Follow TV Tropes

Following

Music / Kaiser Chiefs

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/KaiserChiefs_9817.jpg
L-R: Nick Hodgson, Andrew "Whitey" White, Ricky Wilson, Nick "Peanut" Baines, Simon Rix.

"Take a look, take a look, take a look
At the kids on the street, no, they never miss a beat
No, they never miss a beat, never miss a beat
Never miss a beat, beat, beat, beat"
— "Never Miss a Beat"

Kaiser Chiefs are an indie rock band from Leeds, England, formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, then changed to just Parva; however, after their record deal fell apart with a single album due to the label's closure, they decided to start from scratch and rechristened themselves with their current name, with which they would achieve international success. Their current name comes from Kaizer Chiefs, a football team from Johannesburg (South Africa), in which one of Leeds United's all-time famous players, Lucas Radebe, started his career.

Their sound draws much inspiration from New Wave and post-punk, while adding touches of other styles of rock along the way.

The band is comprised of: Ricky Wilson (vocals; not the one from The B-52s Faking the Dead), Andrew "Whitey" White (guitar), Simon Rix (bass), Vijay Mistry (drums, replacing founding member Nick Hodgson) and Nick "Peanut" Baines (keyboard).

Singer Ricky Wilson joined the third season of The Voice UK as a coach.


Discography:
  • 22 (2003, as Parva)
  • Employment (2005)
  • Yours Truly, Angry Mob (2007)
  • Off With Their Heads (2008)
  • The Future is Medieval (2011)
    • Start the Revolution Without Me (USA re-release, 2012)
  • Education, Education, Education & War (2014)
  • Stay Together (2016)
  • Duck (2019)
  • Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album (2024)

Kaiser Chiefs provide examples of:

  • Album Title Drop:
    • The title of Off With Their Heads shows up in "Like It Too Much".
    • The Future is Medieval has its title repeated in the outro of "Child of the Jago".
    • The US release Start the Revolution Without Me gets its title from "Cousin in the Bronx", although the song uses "a revolution" rather than "the revolution".
    • "Cannons" from Education, Education, Education & War comes close, with only two instances of "education" instead of three.
    • Yours Truly, Angry Mob and Stay Together each have a derived Title Track ("The Angry Mob" and "We Stay Together" respectively).
  • A Wild Rapper Appears!: British rapper Sway does a verse of "Half the Truth".
  • Big "OMG!": The song "Oh My God", naturally.
  • Break Up Song: "Everyday I Love You Less and Less".
  • Evil Laugh: The chorus of "Misery Company".
  • Face on the Cover: Yours Truly, Angry Mob features the band in monochrome.
  • Inconsistent Spelling: Both the first and the current name fall under this: Runston Parva has an N in the middle of the first name to differentiate itself from Ruston Parva, a hamlet near Leeds, while the "Kaiser" in Kaiser Chiefs is written with an S to differentiate from the football team they took the name from (which is spelled "Kaizer", with a Z).
  • Instrumentals: "Howlaround" from The Future is Medieval.
  • Long-Runner Line-up: The band remained stable from 1996 until Hodgson's departure in 2012.
  • Market-Based Title: The Future is Medieval was released in America with the title Start the Revolution Without Me.
  • New Sound Album: Stay Together was the band making their foray into electropop in the style of bands like Cut Copy and Two Door Cinema Club.
  • One-Steve Limit: Nick Baines and Nick Hodgson; the latter quit the band in 2012 and was replaced by Vijay Mistry the following year.
  • One-Woman Song: "Ruby".
  • Oop North: They come from Leeds.
  • Precision F-Strike: "Record Collection":
    From the tip of a rhino, fuck it if I know
  • Sex Is Good: "Good Clean Fun", in which the narrator claims that "sex makes everything better".
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: "You Can Have It All", except it's not quite a denial:
    I tell you what it's going to be like
    No, you can never hold my hand in public
    They can't know or understand
    That you and me are now together
  • Shout-Out:
    • "Caroline, Yes" is a reference to the song "Caroline, No" by The Beach Boys.
    • "Addicted to Drugs" is a direct reference to Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love", right down to having the exact same chorus line (albeit substituting "love" with "drugs").
    • "Child of the Jago" takes its name from an 1896 novel by Arthur Morrison.
    • The first three words of Education, Education, Education & War originate from a speech made in 1996 by Tony Blair. The "& War" was added as a Take That! to his participation in The War on Terror.
    • The video for "People Know How to Love One Another" shows the band riding in a van similar to the Mystery Machine, emblazoned with the Rose of York.
    • "Kurt vs. Frasier (The Battle for Seattle)" is a tribute to Kurt Cobain and Frasier Crane, two icons of The '90s who lived in Seattle.
  • Special Guest: Lily Allen provides backing vocals on "Never Miss a Beat" and "Always Happens Like That". New Young Pony Club also appear on the former track.
  • Spoken Word in Music: Bill Nighy recites a war poem at the end of "Cannons".
  • Stage Names: Peanut (Nick Baines) and Whitey (Andrew White).
  • Step Up to the Microphone: Nick Hodgson sings lead vocals on "Boxing Champ", "Remember You're a Girl", "Man on Mars" and "If You Will Have Me".
  • Title-Only Chorus: "I Predict a Riot".
  • Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Everything is Average Nowadays".
  • Visual Innuendo: The music video for "People Know How to Love One Another" is filled with sexual imagery, including a pencil entering a pencil sharpener and an aubergine (eggplant) kissing a peach.
  • War Is Hell: A major theme of Education, Education, Education & War.
  • Wretched Hive: The city depicted in "I Predict a Riot", which may or may not really be Leeds, depending on who you ask. (Worth noting, though, that the first verse refers to someone named Smeaton as "an old Leodensian" — i.e. a person from Leeds.)

Top