharpened their "less is more" approach to storytelling. caleb followill tends to dwell on carefully chosen lines and throw away gratuitous notions. the boys have grown up in many ways, and the journey continues.

kings of leon website