Long time Kings Of Leon fans, I have a question regarding Gaslight...

I don't know about the rest of the country, or the rest of the world for that matter, but the nj radio scene is abysmal, with nothing but oldies and top 40 crap. There was a time when we had a few stations that would play alternative rock, even up and coming bands that people never heard before. One of the best was 106.3 out of eatontown. They are long gone, and there is no station in the nj/ny area that would play gaslight or anything like them. The only place to hear good music around here is sirius, or through a service like Pandora. Is it any better in the rest of the country? Maybe that's why bands hit it big in Europe first.

plugga wrote:

AmSlang59 wrote:

plugga wrote:

well the strokes premiered their new single on bbc1 too, I think it's mainly because the us have not something like zane lowe's show, hmmm

I think KROQ LA is the closest the US has to Zane Lowe, in terms of target audience. They premiered new Blink 182, Black Keys, Kings Of Leon.

yeah but zane lowe has a different audience and "effect" imho, lots of bands choose his show to premiere new singles!
I also read people complaining that the premiere is on bbc and not some american radio, seriously?

No complaints here. If I can stream it, I have no problem. I think a lot of people are worried that it won't be streaming live in the US or that there will end up being problems with the stream.

SouthJerseyTGA wrote:

By the time Kings 4th album was about to debut, they were absolutely enormous in Europe. While Gaslight's popularity might be growing, it's still nowhere near he level KOL's was.

Not absolutely correct. In Belgium, they weren't mainstream at all before OBTN. I've seen them 1 or 2 years before their fourth album came out at Rock Werchter, and they played an afternoon slot (and a lot of people didn't really know them, they sure as hell didn't get the attiontion they got when they returned with OBTN).

big blue wrote:

I don't know about the rest of the country, or the rest of the world for that matter, but the nj radio scene is abysmal, with nothing but oldies and top 40 crap. There was a time when we had a few stations that would play alternative rock, even up and coming bands that people never heard before. One of the best was 106.3 out of eatontown. They are long gone, and there is no station in the nj/ny area that would play gaslight or anything like them. The only place to hear good music around here is sirius, or through a service like Pandora. Is it any better in the rest of the country? Maybe that's why bands hit it big in Europe first.

Count NYC that way too. Only WFUV, and even then it has a very niche audience. I grew up listening to 106.3 (G-Rock) and it introduced me to a lot of music, including Gaslight. Without stations like that, it's very hard for bands to break through to a mass audience.

njguy99 wrote:

big blue wrote:

I don't know about the rest of the country, or the rest of the world for that matter, but the nj radio scene is abysmal, with nothing but oldies and top 40 crap. There was a time when we had a few stations that would play alternative rock, even up and coming bands that people never heard before. One of the best was 106.3 out of eatontown. They are long gone, and there is no station in the nj/ny area that would play gaslight or anything like them. The only place to hear good music around here is sirius, or through a service like Pandora. Is it any better in the rest of the country? Maybe that's why bands hit it big in Europe first.

Count NYC that way too. Only WFUV, and even then it has a very niche audience. I grew up listening to 106.3 (G-Rock) and it introduced me to a lot of music, including Gaslight. Without stations like that, it's very hard for bands to break through to a mass audience.

Yeah g-rock was how we came across gaslight also. it sucks that its gone now.

Aww man I miss that station....

Not to be rude to KOL fans, but Brian Fallon has the gonads the Caleb Followill lacks, and I believe that is what is going to make TGA and what broke KOL.

yeah I've been a fan of kol since their first album but goddamn they are ASSHOLES. TOTAL ASSHOLES.

I can't stand Zane Lowe. Everytime he has a premier I just tune in just before 7.30 and turn it off straight after.

I can definitely see TGA become something like KOL, it seems different these days though. They'll need a 'Sex On Fire' but I don't know if I can see Brian writing something as commercial as that.

there is not a single chance in the universe tga turn into kol

yeah not turn into them, but have the potential to be that size band, probably worded it wrong!

bringiton wrote:

yeah not turn into them, but have the potential to be that size band, probably worded it wrong!

I don't know, seriously, they are not as catchy as kol!
plus kol have like an army of fangirls. literally an army

I'm not even sure if "Sex on Fire" was released today it would be as big as it was in '09. The music industry has changed drastically over the past few years, in the UK atleast. Back in 2009 there was decent music in the charts. Looking at this weeks Top 40 it is dominated by recycled dance tunes, its all the same. Very few decent bands there, Linkin Park, Train and The Script are the only bands that don't fall into that category of commerical dance shit!

rgillies wrote:

I'm not even sure if "Sex on Fire" was released today it would be as big as it was in '09. The music industry has changed drastically over the past few years, in the UK atleast. Back in 2009 there was decent music in the charts. Looking at this weeks Top 40 it is dominated by recycled dance tunes, its all the same. Very few decent bands there, Linkin Park, Train and The Script are the only bands that don't fall into that category of commerical dance shit!

Plus, don't they have an ointment to treat sex on fire now?

haha.

how could a song called "Sex on Fire" not be popular??

a+

Its weird because I always hear how TGA is more popular in Europe but living in New Jersey every TGA I go to is sold out (Welmont, Stone Pony, Radio City, and Asbury Park Convention Center) and sold out quickly in fairly big venues. So for me it seems like TGA is always drawing well

I always thought of TGA as the best kept secret in music.

Funny talk about radio stations...

Bruce Springsteen would never have elevated to the level he did if it weren't for Philadelphia. At the time of the release of "Greetings", MORE THEN HALF of the albums sales came from Philadelphia. Think about that for a second. I found that fact out at the Bruce Springsteen Exhibit, which, of course, is in Philadelphia.

My point is, you never know where fame is going to come from and how it will happen. Predicting it is a waste of time. TGA have a huge fanbase in the Central Jersey area. However, they could still become more popular in NY and Philly. IF that were to happen, they would grab 2 of the 5 most populated cities in the counry in addition to the most densely populated state... ALL this means is that the base for an explosion is there, and all within a 120 mile radius.

If we want to make them popular (and I realize that's an IF), flood your radio station requests.

When I tried to get them on in Philadelphia on Radio1045, the response I got was, "Hey man, I like them. I really do. But we can't put a band that nobody knows on our radio". I appreciated the honesty, but it also made no sense. isn't that what the radio is for?

Regardless, University of Penn's radio station in Philly DOES play Gaslight, and plays a lot of other great bands. (WXPN- http://www.xpn.org/) I'm sure Mercury has a gameplan on how to increase their popularity. That's what big labels do.

SouthJerseyTGA wrote:

If we want to make them popular (and I realize that's an IF), flood your radio station requests.

When I tried to get them on in Philadelphia on Radio1045, the response I got was, "Hey man, I like them. I really do. But we can't put a band that nobody knows on our radio". I appreciated the honesty, but it also made no sense. isn't that what the radio is for?

Regardless, University of Penn's radio station in Philly DOES play Gaslight, and plays a lot of other great bands. (WXPN- http://www.xpn.org/) I'm sure Mercury has a gameplan on how to increase their popularity. That's what big labels do.

Very true - but the question in most markets is WHICH radio station to target? In NYC, Z-100 isn't going to play them. Neither is WPLJ. Maybe Q104.3, but that's classic rock and they don't tend to play new stuff unless it's by a "classic" artist (i.e. they may play new Pearl Jam, etc...).

WFUV, like WXPN, already plays Gaslight. But with the radio market being what it is there are very few stations that you can barrage with requests to play them, since the formats don't make for new or interesting music to be shared.

It's kind of pathetic, the only time i've ever heard Gaslight on the radio has been twice listening to 97.5 in Philly which is sports talk and after a commercial break American Slang was the song being played for 20 seconds.

Sirius alt nation plays gaslight regularly. I would say that they are played even more now, with the buzz over the new album growing. The reality is that terrestrial radio simply sucks in the nj/ny area.

They've definitely been getting steadily bigger in central Jersey. In 2008 nobody know who the hell I was babbling about that was so amazing. Now people will recognize shirts and generally have some sort of knowledge about who they are ("They're from New Brunswick, right? They had that song American Slang?")

I'm in MN and the only people who recognize shirt is if i'm in a record store or hipsters.

oldgospelchoir wrote:

I won't be surprise that Handwritten turns out to be 2012's "Only By The Night"

I say that knowing how big KOL was in US and the kinda tours they went on...

KOL is one of my favorite bands & I agree with you and could totally see "Handwritten" become the 'new' OBTH....A lot of their long time fans like to say KOL "sold out" (I hate this phrase and it needs to die already! ) I still listen to some of their older stuff like "Molly's chambers" and "California Waiting" and I'm sorry, the only difference I hear between those and "Use Somebody" is that the latter is massively popular. Now maybe they were a little more experimental on tracks like "My Third House" but all in all the music sounds the same to me....with this new TGA single I feel like I am listening to a different band altogether. A damn good band, but a different one nonetheless. Remains to be seen whether this is a good thing or a bad thing on the whole.

Just sayin' --Don't forget us!

TGA has a small but dedicated fan base out here in the woods of NWNJ/NEPA -- Lehigh Valley/Allentown area, too.

GREAT Idea to flood the radio stations -- and college stations have a lot more freedom to play what they want.

http://www.wnti.org/