The highly touted boys from Brighton are back with their sophomore release, Konk, that hit stores earlier this week, but some are questioning whether the pre-release hype matches the merit. The Kook’s debut release Inside In/Inside Out was exceedingly well received, but reviews for Konk have been mixed. Betty Clarke of The Guardian gave the record 4 out 5 stars saying, “The woolliness of their debut has been replaced with a determined pop sound that dips into hard-edged rock,” but New Music Express was less than optimistic, and rather disappointed:

“What’s clear is that they’ve lost the songwriterly knack they originally wielded with abandon and replaced it with clichés and a foggy palimpsest of what they once had. We recommend they search high and low for that spark of brightness in time for album three.” NME.com

I haven’t picked up the record yet, but if the single is any indication it looks like I’m in store for a watered down version of Inside In/Inside Out. To be honest, when I first heard “Always Where I Need To Be” I thought I was still listening to The Kooks first album. Check out thise video below and decide for yourself.

The Kooks- “Always Where I Need To Be”

This has been one of the busiest weeks of my life, and being in the snow day in and day out doesn’t help all that much. I have made some real life realizations, such as; Cleveland is a dump, the Super Bowl is a lot more entertaining when it’s spent with friends, is catered and a keg of Coors light is brought into the situation, kids from Canada have funny accents, I never want to live in a snowy city, kids in Omaha are insane and they love to throw boxer briefs on stage, Lawrence, Kansas is one my most favorite places ever, days off are a very nice thing to have every once in a while. I’ll elaborate on a few of the days.

Cleveland, Ohio is not a nice town; I was constantly in fear of being robbed, beat up, raped or mocked for being white the entire time I was not inside the bus or the venue. But the show was crazy, and it marked the first sell out crowd of the tour. Our buddy, and Marilyn Manson drum tech, cabbed over to our show after the MM show was over, that’s a crazy job to have.

Madison, Wisconsin is a beautiful city, especially in the winter. I guess I take back my earlier comment about not wanting to live in a snowy city, because I would live in Madison in a second, but nowhere else with snow. This show marked the smallest crowd I’ve ever seen a band, any size, play to in years, but the kids that were there were great, they made the night very enjoyable.

St. Paul, Minnesota is town full of offices, and then if you’re lucky enough to work in one of these offices you can conveniently live a block away in your own condo, seems great to me, why wouldn’t you want to spend all your time in a three block radius of St. Paul? I got yelled at by the bartender for smoking inside, I don’t know all the laws they pass there, and who really cares? Around three in the morning we get a knock on the bus door, someone opens it up and lets this girl in, who, by the way, had the biggest fake boobs I’ve ever seen in person. She was crying some story to us about how her friends left her behind and she needed to use a phone to call a cab, all while she’s kicking off her shoes and jacket and making herself comfortable. We called her a cab which she decided wasn’t good enough for her once it arrived. She eventually left after getting ridiculed by half of the bus occupants for a good 45 minutes.

Omaha, Nebraska should have more than two venues considering it has so many bands. Tonight’s show was another sell out and was painfully hot inside. Matt purchased an air horn the night before which was used this night to startle kids outside our bus. I’ve never seen so many pissed off emo kids. One thing I don’t get is why the hell would you drive out of town to see a band and not purchase tickets beforehand? The venue had to turn away a ton of kids, but instead of leaving they decided to bug me all night and offer to “help” me with any task I wanted as long as they could get in. It may not sound that bad, but it is.

Lawrence, Kansas is a wonderful town, full of normal people. I’ve never been to the venue we played at and at first it looked a little sketchy beings that they show movies upstairs on certain days, but it was great. I got to see some friends I haven’t seen in a while and take in some great conversations at the local bars. I thought to myself I could live in Lawrence, and then I realized Chico is just the same, so I think that plan is nixed.

Salt Lake City, Utah is always a fun time. The show was sold out, the crowd was amazing, I was proposed to by a 17 year old during line check; I had to turn her down because her boyfriend didn’t like the idea. After our record breaking load out we threw a party for all the bands after the show, the promoter’s gave us a bunch of free liquor and beer and everyone got to know each other beyond the daily “hi, how’s it going” kind of thing. We have a day off tomorrow and then we’re headed to the west coast for what will most likely be the longest ten days ever.

Cleveland, OH

Deathtrap

Madison

As Cities Burn, the best band ever

Air Hornness

St. Paul, MN

Pierce the Veil

If I only got three words to describe Kingdom of Sorrow, the project from Crowbar/Down riffmaster Kirk Windstein and Hatebreed vocalist/MTV VJ Jamey Jasta it would be : HARD AS F. And you know what, I think I will just use those three words. Because I don’t really know what else to say. If you even sort of like Down, Hatebreed, Crowbar, etc al, Kingdom of Sorrow will, to quote Synthesis sales guru Cayle Hunter, “make you jerk off using your own tears as lube.”

Their self-titled debut record drops February 19th on Relapse, and the band will be heading out on tour, rounding out their line-up with Steve Gibb from Crowbar on guitar ( who is, strangely enough, Barry Gibb from the BeeGee’s son…no shit) Derek Kerswill from Unearth on drums and some random dude from New Orleans on bass. If they play within 100 miles of your city and you dont go you are officially kicked out of metal. For life.

So you may recognize Kirk Windstein as being the guitarist for stoner metal supergroup Down, who are on tour right now supporting their new record, Down III - Over the Under. However, he is also the frontman of Crowbar, one of probably THE heaviest bands EVER. We met up with Kirk a couple weeks back to talk about the new Down record, and while we were at it, he took the time to show us some fucking BRUTAL Crowbar riffs, as well as his new custom finish ESP guitar. Check out the footage above, and check out part one of the Down interview below.