Photo: Ross Halfin
As the Kings of Leon begin work on their first album of the next decade, bassist Jared Followill checked in with Rolling Stone to share his thoughts on his favorite albums of and songs of the past 10 years. From driving around Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, stoned and listening to Wilco to learning how to play bass by listening to the Strokes, here are some of his top musical moments of the 2000s (check out our lists of the 100 Best Albums and 100 Best Songs, plus our Readers’ Picks, too):
The Strokes – Is This It
“To me, that is the best album of the 2000s. It was one of the main reasons that I wanted to get into a band, and probably one of the main reasons that most every band who started their band in the 2000s wanted to get into one. It was one of the first cool records in a really long time. The Strokes were just so fresh, so completely different. They were like the perfect band. The title track was one of the first basslines I learned when I started to play the bass. It was unbelievable. I was just 15 at the time.”
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
“That was around the same time and had kind of the same feeling as the Strokes. We were just forming our band, starting to write songs and finding our own identity. We had so many older influences, that to have a band come out just as we were making our band, who seemed to have so many similar influences and had similar music to what we were trying to make just kind of gave us the confidence to do it. The Strokes, the White Stripes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: all three of those records really pushed us to continue. The White Stripes have a lot less melody than the Strokes, but they had this mean sound, and Jack’s guitar playing was just unbelievable. There’s no bass, but that made them unique and set them apart. He uses a lot o...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily