From the desk of:

The Pitfalls of Blog Proprietorship. Oh, and She’s Having My Baby

I’ve been doing the ole’ in-out-in-out blogging thing for a couple of years now. Believe it or not there is a “code” that legitimate mp3 bloggers try and follow. I remember discussing it over at the elbo.ws forums when I first started. It was agreed upon (when the mp3 blogging community was MUCH smaller) that thou shall not deep-link to others mp3s, thou shall not learn about bands from blog a blog, blog about it on blog b and not give credit, and thou shall not post entire albums.

I’ve adhered to this ethos. I’ve maintained my site and my mp3s with these considerations in mind. I’ve played nice with others, but I’m getting irritated by the deep linkers out there. Just this week 5 or 6 small (smaller than this one, anyway) sites deep linked to our mp3s without nary a mention of who was giving them the bandwidth. It’s rude. If you do this, cut it out. Even though I love all you loyal readers, if you’re here to steal my mp3s then you can go pound sand into a rat hole. You won’t be missed. Seriously. I’ve blackballed your site and you’ll never get a mention here.

Does anyone know of a wordpress plugin or a server modification that I could make to prevent this? It’s important that google reader, hype machine and other places still be able to stream the tracks, so I believe that limiting the referals is not going to cut it. Anyone?

Enough with the buzzkilling. We’re here to promote music and get drunk and enjoy each others company — and I’ll get right back to it.

Kings of Leon. A band that I’ve heard about for years but I’ve never given a chance. Want to try and increase your chances of me not caring about your band? Put the term “southern rock” in every press release, bio, or otherwise mention of your band. Conjure up images of Skynrd. Come from Tennessee. Have long hair and look like every other hippie hemp band from the south. Go get big in Europe and get NME haircuts. This is how it works. I won’t care. You can continue to do your thing, I’ll continue to do mine, and our paths will head in different directions.

Kings of Leon was doing a good job holding up their end of the bargain, and I was more than happy to fulfill my end of the deal. Then something unlikely happened — a girl took my skeptical-and-ever-drunk-ass to school and played the opening track of their new record. I was blown away. Everything about it was brilliant. I had to give these guys a pass, take them off the southern rock shitlist and put them into the My Morning Jacket exception pile.

Unfortunately (or perhaps just as a mechanism to keep the earth in balance) the rest of the album isn’t as consistently brilliant as the first track. Caleb Followills voice is a pleasure, the backing is solid, and the production is good — but the songwriting is hit or miss. The single, On Call, is lyrically thin and shallow southern rock. Black Thumbnail has a guitar solo that could be note for note right off of Nuthin’ Fancy. The tracks below are some of the finest out this spring, however, and deserve your every ounce of respect. It’s ok. I give you permission.

Kings of Leon – Knocked Up
Kings of Leon – Fans

Tomorrow I’ll be back with even more southern rock — West Virginia is up in our tribute to the Great Fiddy!