The Black Kids (opening for Cut Copy on Thursday, May 15, 2008, at the Black Cat) are a direct-from-blog phenomenon, drawing rapturous critical praise last year from their self-produced, web-distributed demo (the Wizard of Ahhhs EP) last year. The jump from MySpace to Columbia Records can be traced to their break-out performance, at the Athens Popfest in August 2007. That performance saw the white-hot light of attention brought to this marvelous five-piece from Jacksonville, Florida.

Reggie Youngblood, the loquacious and extremely personable lead singer of the band, told me why that event was so crucial.

“You can only ask so much of Jacksonville,” he said in a husky voice, tired, seemingly,
from the pace of the past few months. “There are only a certain number of people predisposed to our music, and they can only be expected to go out so many times.”

Reggie appeared in no fewer than four previous bands before reaching this level of recognition and success with the Black Kids.

“Every and I’ve been in, I thought was wonderful and should have been successful. We used to get so indignant about our lack of success, but we were playing the same two bars in Jacksonville over and over. We had to step out of that idiom if we were to change things. I can think of several of our friends’ bands who should have made it big long before us, but they never stepped outside.”

He explained that “a friend of ours basically bullied us into sticking our heads out of our little hole and talking a chance. So, we pressed our CD-Rs of the demo, headed to Athens, and, in our opinion, had a pretty off-night, performance-wise. The rest, well…”

History.

In the wake of their succès fou in Athens, they were contacted by Quest Management, whose other clients include the Arcade Fire and Björk.

“My initial reply was, ‘fuck you;’ I didn’t believe them, but they persisted, and after some chats on the phone, we agreed to work together. They successfully seduced me,” he laughed.

I joined him in that. Reggie is remarkably personable, and his easy laugh came more frequently with a sharp wit as we continued.

The band, under the encouragement and with the support of their management team, found a label in the UK, Almost Gold (joining Peter, Björn and John and Does It Offend You, Yeah?) , and quickly decamped to cold, rainy London early in 2008.

“It was wonderful, at first,” he reminisced. My sister Ali (also in the band) and I were Navy brats, living in places like the Philippines, but that was eons ago. The weather was so novel and interesting at first - all of us in big coats and scarves and hoods, but after two months, we were anxious to get back to the sunshine and warmth of home.”

That wasn’t the only challenge of the long weeks of recording and touring that followed.

“The UK tour was a real trial for us, stuck in a van in close quarters. Typically, I like to give my friends plenty of space. Also, Ali and I are not the kind of siblings to hang out - though it was having a good reason to see each other more. The worst part was in that kind of proximity, you have to be far more aware of yourself, your actions and your impact on others. It made me realize that I’m not a very good person!”

Fortunately, the long-standing bonds between Kevin Snow (drums), Owen Holmes (bass), Dawn Watley (vocals and keyboards) and his sister (also vocals and keyboards) seem to have held together.

Indeed, their time in cold and wet London was well spent, recording their debut album with Suede’s legendary guitarist, Brendan Butler.

“That was Quest’s idea, I think. It was amazing. We came in with some songs and ideas, but he added so much perspective. Some of us are massive Suede fans, and I was aware he had produced the Libertines, so we couldn’t imagine what he wanted from us!”

The results so far sound interesting, though.

I hesitate to bring up that the single version of “I’m Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You,” released in April 2008 by Almost Gold, lacks the delirious spontaneity of the original demo.

Still, it reached #11 in the UK charts, and is soon to be followed by another gem from the Wizard EP, “Hurricane Jane.”

Reggie tells me, without a hit of braggadocio, “we structured an album with ten singles on it, so it’s been all arguments about what to release next. These first two singles were obvious to all of us,
though.”

Obvious, because “Boyfriend” is the kind of song bands dream about recording.

“Having a hit single is pretty awesome, amazing, weird. It happened and suddenly we got a call that we were in the UK top twenty. It wasn’t at all how I expected it to be – we all just sort of nodded at each other. There was no party, no champagne fountain, but we were all so happy.”

Kate Nash famously recorded a cover of it on a French radio program, contacting the band through MySpace to ask, retroactively, if it was all right.

“It’s amazing when you consider that song was constructed while I was working in a call center, in my little cubicle, and painstakingly recorded. Then her guitarist heard it, played it for her, and she played it on the radio in France.”

“Boyfriend”s bsides are both covers, “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover,” originally recorded by Sophie B. Hawkins, and “You Turn Me on” by the Beat Happening. “Turn” is a decidedly odd confection, with Reggie wailing like Bauhaus-era Peter Murphy in a sea of reverb, and a keyboard line set to the “squiggly” setting.

“Damn,” is more recognizable as the ‘Kids, with a huge, sing-a-long chorus – an excellent take on the original.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to make the b sides,” Reggie explained, “and we recorded them ourselves, so we had to teach ourselves a lot about the recording process along the way. We came up with a few new originals that might appear on the b side of the next single, though,” he teased.

Spoiler alert: “You Only Call Me When You’re Crying,” and “Power in the Blood” will back
the “Hurricane” single.

Asked who he’d like to work with next, in production, he’s immediately ready with an answer: “Andre 3000! Or perhaps whoever produced “Let It Die” by Feist [Renaud Letang and
Peaches' boyfriend Gonzales?]. I think that would be very interesting!”

“Hurricane” is gorgeous but far slower, harkening to Reggie’s love of the more obscure but intelligent music he loves so well, like Momus, Hefner and Felt.

I asked how Reggie how he thought the new single would do.

With the supreme confidence of unbridled talent, wit and charm, he replied, “if it’s not a hit, I have it on good authority that the apocalypse will occur soon afterwards.”

Fair enough, Reggie, fair enough.

Want more:
Befriend The Black Kids on the spacer
see them live at the Cat tomorrow
and then hang out at our afterparty, well, after the show

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