RAUCOUS LOUIS XIV PROVES IT'S GOOD TO BE THE KING.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Glam foursome Louis XIV is not only bowling over listeners of modern-rock radio with its sexually charged single ``Finding Out True Love Is Blind,'' but also itself.

So says 27-year-old frontman and producer Jason Hill.

He's confident that the songs heard on his band's new album, ``The Best Little Secrets Are Kept,'' will deliver an even bigger blow than its heavily rotated single.

``It's one of our favorites, if not our favorite, album right now,'' says Hill, who on Wednesday joins his band mates - Brian Karscig, Mark Maigaard and Jimmy Armbrust - on stage at the Troubadour in support of their full-length Pineapple/Atlantic debut.

Arriving in stores today, ``Secrets'' pairs what Rolling Stone calls ``the thrilling hedonism of early-'70s T. Rex and David Bowie with cartoonishly sexed-up vocals that make winking fun of glitter rock's excesses.''

It's a raucous sound, one that was concocted as a knee-jerk response to a record deal gone awry under the band's last incarnation as Convoy. The late-'90s roots rock band had self-released an EP and full-length record, which was later remade for the Warner label as 2001's ``Black Licorice.'' Despite favorable reviews, Hill says the band hated that album.

``We redid songs that were done really great the first time around on an eight-track, and then we redid it with a producer - the only time I've ever worked with a producer and the only time I ever will, I imagine - and it was just a terrible mistake,'' he says.

Feeling like its music had been compromised, Convoy disbanded and headed to France for inspiration. That's where the idea came about to make a concept record that played out like a novel. The result was ``Louis XIV,'' a gritty record inspired by the early folk-blues of Lightnin' Hopkins and Blind Willie McTell ``and all these heroes of mine,'' Hill says.

Released in 2003, the album - which inspired the band's name and is available on vinyl at www.louisxiv.net - tells the story of a boy who believes he is the modern-day incarnation of the 17th-century French monarch.

In making the album, the band members locked themselves away in a friend's basement studio, subsisting on cigarettes and coffee.

``We didn't see a single thing in France, we just recorded this record ... and it was just a way for us to be proud of what we were doing again and to connect with why we did things when we were 12 years old,'' Hill says, explaining that was the age when he learned to play an E-chord and plugged an electric guitar into an amplifier for the first time. ``Even though my guitar was out of tune, it still sounded righteous and like I'd found my new religion, and that's what we got back to.

``The songs were such a declaration of what we were doing ... it was like the bar had been raised to 'this is where we have to go,' '' he says. ``It had to get better from there on out.''

``Louis XIV'' became a catalyst for the new record, although it's more sexually charged than its predecessor. Whereas ``Louis XIV'' is more of a guy's album, ``Secrets'' is for and about women. Lyrically, ``Secrets'' is inspired by Hill's real-life relationships with women.

``There are certain things that I talk about on this record that could get me into a lot of trouble with a lot of different people,'' Hill says, refusing to go into specifics. ``They're just things involving these little triangular webs that people weave. But you know I had to be honest because if you're not risking everything you really aren't saying anything.''

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com

LOUIS XIV

Where: Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Tickets: $13. Call [phone] or www.ticketmaster.com.