No Age calls out Kings Of Leon for stealing T-shirt design, perpetuating dumbest rock feud ever

By Steven Hyden | January 19, 2012 | 4:45pm

Aux Features Music

Is a story about two contemporary rock bands feuding over a T-shirt design a metaphor for contemporary rock bands? Before you chew on that, here are the details: Indie-rock band No Age has accused arena-rock band Kings Of Leon of re-appropriating (or, in less nice words, flat-out ripping off) its rainbow logo for a T-shirt currently on sale at Amazon UK. Apparently the rainbow design has already been borrowed by other artists, including Bloc Party and Diplo, but, those artists aren't as fat of a target as Kings Of Leon or apparently as fun to disparage. Even Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold got a quick lick in via Twitter, writing "THEY ARE THE WORST" in reference to the beleaguered KOL.

This story will likely re-affirm the belief among most fans of No Age (and possibly Fleet Foxes) that King Of Leon is a lame, douchey band. And it will mean next to nothing to Kings Of Leon's fanbase, because who's No Age again? It's just sort of amazing how Kings Of Leon has gone from being a fairly respectable indie band in the post-Strokes rock scene of the mid-'00s to its current image as a younger, handsomer Nickelback. True, singles like the unfortunate "Sex On Fire" have a lot to do with that, as does mookish on-stage behavior. We're not saying the image doesn't have a ring of truth to it. But we're also not quite ready to use Kings Of Leon as a go-to punchline for "bad modern rock jokes" just yet. Besides, seriously, don't we have better things to do here, rock bands, like, say, reviving the genre? [via Pitchfork]