The bros. They are your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers, and even your family. You knew them in college as the alpha-obnoxious, keg-guzzling, frosted-tipped idiots who played girls like a fiddle. But they were simply in start-up phase, just figuring things out, wearing different hats, being flexible. They have more depth now and enjoy other activities besides saying things like “epic fail” and using “boss” as an adjective. Today, especially in San Francisco, they are a bit more difficult to spot, but I’ve come up with a sure-fire way of telling a bro from your run-of-the-mill lame person: just check out their music collection. It’s most likely full of bro-core, a new era of pensive dudes who are yearning to find meaning in a musical world. Here are a few bands that are leading the bro-core pack. I’d say if you have five or more of these on your iPod, you’re headed into some chancy territory and you might have to start doing the whole jeans and flip-flops thing.
KINGS OF LEON
At their start, they were a relatively modest rock band from Nashville tied together by blood, just like fraternity brothers, only real. Brought up Pentecostal, they dreamed of a bigger life and boy did they get one. It’s safe to say Kings of Leon are an arena rock band not too dissimilar from Bono and his crew. And bros not only love taking the bro bus to the Oracle, they love U2. Their older bros listened to U2 and they grew up on it and so any band to achieve similar status is okay in their bro book. Maybe it’s the Followill bloodline, or maybe it’s the religious upbringing, but bros can’t get enough of these royalties of rock.
MUMFORD & SONS
Wait, so which one is Mumford, the main dude who sings? And the rest of the dudes are his sons? This band is for the bro who wonders why this band is not headlining the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Mumford & Sons -- from England by the way -- have taken Americana, folk, and bluegrass, and brought it to the masses, which in turn has made the band a pop band. And just listen to them! If the end of the world were nigh, every bro on God’s green Earth would be burning up listening to “The Cave”. They’d sing that chorus about hope, pump their fists in the air, and wonder why they're not having sex right now.