Artist Review-The Kills
Driving to work today I was thinking about what and who to write about. I was stoked that I was able to get the Black Mountain CD ahead of time, but I was left to ponder as to what would be my next entry. As I do everyday, I put in a CD and jam out as I drive to work. While driving I usually just grab an album at random without really looking at my choice. This is good because it serves to make my selection random and a bit surprising. Suddenly I was transported to my basement with an old 4 track and 2 hip people playing some stripped down gold old Indie rock. That disk was No Wow by The Kills. This duo consists of American Born Alison Mosshart, and British guitar player Jamie Hince. Most people look at a guy, girl duo and think it’s a White Stripes rip off, they are far from it. The Kills started off in two different places in the world. Alison Mosshart was the product of the Florida Punk scene, and played in the band Discount. Before the band broke up in 2000, Alison was eager to do something new and more stripped down from what she was currently doing in Discount.
By 1994 Jamie Hince had been playing in London bands for almost 15 years. His band Scarfo had gained notoriety with a handful of singles and there 1997 release “Luxury Plane Crash”. The two first meet each other when Discount was touring Europe. They both kicked around the idea of doing solo projects after a show, but kept the conversation casual and exchanged numbers. By 1999 both bands had almost completely dissolved, and Alison and Jamie started sending each other demo’s via International courier service. The wait for letters and demo’s grinded on Alison so she decided to pull up roots in Florida and move to London with Jamie. She moved in with Jamie in his London flat, and the two began writing and recording. The two both decided to write stripped down music, and keep to just the both of them. They kept the percussion duties to a drum machine and began to record. Along with a stripped down sound, the two renamed themselves “VV” and “Hotel”. There first demo’s started to circulate around England, and was almost unanimously rejected by records labels, but was well received by the press.
The demos, however, did attract the attention of Domino Records, a small Indie label out of London. The next year the two released there first EP, Black Rooster. It was very well received and received distribution in America through Dim Mark Records. The album opened up the world to the band and there own personal philosophy of stripped down, lo-fi, garage rock, with a hint of Punk. They kept writing and for there full length release they changed things up and recorded at Toe Rag Studios. Most of the parts were recorded on 8-track and the entire recording sessions took only 2 weeks to complete. From this effort came their first full length Album Keep on Your Mean Side. The album was very well received by the press and fans alike. The pair decided not to do an extensive tour, but rather did small club shows around London. They followed this formula of non-industry, non-conformist type of style, and to there credit they attracted allot of attention because of it.
There second Album entitled No Way, was a huge success and topped the UK charts at number 23. The album spawned a few singles and was even more stripped down then there previous album. The support for the album followed much the same way, with small shows spread over a few months, and only a handful of dates in the U.S. They stayed prolific and released singles into 2006. Late 2007 they announced they had completed their third album and were busy working on the album sleeve. No exact date has been given yet, but it is expected to be released in early 2008. The White Stripes got there gimmick, but these two are all out Indie rock with a splash of punk and allot of attitude.
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