The Kingdom Flying Club

Dirty clothes piled in the corner, disheveled stacks of ignored responsibilities (bills, homework and the like), and grimy guitars peeling the paint off the walls -- it's a scene we've seen in countless films, books, television shows and real lives, and it's a scene that The Kingdom Flying Club complements perfectly. Non-fiction packs thirteen messy guitar pop gems that owe a huge debt to twentysomething slacker rock stalwarts like Guided by Voices, Pavement and Superchunk.
No punches are pulled and no ragtag hook goes undeveloped -- these songs are tightly wound in the same grungy pop aesthetic sported by your favorite '90s college rockers. Guitar licks glide from sturdy and understated to positively singeing, just as you'd expect, and these soft/loud shifts often coincide with the verse/chorus shifts or punctuate the end of a measure. "The Closer I Get" pulls this off perfectly, opening with a ribcage-rattling Doolittle bass march and stamping on the deep fuzz pedal for the chorus. Sure, scores of bands do this, but rarely does it sound this raw and honest.

If you really want to know the truth, though, it's Non-fiction's less livid cuts that kept me listening, mainly because it's here that The Kingdom Flying Club really prove themselves to be students of the last forty years of pop music rather than the last fifteen. "Artist Are Boring" is a mid-tempo, slightly bouncy Brit-romp driven by a piano and a tambourine; its swinging melody recalls practically every tuneful rock band from across the pond since the Fab Four. "Time's No Eraser" is another stellar selection, once again travelling along a road of keys and acute pop know-how and dropping some great lyrical non-sequiturs ("I was upset when you had sex with my best friend / but it was easy to believe you were just trying to get to me") along the way.

In short, Non-fiction has all the ingredients of a perfect album -- it's catchy, it's clever, and it's grounded in years of grand rock and roll tradition rather than getting its history lessons in some secondhand Brian Wilson-channeled-through-Apples in Stereo way. Now all it needs is a listening base -- after all, most great pop-rock records are shared experiences. You buy it, make a tape for your pals, walk by someone else's dorm room/cubicle and hear them blaring the album and make an instant friend, listen to it on the way to the club, lend it to your girlfriend and never get it back after the break-up, and then you look back and realize that it was the soundtrack to a four month chunk of your life. Non-fiction is that kind of record, so shelve your Shins and Decemberists records for a few weeks -- you've already created plenty of memories while listening to them -- and allow The Kingdom Flying Club to become your newest fixation.

-Philip Buchan

- Splendidezine.com

This is a pretty album...yes pretty...last time I heard something like this was when I picked up a Pavement album a couple of years ago. Thirteen songs with a lot of feelings and emotions. This is Indie-Pop how it should be and these guys can hold up with bands like the Pixies, Frank Black and the Catholics, Pavement etc. I would say The Kingdom Flying Club is a bit better than the before named bands, cause the four dudes of The Kingdom Flying Club bring in new vibes and fresh ideas...maybe the Pavement of tomorrow?...we will see! I love this album...yes...you heard right...sometimes I have to chill out too...hahaha...I highly recommend this album to every fan of above named bands...thank you!!!

-Ralf Burkhart - Ralf Burkhart

Even better is The Kingdom Flying Club's album Non-Fiction. A strange mix of rock guitar, pop vocals, occasional horn-sections and wry lyrics, the fun the band is having is as infectious as SARS. How can you not love a band that titles a song "Now We Watch the Luge (and Drink)"? The Club probably wouldn't like to admit how much of their sound evokes Weezer, but they aren't even close to being derivative. The best track on Non-Fiction is "Down by the Lake," which starts as a melodic ballad with gentle strings and stinging lyrics ("Trust is a word I don't trust") before exploding into an orchestral climax that promises an exciting future for the band.

-Jordan Harper
- Riverfront Times