'Revolver/Rubber Soul' Beatles Rock 'n' Roll with a Gospel influence and a 'shotgun willie' country tinge.

12 MP3 Songs
POP: Beatles-pop, POP: 70's Pop



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About pawnshopkings
The two of us are brothers making music that we find meaningful. We're pretty different, though, which makes for some potentially awkward, yet compelling, moments on stage.
here's what the good people over at XPR compiled to say about us:

PawnShop kings

âWe want to be known for playing music that comes from deeper parts of ourselves â music that allows people to hear things that also make sense to them.â âMusically, I guess I would say we canât avoid the genres of gospel, country, folk, pop and rock. It all just comes out in different places.â Scott Owen, one of two brothers that make up the PawnShop kings, pauses for a moment, possibly realizing the overwhelming scale of the bandâs intentions.

âOf course, all bands want to be relevant and memorable. Weâre no different, but I guess we are striving to create our music alongside what we see as the importance of relationships.â

âAnd with the very real possibility that we might kill each other at any given moment over a remarkably trivial matter,â injects the younger Joel.

What is more relevant than family?

If the eternal conflict of brotherhood is the Pawnshop kingsâ most obvious trait, a soulful blending of musical styles is its calling card. The result of a 10-year musical partnership with formative, familial experiences in the South, the PSk sound stirs together many of the musical influences the brothers shared with one another growing up on the beach in California. âEarly on, Scott would hear all this great music first, like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and then around college he was listening to the more obscure indie bands of the time like Toad the Wet Sprocket,â Joel recalls. âThen in the later â90âs, I got into everything Brit pop and, in turn, played the Radiohead, Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft I was listening to for him.â

Scott and Joel create music that is equal parts rock and folk, with an obvious nod to the musical sensibilities of the Beatles and the melodic accessibility of artists like Bob Marley and the Staples Singers. The brothersâ spent their childhood years in Texas and on their familyâs plantation just outside Memphis, and their early exposure to Southern black churches during that period fostered a deeper lyrical significance.

âWe donât sing about getting drunk and laid â so we probably wonât relate to the fan looking for that sort of immediacy,â added Joel. âI tend to think the music weâre playing has a longer shelf life than that. To me, our sound reflects back to the roots of American music but adds a more contemporary edge that those particular early styles lacked to my young ears.â

Clearly, PawnShop kingsâ musical identity defies easy description â and not only because of the amalgamation of styles. The lowercase âkâ in the bandâs name suggests a church-borne intentionality that keeps the brothers as friends and from straying too far from faith and family.

âWeâve always related to the second-chance concept of a pawnshop â where everyone has the opportunity to start fresh and be new again,â remarks Scott. âOur music â and the ability to build upon the gospel and country roots of our childhood â plays as a voice to that spirit of reinvention.â

Today, both brothers live in Orange County, Calif., near enough to the industry and inspiration of L.A. but close to family and the ocean, providing the balance that gives their music its distinctiveness. Marc Ford of the Black Crowes and producer of the PSk debut album, âLocksley,â and Rob Fraboni, co-producer of âThe Last Waltzâ and Grammy-winning engineer to Keith Richards, Bob Dylan and numerous others, helped take the brothersâ songs and ideas to a new level of professionalism and authenticity.

âIt is pretty humbling to collaborate with people who have accomplished so much in this industry â and watch as they invest in your material,â Scott reflects. âActually, we found ourselves acquiescing far more than either of us had planned,â Joel added. âThere was just too much collective experience not to surrender completely.â

With authenticity like that, donât be surprised if the PawnShop kings reach a new level of unintended royalty.