Louis XIV

Illegal Tender EP

Pineapple Recording Group/ Atlantic

Release Date: 7 March 2005

It was time an indie band dropped “The” from their name and that a San Diego outfit sounded anything like the usual Green Day copycat. Well, it seems someone’s prayers have been answered when, inspired by one of the most debauched kings in French history, singer/guitarist Jason Hill decided to start a band. And what a band. Having toured with the likes of The Killers and The Von Bondies,

and now with New York Dolls and Beck, up and coming post-rock quartet Louis XIV first gained media attention after appearing at 2004’s SXSW in Austin, and are currently taking the US by storm. Illegal Tender is an EP of naughty rock n’ roll songs, teasing the listener with a stripped down sound and with not-so-royal lyrics such as “take pure love an turn it into obscenity…me me me me is all you say that I care about” (Louis XIV) or with unusual pick-up lines “I wanna squeeze you all the way until you bleed” (Finding Out True Love Is Blind). The girl with censored nipples on the cover of the EP cements that fact that decadence is what this band is about. And with a hint of hip disco filthiness in the style of Scissors Sisters, especially due to the programmed beats and the guest female vocals, European success is just round the corner.

www.louisxiv.net.

Giada Arnone