Kings of Leon Usurped by Devon Welsh’s Belave as NFT Album Pioneers

It was widely reported on Wednesday that Kings of Leon would become the first band to release an album as an NFT, or non-fungible token, with the arrival of When You See Yourself this Friday, March 5. But the following day, Belave snaked their claim to fame, releasing their new album Does the bird fly over your head? as an NFT 36 hours before Kings of Leon’s was set to arrive.

Belave is a duo consisting of former Majical Cloudz members Devon Welsh and Matthew E. Duffy. Does the bird fly over your head? is the band’s third album, and wildly strange and experimental in comparison to the more palatable rock ’n‘ roll of Kings of Leon. Welsh appeared particularly proud of his move to “keep crypto weird” as he took to Twitter to boast about beating Kings of Leon to the punch, issuing a mock press release:

A REMINDER TO PLEASE RETWEET — WE NEED TO SPREAD AWARENESS

ALBUMS-AS-NFTS ARE THE DOMAIN OF THE WEIRD
KINGS OF LEON WAS DEFEATED, WE WILL DEFEAT ALL CHALLENGERS!

KEEP CRYPTO WEIRD / KEEP KINGS OF LEON DEFEATED

— Devon Welsh (@devonwelsh) March 3, 2021

As of Thursday morning, Kings of Leon haven’t responded publicly to the troll move, though they were tagged in Welsh’s announcement. Watch the music video for “single. Some Effectual emerald sinz” off Belave’s latest album below, and keep scrolling to revisit Devon Welsh in the Paste Studio. The band’s NFT album can be found here.