Influential Albums: King's X - Ear Candy

If you happen to be either:

A) a Christian who digs heavy rock music, or

B) a major, major, raging, music geek

you know who this band is. For everybody else... allow me to introduce you to King's X.

A power trio from the Midwest, these guys came to prominence in the late 80's / early 90's as a quasi-hair metal group with a dash of proselytizing fervor (or so it seemed).

They eventually garnered a major label deal on Atlantic thanks to their growing cult fan base which was fueled by heavy grooves, Ty Tabor's guitar virtuoso solos, and Doug Pinnick's soulful, Hendrix-conjuring vocals.

At times bluesy, at times full-throttle rock, occasionally experimental, and often laden with Beatle-esque harmonies throughout, the group was a musician's dream, but were always seemingly just out of reach of the general public's acceptance.

After a few releases, the band was paired with über-producer Brendan O'Brien for their album Dogman. That disk was HEAVY... tuned down to D, then dropped another half-step across the board, and engineered to make the bass rattle your internal organs loose.

They played on major network late night TV shows, they toured endlessly with future Seattle grunge movement super stars, and they even had a primo spot on the bill at Woodstock '94. Yet this disk, ground-breaking as it was, kept with their previous history of being too far ahead of their time to do them any good in the present. Though without question, almost every heavy rock band thereafter followed the Dogman playbook line for line.

Then... silence. For years we all wondered what these guys were up to. Rumors circulated, conspiracy theories abounded about why they cut their hair, and most of their Christian fans gasped in horror when they heard the report that the new album had the F-word on it somewhere (even though it wasn't true).

And then out of nowhere, Ear Candy dropped. I listened to this for the first time in a back bedroom at my grandmother's house through some headphones. Upon that initial listen, I thought these guys had finally done it... there were undeniable, unquestionable radio hits on this disk. Their day had finally come.

"Lookin' for Love" would be the smash hit of the year on rock radio, "Mississippi Moon" would be their crossover chart-topper, and "A Box" would be played at high school proms across the land. "Sometimes", "The Train", and "Thinking & Wondering" were also songs I could see getting some airtime at that point in the melting pot of what was "Alternative Modern Rock Radio".

Yeah right... Atlantic Records pulled the funding for the marketing & promotion, the disk sank like a rock, and none of these tracks ever saw the light of day on mainstream radio. Then Atlantic promptly dropped them from the label. Gasp. (sarcasm)

A lot of King's X fans will tell you their best album was their 2nd disk, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, but unless you like a monsoon of Aqua Net and spandex on your lead singer, and all that goes with it, disregard that info. This album is where it's at. Some of the best songwriting and performing that came out of the entire decade of the 1990's is found on these 13 tracks (Ok... "67" is just freaking weird, I admit, but it grows on you).

This was, in my mind, the pinnacle of King's X's career. After this it seemed like the air went out of the tires. The albums became more obviously thrown together, Doug changed his name to Dug and came out of the closet and completely recanted his faith (which turned off more than a few of the Christian rock crowd), and the high quality of songwriting and performing began to fade. But this album is still a gem among my collection.

It's got all the goods. Lyrics, melody, musicianship, intensity, sensitivity, and a song called "American Cheese". What more could you ask for?

Don't own it yet? Listen & buy it here: