D'You Know What I Mean

Usually, when a band has the balls to glorify themselves in a way like the Beatles once did ("we're bigger than Jesus..." or something like that), or more recently, like Oasis ("we're bigger than the Beatles"), they better fucking know what they're talking about. They better be right. Or at least damned close.

Enter Britain's new band of the moment, The Kooks. Like last year's Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks are young (early 20s), and every British music mag is drooling over them. Courtesy of Luke Pritchard of The Kooks: "We are the most exciting band in Britain. There hasn't been a record like ours for ages."

In case you weren't already aware, the music hype machine in Britain is almost always completely out of hand. They freak out over anything, even the most mundane, banal crap (Babyshambles). This is why NME can't be trusted when they put The Kooks on the cover and say "Britain's favourite new band come out fighting." I'll put money on it right now that when their full-length album debuts, it will sell more on the first day then the Arctic Monkeys full length, and that one set a record for sales.

So the real question is what does it sound like, right? I'll tell y ou what it sounds like: The LIbertines. They can say all they want about having a crazy new sound, but like it or not, it's a sound very, very close to the Libertines. But, I'll give 'em credit, The Kooks do it well. I wouldn't say that they will single-handedly reinvent Britpop, which they claim they're doing. But it is good, and it is worth checking out.

Click the pic to go check out The Kooks' site:

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