Today's Pick

Kings of Leon are steady rolling out videos from their 2013 album "Mechanical Bull." This time, the band of brothers strip away the drama and the actors and keeps it simple with a straightforward performance video that they have just released for their song "Temple," the second official and third overall taken from the rock band's sixth studio album, "Mechanical Bull," the band's first album in three years sees the Tennessee rockers attempting to rediscover their early spark, but falling frustratingly short. The yearning "Temple," which sits neatly in the middle of the 11-track release, is perhaps the best thing they've written in five years, and certainly the most effortless.
Self-assured, conventional, and damned if it's not pretty effective, Kings of Leon's "Temple" neatly sums up the strengths of "Mechanical Bull." This song about taking a shot in the head for a prospective lover, was penned in a South African hotel room. "Obviously things changed when we got in the studio, like the intro, but it felt like a '90s song to me," frontman Caleb Followill told Billboard magazine. "That's when we were listening to a lot of music, and still when we play it, we crack up the whole time, this the most radio friendly song..." According to drummer Nathan Followill, the breakdown in the song is the band's ode to Irish rockers Thin Lizzy.
Kings of Leon's confident throwback "Temple" Video. In fact, much of the Paul Greenhouse-directed vintage-style visuals mix with a no-frills performance of "Mechanical Bull" standout, which they've already given on both Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Saturday Night Live. But the song has a "by Mennen" catchiness that the unshowy presentation only boosts. And the lyric about how Caleb would "take one to the temple" is more than a reference to Kings of Leon embedding themselves in some cranial pleasure zone.
Largely washed with a vintage effect, the video was filmed half on nice modern cameras, and half on and old-fashioned hand-held Super 8 camera that makes Instagram filters shiver in their boots to posterize their footage into blurry oblivion. The new clip also serves as a nice homage to the band's hometown of Nashville and is made up of shots of the band playing the song in front of the sign on the album cover giving Caleb plenty of screen time to tell us rather over-romantically that he'd "take one in the temple" for us. Together, they evoke both the reason the Followill clan do this and the old-fashioned pride in craft with which they do it.

Kings of Leon have continued the current trend of arty and thoughtful music videos with their new single, "Beautiful War," a cut off their latest sixth album, "Mechanical Bull." Kings of Leon weren't kidding when they named their album: A mechanical bull figures prominently at the center of the band's new dramatic video, starring 'Tron: Legacy' actor Garrett Hedlund as a hot-tempered cowboy who supposedly struggling with his inner demons whilst trying to defend his pride, after a violent altercation at a dive bar, winds up in jail.
Described by the Guardian as "a slow-grower about love and fighting," the atmospheric ballad about two lovers kissing and making up after falling out was originally penned by frontman Caleb Followill the same weekend as 2008 hit single "Use Somebody" and recorded by him while drunk in the studio. The vocalist recalled on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio One show that he didn't remember the session, but producer Angelo Petraglia played it back for him the next day and encouraged him to flesh it out.
If Kings of Leon's new album "Mechanical Bull" find the Tennessee rockers settling into focused professionalism, their recent promotional efforts have cannily shown a willingness to expand the group's horizons. The gang from 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' did their strange, brilliant thing in an album promotional video. Now comes the video for arena-rock anthem "Beautiful War," and it turns out to be a pretty gripping short film. The song itself rings out and roars like an "Old Hickory Joshua Tree," while the evocative new clip, is a gripping western tale of a professional bull rider, star-crossed lovers and a life behind bars, certainly makes fighting look, well, not unattractive.
The clip was modeled on 1970s Westerns and was inspired by the '80s John Travolta film "Urban Cowboy." is just one part of an epic, nearly seven-minute story that chronicles two men and a woman who go out for a drink at a country bar and the repercussions of jealousy. Its themes of grand personal tragedy, certainly seems to be aiming for that. There are scenes of dancing, fighting brothers, a long walk of shame for an inmate dressed in a black-and-white cowboy outfit and, quite literally, a mechanical bull. It all adds up to a story that's both improbable and touching, and at the end of the clip, the clichéd warden character, who acts as an overseer à la Caesar, claps in approval.

Grammy-winning rockers Kings of Leon, who have Oklahoma City and Talihina ties, have unveiled the artistic music video for their new song, "Supersoaker," the lead single off rock band's upcoming sixth studio album, "Mechanical Bull," due on September 24th. The new video sees the Followill brothers, Caleb, Jared, Matthew and Nathan, all smiles and rock out with their guitars in an American diner set in the 50s-esque as a love story is played out through several characters, providing for truly vintage visuals.
"Mechanical Bull" is very much a comeback record, after their 2008 breakout "Only By The Night" was followed by the disappointingly heavy-handed "Come Around Sundown." Nathan recently told MTV News and revealing details of their upcoming album: "[Fans] like the energetic direction [the new tracks are] going in, which is like our earlier stuff; going into this record we knew we wanted to have fun and make songs that are fun to play on stage." The video is a back-to-basics affair and, yes, they're having fun again. It carries a decidedly looser, back-to-the-drawing-board vibe, with the Kings of Leon boys goofing around during a performance and actually appearing to enjoy themselves.
A Super Soaker is a powerful water gun that revolutionized water fights forever. Traditional squirt guns were no match for these pump-action monsters, and the arms race made it the top selling toy of 1991. In this soulful rocker, drummer Nathan uses it as a metaphor for the havoc he wreaks in matters of love, and explained it "is a lot more melodic and a little more sing-along-y, if that's even a word." The slightly more adrenaline-fueled "Supersoaker" finds the band in soulful territory, with frontman Caleb's signature vocals as he moaning over anthemic guitar bursts and funky rhythms.
The band has definitely moved on from the "Southern Strokes" tag, this song actually does sound a lot like the Strokes, and the video reminds me of them too. Shot with vintage filters, the Instagram-in-motion-looking clip features retro milkshake joints full of sailors and dames, among other neat visuals. Uncharacteristically, Kings of Leon have gone old-school and actually enjoying their day jobs as they show up at what appears to be a 50's sock hop, plug in, and play. More often than not, they stare directly into the camera, and, in-between the occasional crack up, throw themselves headlong into their latest stomper.

Eric Church and his bandmates embark on a mission to stop a runaway train around the turn of the 20th century in his just-premiered the music video exclusively on Rolling Stone on Friday for Country's rowdiest star's latest single, "Creepin'," as the fourth single from the 35-year-old's third effect, "Chief," which has received a nomination for Best Country Album at the 54th Grammy Awards.
"Creepin'," is a mid-tempo in which the narrator describes the memory of a former lover as being similar to "creepin'," and it's the lament of a man who's mind hasn't been quite right since his woman moved on. Church's rock roots are clear as he returns to the outer rim of what country radio will play. "Springsteen" and "Drink in My Hand" were obvious radio hits, becoming his first two No.1 singles. This new hard-rocking heartbreaker uses liberal amounts of distortion and vocal effects, turning a quick and easy story into a nearly four minute-long jam.
The song gets even better when you follow along with the lyrics on paper. The vivid imagery gets lost in the rock and roll attitude of "Creepin'," and that this swampy tune grabs the listener's attention from the get-go. The video, which took place at the Tennessee Valley Train Depot in the middle of a sweaty summer day, was directed by Peter Zavadil. It features a normally sunglass-clad star sans his regular shades as he and his bandmates disguised as bandits planning to rob a train in a late 18th century old west fashion.
"It's a lot deeper than people think," Church explains. "Some people think, 'They're just robbing a train,' but that's not true. The 'memory train' line is really about this guy who's haunted by a ghost of some sort; she's the main female character. What you don't know is she's the one feeding the coal that makes this train get crazier and go farther and take him back through all these memories. It looks like we're robbing the train but we're stopping the train. The song was supposed to be the thing that saved him and stops this process from happening."

Holding us over until his vocal chords gets back in tip-top shape, John Mayer released his new music video for his latest ditty, "Queen of California," the second single from his fifth studio album, "Born and Raised," which marks yet another change in Mayer's musical style, incorporating musical elements of folk and Americana that take influences from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, David Crosby and Graham Nash.
The track, a mildly country vibe, is a bit folkier than his usual bluesy, jazzy style, harkening back to the AM radio sounds of the 1970s. "Queen of California" also references Joni Mitchell, is cut straight from the Laurel Canyon of the early 70s with its gentle, acoustic start, a loose, jammy veneer and honey-sweet harmonies. Describing the song as a "relieving breath of fresh air," Mayer told NPR that the tune is about "being able to have a hopeful vibe about something again.
Mayer worked with director Sam Jones in capturing a natural set, which appears to be one long continuous take in which the 34-year-old singer crooner enduring a variety of weather phenomenons and musical happenings as he makes his way from the cold northern region to greener pastures and a warmer SoCal climate, including the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and New York City's hustle and bustle. That is until he finally reunites with his band on the set of the music video for the song.
The blues rocker goes through his own westward expansion on this low-key video, which matches the laidback feel of the song, and he's never made a leisurely stroll through scenery look more poignant, let alone visually arresting. Mayer is still trying to recover from a vocal injury that has forced him to take an indefinite hiatus from live performances. According to the singer's Tumblr blog, he is going in for surgery at the end of August. He adds, "but I'm excited to get back to it next year."

American rock band Kings of Leon have just released a new music video for their song "Back Down South." Directed by Casey McGrath, the video intersperses footage of the band playing outside for a group of local teenagers and members of the 'Use Somebody' band fan club with short clips depicting the fans making their way to the concert. The slide guitar-driven track is the fourth single lifted from the Southern rockers' critically wayward fifth studio album "Come Around Sundown" which debuted at No.2 on Billboard Hot 200 when it was released in the U.S. last October via RCA.
Frontman Caleb Followill discussed with the NME about this gently-paced acoustic country tribute to the band's southern roots: "That song came from Matt messing around on a little lap steel. He played the melody to me and the first lyrics that came to mind were 'Come on down and dance, if you get the chance.' I think because we recorded the album in New York, we somehow rediscovered a bit of our country side, whereas if we'd been in Nashville, where you're surrounded by country music, that would've never happened But we were like, let's get a bit of fiddle on there, let's have the pizza delivery guy in the studio singing the chorus with us. We wanted it to have that kind of rootsy feel."
The four-piece southern-rock band return to a familiar refrain and pay homage to their Southern roots and wayward youths in new video. It's a chilled-out summer breeze of a song with some plaintive fiddle and the Followill brothers singing "I'm gonna go back down south now" over and over again through the chorus. As great as "Sex On Fire" and "Use Somebody" are, it's wonderful to see what these boys can do when they write songs that aim to just fill the living room rather than fill the arena. The men of Kings Of Leon traveled below the Mason-Dixon line and hit the back woods of Tennessee to capture the nostalgia and down home feel of the south.
The clip was shot in May an hour south of Nashville, it is a simple, traditional, embeddable, and perfectly captures the spirit of the song as an homage to the south lifestyle, and the warm feeling of returning home with their melancholy vocals. It features the band performing live outdoors in a rural setting in front of their fans club local teenagers. The live footage is interspersed with vignettes depicting teenagers in the American south who all converge at an outdoor party the band is hosting. Staying true to the song, the video gives a mood of celebratory, reflective and nostalgic. It's a dusty, sun-drenched look at Kings Of Leon as good-old Southern boys instead of one of the biggest rock acts in America.

"Born Free" is the lead single and title track from American Southern rock/hip hop artist Kid Rock's eighth album, his first album since 2007's Rock N Roll Jesus, hits stores November 16, promises to be the Detroit rocker's final departure from the rap-rock hybrid that he used to establish himself at the turn of the millennium. “Born Free” is in many ways a transformational album for Rock and fans can expect a collection of traditional rock tunes full of country flourishes since it featuring several high profile artist from rock, country and rap. Rock described it as "very organic blues based rock and roll." The record was produced by Rick Rubin whom MTV called, "the most important producer of the last 20 years."
Rock described this song as being about, "how lucky each and every one of us are, no matter where you're from, to be born in a country that's free." He told MTV News that while this is a patriotic song, he didn't write it solely for an American audience. Rather, he hopes its message will be heard by people the world over. "I think that song already has kinda gotten a little bit construed that it's just this big, patriotic American song, which it is in its own right, but it first came to mind to write something like this when I was on one of my trips to Afghanistan, Iraq, playing for our soldiers," he said. "I started to just think about no matter where somebody was born in this world, how lucky you are just by the grace of God to be born free."
While Rock's got major Motor City pride, "Born Free" is an open letter to the world, and it's a love letter to America. Rock's more than a Michigander. He's a born patriot. "Born Free" is his "God Bless the USA." And it's a patriotic powerhouse, and the accompanying video is all sweeping shots of aerial America. Raging rapids, craggy cliffs, open roads, green farm lands, picturesque peninsulas, blustery beaches and solo scenes. Directed by Marc Klasfeld, the video is everything there is to love about non-urban America, and everything there is to love about Rock's love of America, from the signature hat and fringed jacket to the vintage cars and motorcycles.
The just-premiered video is in total keeping with that transition. The clip features Rock in nature on the beach, driving through the forest, standing in a wide, green field while singing about the glory of freedom. With a guitar in hand, Rock poses on a majestic cliff, on a peaceful beachfront and in the middle of a wooded area to reflect the song's grandeur. And, because he wouldn't be a Motor City artist without a few nods to the auto industry, Rock also is seen riding a motorcycle and cruising in a tricked-out vintage car. "Born Free" has been a Detroit success story and Rock is finally "Born Free!"

You can take the boy out of the small town, but you can't take the small town out of the boy! That's the message in the poignant new video for "You Take Yourself With You," the new single from country-rocker Bo Bice, who tries to always keep his own small town values in check. The country-gospel closer song is off his upcoming third album "3," and the new video, directed by Marcel Chagnon, was filmed in a rural area of Nashville, captures poignant imagery of a younger Bice with his family.
The mid-tempo ballad "Take Yourself with You" is a song Bice holds close to his heart, as it reminds the singer of his teenage years when he first left home. "The chorus of the song is loosely based around something my Dad told me," Bice said. "I hate this town," a son tells his parents, and he can't wait to hit the dusty road and head out. His father just shakes his head, hoping it's actually the town he wants to leave and not himself. "Son," he says, "you take yourself with you wherever you go." The son takes a while to fully understand what his dad's telling him, as sons often do, but eventually he comes around. "My Dad would say, 'Bo, in life, always treat people like you want to be treated, but don't ever expect it back. Work hard every day and know that you have got to look yourself in the mirror. It doesn't matter how far you go or how high you fly, you take yourself with you every day, and you've got to live with yourself.'"
Husky-voiced Bice was raised in the south by his song-singing, instrument-playing, music-worshiping parents, so he has music in his blood. The 34-year-old musician who was the runner-up to Carrie Underwood in the fourth season of American Idol. Bice's now coming back and takes one last look around an old broken-down house as he prepares to leave for good, with full of past memories. It brings the whole song alive.
Bice's American Idol journey is already five years in the past, but Bice himself is only looking forward and thinking in threes. He and his wife just had their third boy. He is also releasing his third album "3," a record filled with soulful, gospel-tinged country rock that represents the maturation of a songwriter and performer. "I feel like '3' is my strongest record to date," Bice said recently. "It's a plethora of sounds that show who I really am. There's something for everyone; country, soul, rock'n' roll...it's like your favorite pair of jeans, it just feels right."