Kingsley Flood bios

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Kingsley Flood is a Boston and Washington, DC - based sextet with a "Billy Bragg-like folk-punk sound" (Washington Post).  They have played the main stage at the Newport Folk Festival, have been featured on the History Channel, opened for Josh Ritter, Grace Potter, Lucius, Langhorne Slim and have been been covered by NPR, New York Times, Esquire Magazine, Wall Street Journal, American Songwriter, among others.  This year they have released two EPs and are releasing a third this fall. 

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With “signature high energy” (Rolling Stone) and a live show that “could thrill Folsom Prison in ‘58 or CBGB in ‘76” (Boston Herald), Boston and Washington D.C.-based Kingsley Flood began 2015 with lofty goals: release three EPs.  The ambitious volume of output recognizes that the music business has changed and moved on from the era of the traditional album cycle. It also represents a shift in leader Naseem Khuri’s songwriting, channeling his personal journey as a Palestinian-American trying hard to do good and repeatedly coming up short.

Since their breakout set opening the Newport Folk Festival in 2013, Kingsley Flood has opened tour dates for Lucius and Josh Ritter; earned raves from AV Club, Paste, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NY Times; played a session for Esquire; and premiered a video with NPR Music.

To The Wolves continues songwriter Naseem Khuri’s obsession with stagnation in our lives, and exploring why things don’t change.  While January’s To The Fire EP chronicles his own experience as a wide-eyed son of immigrants wanting to change the world, To The Wolves suggests greater change is harder when we can’t even change ourselves.  

The title track looks at the big dreams and small circumstances of an outsider on the inside. "Blind" finds him back home plotting an escape, but this too is a dream that never manages to leave his bedroom. "All Night Dynamite" asks just how much choice we have in our choices, a theme carried over to "Salt of the Sea," where a child sees in his own path a mirror of his father's.

To The Wolves continues Kingsley Flood's ongoing collaboration with producer Paul Kolderie (Pixies, Radiohead, Morphine) and 1867 Recording Studio, the onetime Masonic temple in Chelsea, MA where To the Fire was created. The results showcase the band's signature and wide-ranging dynamics, from the scorched-earth guitar riff anchoring the title track to the contrasting plaintive violin and hard rock release of the deceptively upbeat “Blind,” the frenetic punk drive of “All Night Dynamite” and the pensive intimacy of “Salt of the Sea.”

To The Wolves follows January’s To The Fire, which earned praise from NPR’s World Café, the Wall Street Journal, Relix, PopMatters, the Boston Globe, and more. After a run of sold-out shows in early 2015, the History Channel featured their track “Waiting On The River to Rise” in an ad for a new series “Mississippi Men,” triggering close to 200,000 plays on Spotify and YouTube.