Influences

I was telling my friend Taj about the new Kings of Leon record last week. It's a good record. I'm convinced the second half is better than the first, but I told him I thought it sounds like they've been listening to the Pixies and U2 quite a bit since they made the last one. It's still got that Kings sound, but they're expanding what they're doing in very specific ways. Well I got a chuckle this evening when I came across their "artist playlist" on iTunes. Among the "many songs that have influenced us over the past 2 years while writing and recording our new record" are a couple of Pixies tracks and, you guessed it...a song by U2.