A couple weeks back we headed up to Spaceland to catch the Kooks show and do an interview for the MTVu program, Sucks Less with Kevin Smith. The show is a short-form program intended to show cool things that are happening around LA. It is part of an accredited course at UCLA and the students in the class are the ones responsible for producing the clips. Ethan, who conducted the interview and got in on the cream slingin himself, contacted me a bit before and we bounced a bunch of ideas around about where to film at.
Supposedly the piece was mostly about Ice Cream Man but I figured since it was for MTV, we had to get a band on board. The Kooks have absolutely destroyed Europe this year. They’ve sold over a million copies of their debut album Inside In Inside Out and just recently won Best UK/Ireland Band at the European MTV Awards. We’d lined up a short interview with them after their soundcheck and Luke and Hugh stopped by for some cream and to talk about the drastic difference between being mega stars in Europe and near unknowns (as of yet) in the US. I was hoping some of the footage would make it into the Sucks Less clip but I guess there wasn’t much time to work with. I’ll see if I can dig it up to post here soon.
Trainwreck Riders opened up the show with their California sun drenched country-ish tunes similar to Beachwood Sparks. The house was packed and eagerly anticipating the Kooks. Luke started things off with “Seaside” and the sold-out crowd seemed to be quite familiar as they sang along. I had rocked a couple tracks online but had yet to hear the album. “Naive” is a particularly catchy number and was one of my favorites of the night. Check out Amateur Chemist for some more words and pics.
After the set we slang some more cream to all the people exiting the show then called it a night. A day or so later I got a copy of The Kooks album in the mail and have since given it a handful of spins. It’s catchy stuff. If you’re a fan of happy, fun, modern british pop music, check it out.
Check the Ice Cream Man on Sucks Less with Kevin Smith Video here.
