Call it the ole Public Radio Boost* – since the airing of NPR’s Weekend Edition in which the band talks with host Rachel Martin about Americana music, death and awkward dancing, good people like you have been revitalizing our economy and buying Dust Windows, like, a lot.

On Sunday, it was #49 on the iTunes sales charts. And since Sunday, it’s been #1 on the Amazon.com roots-rock charts and it was there on the folk-rock chart for a couple days too. Also Sunday, it was the #1 Mover and Shaker at Amazon. It was only for one moment in time**, but it was nice.

But the real purpose of this post is to apologize to Jody Gnant.  Both the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Herald apparently have it out for you, upset that you bumped us to number two on the charts. The Phoenix shakes a fist and starts a blog entry with “Damn that Jody Grant!” The Herald doesn’t even acknowledge your existence, and still boos you.

Jody, we’re sorry.  You’re out there doing your thing, and we’re sending a mob after you. Not only do we outnumber you (I mean, there are six of us and one of you), but we’ve gotten the media involved, and they is craaazy.  We can’t control those guys, I tells ya. These Boston media folk – outta control, we swears it!

Don’t hurt us (please).

-

*No one calls it that.

** Yup, an excuse to link to Whitney Houston.

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Yeah yeah, we know we just posted the other day that we’d be on NPR’s Weekend Edition. The point of that post wasn’t really to tell you that; rather, we’d been looking for an excuse to refer to Betty White’s muffin for a while.

Well, the newsworthy event for this here post is that the website link is up (to the segment, not the muffin), and we’re excited about it.  Click here for the interview with Rachel Martin and three in-studio performances.  We feel that much smarter just being on the same show as Will Shortz, the puzzle guy.

Also, if you’re interested in checking out our CD: first, we’d like that. Second, we recommend looking it up on CDBaby (for a hard CD) or iTunes (for digital download). You can find the links at www.kingsleyflood.com/music. Thanks!

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Exciting news: a ten-minute segment featuring two in-studio performances and an interview will air on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition on Sunday, August 22 (probably around 9:30am), assuming no big news happens that bumps us to another week.

So if you’re like us and stay awake at night dreaming about having Carl Kasell’s voice on your home answering machine, or if you just like Betty White’s muffin or Alec Baldwin’s Schwetty balls, make sure you tune in.

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Joel Brown wrote a lengthy, detailed piece about us in the Boston Globe last week, going pretty deep on the band’s formation, approach and what drives us all.  There’s also a focus on Naseem – his family background (ethnic), childhood (uneventful), healthy criticism of Middle East conflicts (hopeless?), and deep love of both Springsteen shows and Joe Strummer (awesome)-  shedding a little light on where these songs are coming from.

About the music itself (oh yeah…that), Joel writes:

“From the spaghetti-western gallop of “Roll of the Dice’’ to the quiet ache of “Cathedral Walls,’’ the hooks are hard to shake, the music sounds both old-timey and of the moment, and Khuri’s ragged but passionate vocals tie it all together.”

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We’re thrilled to hear that Ryan’s Smashing Life named our album Dust Windows one of the best albums from 2010’s first half. Here’s what Ryan himself said (and we didn’t even pay him!):

“Ascension, you are mine! Kingsley Flood are easily one of the most talented bands on this list. Moving effortlessly through the worlds of Americana and Folk, the word is getting out on this Boston secret. Highly Recommended, Best of the Year so far in New England.”

Wow, thanks guys.

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Two things of note from yesterday. First, we were thrilled to head into the hallowed halls of MIT (where there are actually chalkboards in the bathrooms, for like, equations and stuff) last night to play on the show Pipeline. We had a blast, and you can hear it below. It was certainly live, so you’ll hear nonsensical banter, drumsticks dropping, and even some lame “woo-hoo”s.

Second, the Boston Phoenix just came out with an article about us, with our favorite headline yet: “Fiddle Me This.” We may use that right before we get in our next fight. Perhaps a stress on the “THIS!” right before a massive left hook. Or before a weak slap, the realization that said slap was futile, and immediate retreat.

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Today, a new picture. And, a radio performance. Tonight we’re playing on WMBR’s Pipeline. Tune in to Boston’s 88.1 FM to hear a full set at 9pm. We’ve got all of your audio/visual needs covered today, apparently.

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On July 17, we are pleased to be sharing the stage with Balthrop, Alabama, a raucous group from Brooklyn by way of the mystical (and completely made-up) town of, well, Balthrop, Alabama.  And they have Balthrop as their last names, Traveling Wilburys-style.  

What’s very cool is that they wrote a song dedicated to musicians who have committed suicide, notably Elliott Smith.  Whether you can tell or not, Elliott Smith is a huge influence on us.  Just a ridiculous musician who knew how to combine a fragile voice with piercing lyrics.  But what really gets us is the musicianship – he was a hell of a guitarist, and his songs are just, for lack of a better word, interesting.  He’s known for soft, dramatic finger-picking, but his prowess in arranging great rock songs (complete with rollicking keyboard parts and spooky guitar sounds) deserves a lot more attention.  Go buy Figure 8.  And check out this whole show from 2000.

We digress.  Balthrop, Alabama’s song is called “Subway Horns” and was an NPR Song of the Day.  You can check it out here, and then check it out live (we hope) at our show on July 17 at the Lizard, where we won’t be as morbid, promise.

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So, the Boston Phoenix just sent us a widget indicating that we won Best Roots Act in their Best Music Poll.  Thanks once again to all those of you who responded to the call and voted for us.  We were thrilled to win, and also to get this widget in our email. Of course, we were a tad confused when, for some reason, the ‘w’ ended up looking like a ‘g’ on our screen.  So, naturally, we thought they honored us with a nod to our favorite 1960’s surfer girl show, Gidget. We were psyched.

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Good people, the results are in.  Thanks to you and your amazing ability to wage democracy across the world (or at least the intertubes), we were named Best Roots Act in the Boston Phoenix’s Best Music Poll. The Phoenix was so inspired by your show of force that they wrote some nice stuff:

If you consider rootsy Americana to be a dour yoke worn by groups of dreary Luddites afraid to cut loose a nd join the modern world, then you haven’t heard Kingsley Flood. Their roots cred owes to the masterful fiddle and mandolin playin’ and the whiff of Appalachia found on their debut, Dust Windows, but the music’s sheer exuberance is beyond time or genre. And though they’re capable of quiet introspection and moments of majestic solemnity (as on the organ-heavy “Cathedral Walls”), their fans ticked the ballot for the hip-shaking enthusiasm of their more boisterous moments (imagine a shotgun wedding gone off the rails). Lead Flooder Naseem Khuri has the authority in his voice to keep the whole thing from coming off like po’-faced creative anachronism, and the band’s boundless giddiness is enough to make you never want to hear a synthesizer again.

We can’t thank you enough for your support. Not only did you exercise your impressive ability to rock the vote, but you withstood our annoying emails to do so.  Go freedom!

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