Tonight Kings of Leon plays their fourth Houston date in three years at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. The band of three Followill brothers and one cousin can't stay away from us, or touring, or recording. This date precedes the upcoming release of the band's new album, Come Around Sundown.
Rock history is full of family bands: The Carpenters, the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers, The Osmonds, the brothers Gibb, plus tons others all bonded by blood. Yes, even the Jonas kids, who contrary to popular belief, weren't born in a Disney-owned lab.
Another set of brothers hits town on Friday as well, when the Black Crowes' Robinson siblings come to town on their "Say Good Night to the Bad Guys" Tour, said to be their last before a lengthy hiatus. Even brothers need time apart.
Craig's Hlist and his little brother could never start a band together. He quit taking bass-guitar lessons in high school because he wanted to have a girlfriend more, and CHL sounds like we're deaf when we sing. The only instrument our father can play is the autoharp, as fucked as that sounds, and our mother only knows how to sing '70s one-hit wonder singles.
Here's some of our favorite familial bands, be they made up of cousins, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles or husbands and wives.
The Beach Boys: Wilson boys Carl, Brian and Dennis suffered at the hands of their father Murry early on in their careers. Only one Wilson brother survives out of the iconic surf-pop band, with Brian still making music, most notably his second stab at Smile in 2004.
Bee Gees: The early Bee Gees made ace Northern Soul ballads in the late '60s before turning to disco ten years later. Barry, Maurice and Robin were all blessed with falsettos like angels, as was little brother Andy.
AC/DC: Malcolm and Angus Young made the music while brother George helped produce most early AC/DC tracks. The elder Young was a member of the Easybeats, one of Australia's best garage bands in the '60s.
Van Halen: Eddie and Alex Van Halen gained another generation in Wolfgang Van Halen when the teenager, Eddie's son, was tapped to replace Michael Anthony on bass a few years back in the outfit. Oddly enough, the band covered a handful of songs by...
The Kinks: Brothers don't always get along, and sometimes they gouge each other's eyes and scrap like they are in a prison yard. Such was the case of Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks, who made pretty music together but went through bouts of intense hatred for each other. Today, they seem to like each other just fine.
Oasis: Speaking of brothers who would sooner see each other dead than alive, we present Liam and Noel Gallagher, who wouldn't piss on one another if they were on fire.
The Everly Brothers: Don and Phil Everly are responsible for a great deal of the legendary harmonies that followed in their wake. The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and countless others bit off the brothers more than you could ever imagine.
Hanson: Isaac, Taylor and Zac warmed the hearts of girls all over in 1997 with "MMMBop" while also throwing hipsters and elitists into a sugar coma with their hit singles. Today they make bluesy pop-rock and are all married and busy creating a new crop of Hanson bands.
The Stooges: The Asheton brothers, Scott and Ron, helped forge the sound of the Stooges with Iggy Pop in the late '60s, forever warping rock and roll. Sadly, Ron passed away last year, severing one of the best teams proto-punk ever spawned.
The Replacements: Bob Stinson was the lead guitarist of the Replacements and his kid brother Tommy Stinson was the band's bassist for the life of the band. When we say "kid" we mean it; he was all of 11 when he began tooling around with his older brother and Chris Mars, before they took on Paul Westerberg.
