American Princes are an indie rock band from Little Rock, Arkansas, and their bluesy garage-rock sound is breathtaking in its intensity and emotional release. Their unique lyrical, vocal, and musical combinations create a sound that is raw but cultivated, passionate yet intelligent, retro and cutting-edge rock with provocative blues undercurrents.

Their new CD Less and Less is a triumph of talent and imagination, and for me it was almost a sexual experience. It's like making love outside in the pouring rain. You'll love every minute of it. Less and Less is a sensual, sexual, throbbing, rock & roll/ blues classic.

So with such intense feelings about their music you can imagine how very excited I was when American Princes agreed to be Band of the Week. I interviewed frontmen Collins Kilgore and David Slade over the phone and discovered that they are not what you’d expect of indie rockers. David is Yale Educated (film studies) and Collins attended Hendrix College (a prestigious liberal arts college in Arkansas) and studied Philosophy.

Both are intelligent, witty and they share a deep bond. David in particular is a very deep thinker. When I called David to arrange the interview I asked him a friendly, chatty question about the weather and he had me contemplating my own mortality within two minutes. Deep folk, but not without a sense of humour.

How did you all become the American Princes?

Collins: Take it away, David.

David: Well, apart from a bloody coup, three of us (John Beachboard, Matt Quin, and myself) started playing music in NYC in 2002. We quickly decided that it would be impossible to be in a touring band there, so John and I, having grown up in Little Rock [Arkansas], figured that'd be a good, equidistant headquarters — with a low cost of living and a thriving DIY music scene. We headed down at the end of '02 (Matt moving sight unseen, mind you), and played a show within a few weeks at Collins' house. We asked him to join up with us (John played in a band with him in college) and, a few personnel changes later, we came to our current line up of Luke [Hunsicker - bass], Matt [drums], Collins , and myself.

Collins: In fact, John literally asked me if I'd be interested in joining that night, before they had even played. It was quite good though. They played in my living room, and I watched from the stairway above. It was pretty packed, actually.