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Louis XIV
Posted by Laila Hanson on 23-May-08 @ 04:16 PM|
HQ: San Diego, CA NOW PLAYING: Slick Dogs And Ponies (ATLANTIC) WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: Their music is catchy, danceable and their new album has a song about being a stalker that actually makes you want to be a stalker. YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE? Hot Hot Heat / the Killers / the Von Bondies STORY: Emily Zemler Louis XIV set sparks flying when they released their 2005 major-label debut The Best Little Secrets Are Kept. Nearly every song on the album oozed with sex-from song titles such as "Illegal Tender" to lyrics like "We don't have to go to the pool/If you want me to make you wet" from the song "Pledge Of Allegiance." Even the video for the album's single "Paper Doll" featured a bevy of seductive Suicide Girls in various stages of, well, undress. One listen-and look-at the glam-tinged from Southern California there was no question fromwhere they were pulling their provocative inspiration. Then something happened. As Louis XIV began writing the follow-up to Secrets, their trademark themes of risqué romps were replaced with a newer, more innocent sound. "I think we couldn't have made this record without living through the last record," explains vocalist/guitarist Jason Hill. "The touring, the relationships, the high parts and the exhausted parts. This album is an album about consequences in many ways." "It's a lot different from our first album," continues guitarist/ keyboardist/vocalist Brian Karscig, "and I think at first listen, [this album] may raise an eyebrow to some of our fans. But ideally, I do believe we made an album that in three listens, as well as 10 years, people can put on and agree that it was ahead of its time." Slick Dogs And Ponies was written and recorded over the course of about 18 months-some while on tour, some while experimenting at Hill's house until the wee hours of the morning. Everyone in the band-Hill, Karscig, drummer Mark Maigaard and bassist James Armbrust-collaborated on the recording process, but instead of hiring an outside producer, Hill decided to take a seat behind the knobs and also act as engineer, which, as Karscig says, "[makes the other band members] very good sous chefs to Jason's cooking." "The biggest challenge for me was perspective, just wanting to move on at a certain point but having the feeling of not being finished," Hill explains. "Since we had no one in the room but ourselves, we couldn't just pass the tapes over to someone else and say, 'Here you go. You tidy it up. We'll be at the bar.' There was the lunacy of constantly wanting the feeling of excitement that you get from a new song, which only lasts a few days, and we always seem to need that fix." After listening to Slick Dogs, it's easy to hear how songs like the Bowie-esque, string-backed "Air Traffic Control" and the multi-layered "Free Won't Be What It Used To Be" shed some of the overt swagger of Secrets in favor of more-dare we say-mature attitude where the band is more interested in offering up a social commentary, not just some creative double entendres. "I would hope people recognize our passion to the craft," says Karscig. "We may not have the one-listen hit that will sell millions of records, but we do things uniquely and artistically that is undeniably 'us.' I would hope that when one of our songs comes on, people can look up and say, 'That's Louis XIV.' Setting out to do something new and challenging is a dying art. Our goals still focus on inspiring and challenging ourselves. At the end of the day, we still want to be our favorite band." ALT |
