When Monarchs Make An Exit.

And now I will call your attention to this great band I've discovered recently. They are called The King Left. I was lucky enough to see them perform at Piano's a few weeks ago.

I was also under the impression that they were this touring act just arriving from their travels with -insert gigantic band- in Europe or some other distant land. They're actually a local band from my homeland of Brooklyn, NY.

This is both:

A. Refreshing - It's kind of amazing to know that right here where I live, bands this exciting are waiting in the wings for their big shot, and working their asses off. It's not like I didn't know this, but the King Left got me really excited about it again.

B. Disappointing - why the hell are they not opening for huge bands yet? They need to be!

The thing that indicates to me that a band is special is when each song I hear them play sounds like an event all on its own. If I can leave the venue remembering what they did on stage during this song, or how the guitar did this particular thing in this song, or how the singer looked absolutely cool when he sang this song then the band is special.

I never thought you could mix the fury of Nine Inch Nails with the ironic, yet jerky guitars of Blur but here it is in the song "A Dead Ringer." And how many bands can successfully deliver a line like "Who taught you how to fuck?!" and make you feel the absolute rage behind it? Not a lot of locals bands, that's for damn sure. But there it is in "The Storm in a Teacup." So The King Left is special.

This is what I felt after checking them out at Piano's in lower Manhattan and what I feel right now as I listen to the tracks on their Myspace over and over. I think everyone ought to check this band out, especially if you like the kind of music we've been plugging in this blog.

And it probably helped that singer Corey Oliver got my attention a couple songs into the set by adding the lyrics to one of my favorite unreleased Radiohead songs ("Lift") to the intro of one of his songs - It prompted me to shout out something unintelligible, but positive. I later learned from him that the affirmation made his night.

Well thanks, Corey. Your band made mine.