So it’s starting to scare me a little bit. My Top Two newest favoritest bands of 2008 came to me via recommendations in GQ. Why do I read Spin? Why do I read Paste? Why do I talk to all of you music geeks out there? All I really need is a connection to MySpace Music and my subscription to GQ. I’m all set. And they can help me with those annoying button-down vs. spread collar questions that keep coming up. It’s a two-fer!
I’m pretty sure I’ll have forgotten these guys by 2009, but they’ve been nice to pal around with the last few weeks. The new self-titled disc is 12-tracks of solid rock ‘n roll. Nary a bum cut on the platter. Some of the lesser tunes (like “Love It All”) are nicely rescued by ‘ze guitar which likes to hang out in the left speaker and tastefully fill the melodic holes with little licks.
Sometimes it sounds like The Strokes, sometimes it sounds like The Stones. Basically, it’s the album that Jet tried to make 5 or so years ago. Remember them? No? Me neither. But I might remember The Kooks a little bit longer. This isn’t the kind of rock that’s built to last (a lesson The Killers forgot while recording Sam’s Town.) They’re just playing the game — the rules of which were written years ago by guys like Ray Davies and Pete Townshend. But it’s a game that I like playing too. Roll the dice, you Krazy Kooks! I’m in!
