A few years ago my brother told me to check out this band that he’d been digging for a little while. Given my usual distrust in my brother’s recommendations on anything in the media, I shrugged it off and said I’d check it out later and didn’t really think of it. It was shortly thereafter that I stumbled upon the band myself and decided to give these guys a chance and picked up an EP of theirs. For once I should have listened to my brother as the band in question was pretty damn good and as catchy as the flu (in a good way). The band was the Kooks and with the release of their third album, Junk of the Heart, earlier this month, they’ve become our artist of the week.
The Kooks, naming themselves after the David Bowie song from the Hunky Dory album, formed in 2004 at the Brighton Music College. Friends Luke Pritchard, Hugh Harris, Max Rafferty, and Paul Garred started the band out of common musical interests and tastes, using their influences to drive their own writing and sound. What you get are light-hearted, bouncy, and fun three-minute pop songs that people all over can sing along to (yours truly has even been known to sing a few at karaoke night). It certainly wasn’t long before the gang put out singles and EPs demonstrating their musical prowess. By the end of 2005 the Kooks had three singles released on the Virgin label that were successful in the U.K.
The Kooks’ U.S. debut came during 2006’s South by Southwest festival after the release of their first album Inside In/Inside Out in the U.K. The band signed to Astralwerks/EMI in the U.S. a few months after their appearance at the festival and released their album stateside. Since then the band has enjoyed great success, with numerous top ten songs and their sophomore album, Konk, reaching number one in sales its opening week. While the band has seen the good, they’ve also seemed to strike up a few rivalries and feuds with the likes of Razorlight and Arctic Monkeys. Whether they be claims of unoriginality or attempts of subterfuge, the three bands can’t seem to come to terms with one another.
The release of the Kooks’ latest album, Junk of the Heart, shows the band’s continuation of the production of solid pop music. It also sees a revised line-up with Pritchard and Harris staying put. The Kooks, while perhaps not as big here in the States, continue to impress and maintain a strong following. The band begin a world tour at the end of the month, and while their arrival stateside won’t be until November (December for us Los Angelinos), you can catch up on what they’ve been doing and all their tunes with the links below!
Useful Links