NYLON - June 2008 - (Page 120) KONKED OUT With a devoted fanbase cheering them on from across the pond, the Kooks are making some serious strides stateside. By Laura Ferreiro. Photographed by Nina Mouritzen “Do you ever think, ‘What did I do in a past life to deserve all this?’” asks Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard, while lounging poolside at West Hollywood’s trendy Grafton Hotel on an obscenely sunny February day. “It’s pretty cool—playing gigs, traveling around, staying at places like this—I can’t complain.” It’s the morning of the Kooks’ first U.S. performance in several months, and the Brighton quartet are gearing up to road-test virgin material from their sophomore album Konk (recorded in a Brighton studio of the same name). Tonight they’ll debut the tunes at legendary L.A. venue The Troubadour before an eager crowd that will include fans Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain, as well as pals from the Thrills and the Zutons, kicking off a world tour that will end in New York in mid-June with two already sold-out shows. Unlike many an indie-rock band that has tried to “conquer America,” the Kooks have been taking it slowly, finding their footing and their fanbase in the U.K. before splashing out over here. Their 2005 debut album Inside In/Inside Out garnered them a rabid British following and a #5 hit on the U.K. singles chart with the catchy pop-rock ditty “Naïve,” which reached a not-too-shabby #22 in the U.S., but still they’re far from a household name on this side of the pond. For now, that’s just fine with the band, as they sit here soaking in the sun and sipping iced tea, far away from their seaside hometown. Pritchard, 22, repeatedly expresses his awe just at being here. “We seem to have quite a lot of fans out here which is really good for us, but quite surprising because we’ve hardly done anything here. The music has sort of seeped in, I suppose.” He pauses, then adds: “Making it big in America is not really a massive deal for us, but it would be amazing. If you make it over came from a song title on the David Bowie album, Hunky Dory. there was also a Swedish group called the Kooks who released a single called “Too Much of Nothing” in the ’90s. After a Virgin A&R man saw them play the, er, Free Butt festival, in Brighton. The studio where they recorded the new album is owned by “Waterloo Sunset” man Ray Davies. because, as Pritchard says, “they’ll “just come up to you and say: ‘Hi, do you want a threesome?’” “We’re the type of band who’d trash a hotel room—and then tidy it up afterwards,” they say. myspace.com / thekooks Download an avatar from their “stuff” section and impress all your friends in Second Life. : shot at inc. lounge at the time hotel, new york. timeny.com. http://myspace.com/thekooks
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