Customer Reviews

Best Little Secrets Are Kept (Exco)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

All Right.....it finally happened! BritPop is ready to peak with Louis XIV. With the exception of Jack White's White Stripes, there hasn't been a band like this one in more than a decade. Jason Hill and Brian Karscig have resurrected an incredible range of influences while doing original songs with dirtier lyrics and pushing the whole show to a higher plane. Kick-ass riffs, chunking rhythm, snarling in-your-face lyrics......this is what is has always been about and Hill and Karscig and drummer Mark Maigaard are making sure it stays that way. All Hail Rock And Roll!

OK, where do I start? Oh....obviously The lyrics, god...the lyrics!

Little Stacy Q/When she doesn't have anything to do/She comes to my house/She takes off her clothes/She likes to tell this boy what to do/Pledges her allegiance to the United States of ME

Milkshake, milkshake/I love to see you sweat/

Sing me a song/Bang me like the girls in Hong Kong/politics is so much better when there's sex

girl, well you're lookin' like somethin I won/and your little Asian friend/she can come if she wants

I want miss little smart girl with your glasses and all your books/and I want the stupid girl that gives me all those dirty looks/(she says) wind you up and make you crawl to me/tie you up until you call to me

there are lots more....get the CD!

I've been around way too long (I heard Not Fade Away the 1st time AM radio played it) but the list of bands that absolutely nailed me first time out is short.....Louis XIV/Convoy is now one of less than 10. These guys will rank with the Kinks, Marc Bolan/T.Rex, & White Stripes. (How come nobody thinks the "Pledge" sounds like Adam Ant anyway? - surely he isn't completely forgotten!). The greatest thing is that this CD sounds like they found the Kinks' ancient Little Green Amp in the dumpster behind the studio in France and just plugged right in where Ray and Dave left off.

Yes, I've seen them live (Chicago's Metro last week).....they were fantastic with incredible wall of sound rifs chunkin on and on between the best songs. If I closed my eyes I could swear Marc Bolan and Adam Ant had managed to get the Kinks to back them on all these new songs. They do need to work on their set list a bit (Ball of Twine needs to be at the halfway point and the encore needs to be something so the crowd leaves with a sound in their heads....try Illegal Tender or the Pledge or even Louis XIV).

Note that there is a previously recorded album as Convoy...it's not hard to find.

I seldom do this, but there is a really good review (much better than mine) already done on this album if you want to take a second to find it. It's Alexander Laurence's "Get the dirty versions" posted on April 17, 2005

As much as I can't get enough of Kaiser Chiefs, The Libertines, Bloc Party, Razorlight, Frames, Embrace, Interpol, The Killers, Hot Hot Heat, & Kings of Leon.....Jason and Brian with Mark have something greater going here and you can tell on every single track!

Full disclosure: I am not a pop music fan, let alone any band that sounds slightly British these days. So for a San Diego-based band to sound Britpopish does not curry favor with me.

But Holy S, these guys are AWESOME.

Clearly, the first piece of Louis XIV that you notice is the lyrics; overtly sexual, dirty, and over the top. Fortunately, I happen to like that sort of thing, even though most of my fellow Americans have connived to create the most puritanical society in the world outside of the Muslim countries. So to me, the lyrics aren't just the words, it's the attitude; and the attitude is one which has been missing from American music since the fall of heavy metal.

See, music is supposed to be sexy; maybe these guys overdo it by throwing subtlety out the window, but everyone else has been so afraid to be sexy that perhaps Louis XIV is making up for some seriously lost time. The Killers and Franz Ferdinand are great bands, but they don't ooze the energy we used to feel when Skid Row or Motley Crue (when they were younger) would go on tour. Louis XIV brings it back - in spades.

But that's not all there is to it; the music rocks! And it's not linear or monophonic in any way. In "Dominique" and "All The Little Pieces" and "Louis XIV", you have three completely distinct types of songs, all fantastic, all totally different. I have more than once caught myself singing "Well there's a house on the block that's empty now that Dominique's gone" in the middle of a bar because I just can't get the song out of my head. Catchy to the extreme, dirty to the core, and more importantly, it just plain rocks.

How did I hear about Louis XIV? When I heard Finding Out True Love is Blind on my brother's MLB 2000-and-something PS2 game. That was it -- I went out and bought this album the next day. I wasn't disappointed.

The first eight songs troll through a garagey, Brit-poppy aesthetic, as has now been mentioned a million and one times when describing this album, and every step along the way is catchy as hell. But I contend this is more of concept album than people realize.

While the cheap come-on lines are sure to offend feminists and prudes, the final couplet of All the Little Pieces and Ball of Twine go in a completely different direction from the first eight tracks, the former substituting the trashy guitars (which come to the fore on True Love, God Killed the Queen and Illegal Tender) for symphonic sweeps and the latter adding plaintive acoustic guitar that morphs into the string melody that opens the album.

Not that the lyrics carry the weight of Pink Floyd or Bright Eyes, but Louis XIV through to Hey Teacher seem to be about an undersexed guy fresh off a breakup looking to plug whatever holes are out there. Our hero has his fun with vanilla friends, illegal tenders, kinky seductresses and sultry schoolteachers, but the delicate focus found on All the Little Pieces and Ball of Twine seemingly indicate that kind of fun only lasts so long and that our narrator would like nothing more than to retreat to the life he left behind.

Of course, I could be wrong, and the storyline on this album isn't the point. The point is every track, whether it be one of the hang-out-with-the-wang-out rockers or one of the gentler interludes, is purely fantastic. I'm still taking this one off the shelf on a semi-weekly basis because it's that good.

They are a new band from San Diego. Louis XIV is Jason Hill (guitar/vocals), Brain Karscig (guitar/vocals), and Mark Maigaard (drums). They have been joined recently by Jimmy Armbrust (bass). I saw them play this summer when they opened for The Killers last summer. They started playing two years ago and recorded some songs in France and San Diego. Some of their songs were put online at their website and one song "God Killed The Queen" got played on the radio. They released a few EPs and their record got played on BBC Radio. They ended up playing a lot of UK shows. While they were away the San Diego radio station 91X started playing their song "Finding Out True Love Is Blind" before it was released. This caused a demand for the record. Towards the end of the year they signed to Atlantic Records and won Best Album at the San Diego Music Awards. I met the band at their show during the Noise Pop festival in San Francisco. They opened for Hot Hot Heat, who they are on an American tour with. Their music is a mix between glam rock of the 1970s and Britpop of the 1990s. Some of their songs from the EP are on this records like "Louis XIV" and "Finding Out True Love Is Blind." These are great opening songs. "Paper Doll" and "God Killed The Queen" are some straightforward rockers. The best song on the album is "A Letter To Dominique." It is a glam song reminiscent of T-Rex and Supergrass. It could have been a tune of the film Velvet Goldmine. "Hey Teacher" is a totally rocking tune that is entirely original. The ends with two ballads. It is a fine debut. While The Killers and The Bravery fight it out in the press, Louis XIV may come out as the best new band.

Look, I don't want to repeat what better reviewers have already written, but this album really is that good. Don't be turned off by the 80's metal-band comparisons - Louis XIV is way more versatile than that. I hated metal and grew up on new wave, so I hear strains of Adam Ant, the Kinks, Doctor and the Medics, and even a little Madness on "Letter to Dominique".

And for those sensitive souls who complain about the lyrics, "if you want clean fun, go fly a kite."

Like the musical love child of Ziggy Stardust and the Electric Warrior, Louis XIV are making innuendo soaked glam rock for the 21'st century. Borrowing extensively from T Rex, Bowie, Kinks, Stones (especially in "Hey Teacher"), a little psychedelia and a lot of hormonal overdrive, "The Best Little Secrets Are Kept" is unpretentious fun.

The main topic of the album is pretty rock and roll basic: girls. If the rhythm doesn't convince you, the innuendos will. To wit:

"Let me buy ya a lollipop you wanna lick."
"We don't have to go to the pool if you want me to make you wet."
"Teacher, let's discuss my age."
And just about the entire track, "Finding Out True Love is Blind." In fact, it's hard to even claim that these guys are dealing with entendres. In the world of "The Best Little Secrets Are Kept," the only secret is how long it will take before these guys make a score.

Although I could probably live without those affected British accents (dudes, you're from San Diego), the debut full el pee from Louis XIV is joining the ranks of Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Hot Heat and White Hot Odyssey for new bands that are making rock wild and fun again. If the thought of hyper-sexed glam guys is too much for you, I'll leave you with one of Louis XIV's one liners (from "Paper Doll"); "If you want good clean fun, go fly a kite."

I like this little band from San Diego, California. What's amazing to me is that they do not sound like they're from here. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the band is mining licks from The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Marc Bolan/T. Rex and I think even a little Inxs too. This is a good thing, because also as others have pointed out here, no one seems to be making this kind of music right now.

Every song on this disc holds its own, and the band wisely decided to keep things short, about 36 minutes in fact. They rock out and sound filthy dirty as lead singer Jason Hill enumerates the various pleasures of sex, multiple partner sex, politics and sex, S&M sex, violent sex, sex with your teacher, and just plain sex. They do spare some time at the end of the cd in "All The Little Pieces" and "Ball Of Twine" to speak about other things, particularly "Ball Of Twine", which I think comments about the sad state of affairs rock music is in right now.

I haven't had this much fun in a long time listening to a cd. No depression here, just straightforward rock and roll with great melodies and beats. Clever songwriting and a bravado unheard of in recent years make this one of the best recordings released this year. Who cares what all the naysaying reviewers are talking about here, because even the band knows "The Best Little Secrets Are Kept".

I was in pursuit of new music, listening to snippets that amazon allows...this album caught my fancy, so I found it on ebay and wound up with it.

I recommend this album to anyone with a sense of humor looking for something that does not just sound like the rest of that post-emo-indie-math-prog-rock junk that you get out of today's bands. Power to these kids for having a different vision.

yes, I do skip over a song or two now (namely letter to dominique and ball of twine), but not always...it is refreshing for a band to make an actual album that is cohesive and listenable, instead of sticking a catchy riff on the first track and [...] thereafter.

looking forward to more.

I'm definitely older than the average person that would buy this album. But these guys are fantastic! The last rock band I remember with this amount of energy is the Violent Femmes. I bought this CD for the lyrics alone - and was surprised by the fantastic guitar work.

These guys must be influenced by the Violent Femmes, Hendrix, Beatles, even the Who. But they have a completely new sound that is not retro or a rip-off of any of the above.

Buy this CD, you won't be disappointed. Only 2 so-so tracks. The rest kick ass.

I first heard this band in the iTunes music sampler i got when i bought my iPod back in November, and the single that came on the sampler (Louis XIV) was head and shoulders above every other song. I proceeded to buy the Illegal Tender EP and this CD, and every song has been fresh and fun to listen to.

These guys are absolutely dripping with talent and they seem to have a natural feel for the studio. Everything sounds fresh and original, from the syncopated drum beats in "Paper Doll" and "Pledge" to the solos that sound like they were made up on the spot in "Hey Teacher" and "Louis XIV".

For the past few years there have been plenty of great bands floating in the ether, but none of them have quite hit the mainstream and brought rock back to the forefront of the music scene. This drought is hopefully over, because Louis XIV is one of those bands that is just too good to ignore. Think Eminem: his early music was offensive and hateful, but it was too catchy and original to keep off the radiowaves. This album has several songs that can't possibly be kept away from the public for long.

As for the people who accuse the music of being juvenile and "booooooring"? Good. If there weren't people who were offended by this music, it would lose part of its appeal. Finally we have some music that is edgy enough to be distinctly our own, but at the same time good enough that it's fun to listen to. Honestly, the more people put Louis XIV down for being too obsessed with sex drugs and rock and roll, the better.

I got goosebumps the first time I heard this band, and the feeling still comes back everytime i hear them. Buy this album if you're ready for some music that will piss off your parents and make them tap their feet at the same time. godddd this is good...