King Youngblood has a singular mission: grab alt-rock by the collar and drag it into the waiting arms of a new generation. The Seattle group grew from the idea that that unironic, melodic rock ’n ’roll continues to stand tall as a vibrant medium of self-expression. King Youngblood is here to bring euphoric sonic catharsis to the masses.
King Youngblood crafts beautifully crisp, deeply soulful, and elegantly strong songs. Sonic lighting in a bottle, the band’s unstoppable live shows have earned them opening slots for the likes of Pearl Jam and Naked Giants.
Lavi-Jones is also a second-generation Black/Jewish activist whose father Maurice Jones Jr. was a member of the Black Panther Party and is the Program Manager at the community radio station, KVRU FM servicing South Seattle (the city’s most diverse district). Lavi-Jones spent the 2020 Covid-Pandemic summer writing songs and actively protesting within his Black Lives Matter community. He staged an epic teach in called This Ain’t No Picnic on the steps of the Seattle Police Department’s 12th precinct and memorialized it with a highly successful song and video called Yakubian Antics which scored best song and video of 2020 by Afropunk magazine. Lavi-Jones and his main partner in crime bassist and core band member Hamoon Milaninia underscore the reality that the Black Lives Matter movement is not an all of a sudden day of reckoning but rather the necessary build of uprisings responding to American’s history of slavery through colonization, police brutality and the industrial prison complex – all of which and more create America’s inescapable legacy of systemic racism. For Lavi-Jones and King Youngblood and so many other BIPOC people, the reaction must be to create social justice music and art as a form of Black and brown people resistance.
Beyond social justice activism, Cameron and Hamoon who is first generation Persian, a rare find in the rock world, are focused on crafting great songs within the alt rock realm that are also relatable on lyrically across genres. Their live show is off the chain exciting and even people in the hip-hop realm often say they love the band even though rock isn’t their main genre. There is a power to King Youngblood that shows in every carefully crafted song they produce and perform and their newest single Too Late Too Soon (Release date February 19, 2021) is no exception.
King Youngblood is openly and deeply involved with youth mental health issues having formed their own non-profit Hold Your Crown in partnership with the King County Washington Mental Health Court and Pacific Northwest’s SMASH to reach out to young people to break the stigmas associated with youth mental illness. This from the same band, who in the fall of November 2018 and again in 2020, received grants from the League of Women Voters to perform at over 80 high schools, registering over 3,200 new voters in 2018 and reaching over 100,000 young voters via online shows and promotions in 2020. See Make Yourself Heard Loud & Vote.
King Youngblood is here to put the world on notice that there is an army of dedicated, progressive young people determined to change the course of world history one song, one EP, one video and one LP at a time.
“King Youngblood call themselves the second coming of alt rock; damn if they’re not setting a high bar.” – Atwood
“The debut from Seattle alt-rock princes King Youngblood echoes everything from ‘Californication’-era Red Hot Chili Peppers to the anthemic resonance of Lumineers and Gang of Youths” – Alternative Press
