Customer Reviews

Illegal Tender (Exco)

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If you haven't heard the first two tracks from this CD on the radio yet, you will soon!

Jason Hill, Brian Karscig, Robbie Dodds, Jeff Winfrey, and Mark Maigaard of San Diego-based Convoy proved they knew how to craft a hit in 2001 with Caught Up In You, off their second album, Black Licorice. Critics compared their sound to an updated Rolling Stones with post-alternative West Coast overtones, but few picked up on the strength of their seventies' glitter/glam influence.

We're not talking the second-generation glam of the eighties' big-haired American boy-bands. We're talking original sin - the Velvet Underground and Stooges-inspired rock genre propelled to the forefront by David Bowie, T. Rex, and Roxy Music. Yes, Virginia, there was music in the seventies before Cheap Trick, disco, and Some Girls. Although never huge in America, glam dominated the scene elsewhere with partying in excess and decadence to the platform-stomping beats of outrageously coifed rockers like Slade, Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Queen, New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, Alice Cooper, and Kiss.

When Hill, Karscig, and Maigaard (with Dodds joining in on some) headed to record a side project at Versailles, France, in 2003 to 2004, who would've guessed that they'd produce a masterpiece capturing the sound and feeling of that earlier generation? Don't get me wrong, this isn't retro-rehash - this is as fresh as it gets! They've created a thoroughly updated and fuller sound not even dreamed of way back when. They've reinvented themselves to create a whole new concept of rock interpreted through the self-absorbed and over-indulgent views of a slightly delusional dude who thinks of himself as l'empereur Louis XIV. Let them eat cake indeed!

While this CD does not maintain the same high level of energy as their self-released Pink and Blue EPs, it demonstrates a wider range of styles. From the raucous "me, me, me, me!" of Louis to the club-friendly Finding Out True Love is Blind, you'll be hooked! The rockin' (& sexually-charged) Illegal Tender carries the theme, followed by the boy's Marc, a touching homage to the late Bolan of T. Rex. In the spirit of the band and in anticipation of their upcoming album, keep asking for more, more, more!

I saw these guys play when they toured with The Killers last summer. They had released a few EPs but were not even signed to a label. At the same time they were getting known in the UK. Six months later they are being played on the radio all the time, and are this season's hot new band from nowhere. Louis XIV is named after the sun king who liked a bit of luxury. They are from San Diego and started about two years ago in 2003. They sound a little like The Fall and some early British New Wave groups but they carry it off like their own. Their song "Finding Out True Love Is Blind" is a massive single. It has great interplay between male and female vocals. All the songs on this EP are brilliant. The 1950s pinups shots are fun too. As Albert Einstein has said: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." This is a band to check out.

Louis XIV is single-handedly going to bring back the pompous sexy glorious sounds of 70s glam rock. This EP is a shining star among the otherwise dull sky of modern rock. Complete with glitter eye makeup and lyrics that make a girl's (and possibly guy's) thighs tense, this dirty little album is the best thing since Ziggy Stardust. The track Illegal Tender is by far and away the best but that is a hard call to make. Front man Jason Hill has a speciality for cheeky yet sultry lyrics and a great mix of glam and almost AC/DC like riffs. This is an absolute must have!

Here it is. With the exception of Jack White's White Stripes, there hasn't been a band like this one in more than a decade.

They were fantastic at the Metro in Chicago last week with an incredible wall of sound and 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 a bunch of new songs.

This EP has 2 bonus tracks that do not appear on the Little Secrets album. They are Marc and Louis Reprise (which ends 1 min before a 9 sec sound burst finishes the track).

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

All Hail Rock And Roll!

Believe me when I tell you that Louis XIV is all that. It took just a few bars of "Finding Out True Love is Blind" to catch my ear and I was hooked by the time the lead singer started crooning. In fact, I decided just now that "Finding Out True Love is Blind" is my favorite song of the moment. It's stripped down and raw and there's this refreshingly spontaneous energy that I liken to a live performance of musicians comfortable with each other and confident in their abilities.

It's not overwrought, over thought intellectual mind-meld-with-the-artist kind of stuff, haters. Like it's namesake, Louis XIV is decadent, if not entirely full of cheeky self-absorption and excess. I've had this EP for a full month. I'm kind of embarrassed and a little ashamed that I haven't listened to it until yesterday. And now I'm going into that weirdly obsessive state where I've listened to it over and over for the last 2 days. Perhaps I'm hearing things that aren't really there and giving them more props that I actually should...

For those haters out there who may doubt my word, perhaps you'll be dazzled by this most trivial piece of utterly useless fluff: Louis XIV have toured with The Killers. Frankly, the Killers really don't do much for me and I find Louis XIV immensely more original, though I won't go so far as to say I don't like the Killers because, well, a statement that scandalous could threaten the sanctity of my marriage. Uh, but this review is about Louis XIV... They rule!

The sunny city of San Diego has recently spat out the darkest, sexiest band ever to smack of Marc Bolan. After getting some press in the UK, and having their lead single played in California, Louis XIV finally got signed onto a label. And as a prelude to their full-length debut, Louis XIV, a few songs were released on the "Illegal Tender" EP -- fun, sexy and very arrogant.

There's nothing innovative or deep about this brand of rock'n'roll. It's about sex and girls, as rock so often is, and set to catchy, gritty rhythms. No pretenses of depth. And their brand of garage-rock sounds a lot like Marc Bolan, Velvet Underground and the Stooges. Well, no matter. Despite being named for the famously arrogant Sun King, these guys are remarkably free of pretensions -- they're making rock, and that's all there.

There's quite a bit of swagger as well. "I'm a weapon of mass destruction!" the title song begins, before the announcement that his girlfriend thinks that "me me me me" is all he thinks or talks about. Spiky, panting catchiness stick in with the following songs, making them seem a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Jason Hill sometimes sounds like he's singing through a radio, which is a bit distracting at first. In "Finding Out True Love is Blind," he sounds more natural, especially when interplaying with a sultry female vocalist. "Wind me up, and make me crawl to you/tie me up, and make me call to you," she croons, right before switching roles, and telling him to crawl and call to her.

As overhyped bands duke it out to see who is the best new retrogarage band, Louis XIV quietly gives them a run for their money. Great fun.

To me this band is reminiscent of Nick Cave and Bauhaus, both of whom I love. It's really terrific to hear something different and mind-blowing for once. I hope they keep it up.

rpatton - Ditto brother!!! If you are in CA and don't know these guys, well you're just not alive! A new century version of Stones meets Rocky Horror. Turn up the decadence, but don't stand too close - you'll get burned!

A friend introduced me to their music last year while they were a local band playing in San Diego. I absolutely love them and cannot get enough of their music.