With everyone buzzing with the massive event that is Coachella we, too, are getting our fill with our artist of the week. This week we have another band that got their start in the 90’s and made it big in the early 2000’s. Taking a dive into the progressive and psychedelic worlds, our artist has been showing audiences that they can melt faces with their sound and style while keeping up the pace for years. Our artist this week is our mental and musical getaway driver, Kasabian.
Formed in 1997 in Leicester as teens, Kasabian began their musical career with a heavy influence from bands like the Stone Roses and Oasis. Taking their name from Charles Manson’s getaway driver, Kasabian set out to entertain both in the field of music as well as the rock-star/artistic persona. Taking a page from the Band, Kasabian retreated to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere to record their music. On top of that, lead singer Tom Meighan became a great outlet for the media as his ability to entertain through his less-than-friendly attitude during interviews. To add to the allure of the band, they were able to market their first singles leading up to their self-titled 2004 debut album quite well. With eye-catching cover art and posters to accompany their music, their marketing strategies could make advertising agencies jealous.
Kasabian steadily became more and more popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the release of Kasabian, the band received nominations and titles for various musical categories including “Best British Rock Act,” “Best Album,” “Best Live Band,” and “Song of the Year.” They followed the success of their debut album with Empire in 2006, whose title track reached number 9 in the UK singles chart. And to prove the band wasn’t slowing down, they came right back with West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 2009 showing that they had no intention of slowing down the melting of faces.
Listening to Kasabian you often feel as though you’re in a trance. Their incorporation of processed beats with their heavy guitar and bass suck you in and (at least in this blogger’s opinion) often give you the feeling of being in some sort of science fiction action movie wherein you play the lead role. The sense that you’re either in space and/or about to kick some major ass with explosions and all the typical action fix-ins are highly prevalent in their licks and riffs. It’s no wonder the band has won the Q Award for “Best Act in the World Today”: they make you feel like a bad ass with each song!
With their most recent album, Velociraptor!, having been released last year, Kasabian has been touring steadily in support of it. Their stint here in the States is soon coming to a close with Coachella being their penultimate stop, but they look to pick things back up in June. If you happen to be in Europe, I highly recommend forking over some of your hard-earned cash to take part in their live experience as you won’t regret it. But if you’re not fortunate enough, as always you can get your fix below. Enjoy!
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