Kaiser Chiefs storm U.S. shores

updated 6:02 p.m. ET May 31, 2005

Nick Hodgson, principal songwriter and drummer for the Kaiser Chiefs — the latest Brit band to storm the shores of the United States — isn’t tired of talking about where his band stands on the retro continuum, because, well, no one’s really asking him about that.

Right now he’s sick of interviewers asking about amusement park rides.

“Yeah, my least favorite word in an interview is roller-coaster. They’re always saying, ‘Hmmm, it’s a bit of a roller-coaster you’re on,”’ Hodgson said by phone from his home in Leeds, England while munching on beans and toast.

While he may hate the cliché, he and the blokes in his band, all friends from school in Leeds, can’t deny that they’ve been on quite a ride these days. The Kaiser Chiefs have stormed the British charts with their debut record, “Employment,” and a swift takeover of the colonies isn’t far behind.

Interestingly, Hodgson says that only in America is his group, with its rollicking new-wavish sound, discussed as a nostalgia act.

“Where we come from it doesn’t sound retro, but in America people say we sound like ’80s stuff. But nobody in England says it. It’s weird,” Hodgson said. “To us it’s really odd because we don’t hear it at all. Maybe because in the ’80s, American culture was much more interested in the bands like the Cars which didn’t make much of an impact in Britain.”

In fact, Hodgson said that The Kaiser Chiefs tried specifically to avoid the garage band fad, soaked in nostalgia and sparked by bands such as The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Hives.

“We thought really retro stuff was before us,” he said. “We wanted to be completely out of step and out of fashion for what was happening at the time.”

Whatever the take, Hodgson says that on both sides of the pond, the people who come see the group aren’t much different.

“We turn up in venues in America that look just like venues in Britain,” he said. “And when the people show up they look exactly the same.”

You probably don’t want to take too much time dissecting the antecedents of this outrageously infectious band, lest you forget to dance. The Kaiser Chief’s current single, “I Predict a Riot” comes off like a companion track to The Smiths’ “Panic,” which features Morrissey crooning about provincial towns such as Leeds rising up against dead-end music and calling on the masses to “hang the DJ.” In “Riot” we follow a narrator on a bizarre and haunted tour of his town as he tries to escape danger at every turn.

Ironically, Hodgson says the song’s inspiration came from dodging violent drunk people outside of mainstream clubs late at night on his way home from DJing at indie haunts.

“The girls were the worst. They’d take their shoes off and have stilettos in their hand.”

Hmmm. Perhaps they take Morrissey too literally in Leeds?

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