The Kills

[incoasterble]

So does anybody like The Kills?

<edit:




truly beautiful.>

I've been a massive fan since 05 when No Wow (second album) came out and I took a chance on it. I think the worst thing is how they were hawked out in the wake of the White Stripes and hyped as being similar, when I honestly think their style is at a complete counterpoint. I mean honestly their music screams deep, violent romance, and boy-girl fruck-love; whilst the White Stripes are a less steamy and more reflective sibling act, or am missing something here?
Anyhow... 6 years on I still love No Wow through and through, and donning my QC3s & cranking up The Good Ones, repeated four times over is a ritual that's still with me:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vQY0wR8BZs

Your Love is a Deserter is another fave on No Wow:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2ogciQAfTQ&feature=related

So then I got hold of their first album, which is a more simple and raw, still love it though, with songs like Superstition:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmSvYBLcR7s

and Cat Claw:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKMRRVyc2h0&feature=related

Then in 08 Midnight Boom came out, and I was straight on it. Its a development from No Wow, but I kinda find some of it a bit weird or dark, like when she's singing about cute cut wrists...

Last Day of Magic:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkEwk7wZVV8

Black Balloon has to be one of the most emotionally overwhelming songs I know of *may induce tears*:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruc1jTK2H_s&feature=related

What New York Used to Be is rather good too:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMcu_g8eWgY&feature=related

Between 08-11 VV (Alison Mosshart) sang with Jack White and some Raconteurs in The Dead Weather, all good stuff whilst not so Kills-y, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them in Leeds where Jack White's performance had me captivated, I doubt there's many who can play guitar like him.

SO Anyhoo. They recently released their fourth (and I reckon best) album Blood Pressures which I've just been playing over and over and over etc. I think its more immediately accessible and more musically structured than their earlier stuff, heres just a few of the incredible songs on Blood Pressure:

Future Starts Slow
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwudqTCkBis
The Heart is a Beating Drum
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GALjXsHFM3Y&feature=related
Satellite
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hniPVDz12bc&feature=related
And just check them out totally nailing You Don't Own The Road on The Tonight show with Jay Leno... talented:
theaudioperv.com/2011/05/13/the-kills-you-dont-own-the-road-512-leno/

So Andy, what's your point to all this the now?.. Well they're touring the UK with dates coming up very shortly and you could still be able to get tix if ur quix its a golden opportunity IMO if u like the sounda their stuff. London seems sold out though.
www.seetickets.com/Tour/THE-KILLS
Theres more dates internationally following can be found here:
www.facebook.com/TheKills?sk=app_178091127385

I'm off to see 'em in the Leeds ina fortnight, oughta be a wonderful night.

Stay Howling!

[blade]

Such an effort deserves a response!

The Kills are a band I'd just about heard of but never knew anything about and maybe their exposure has suffered from having a name too similar to another major group? I don't know.

Having watched a few of those Youtube clips I think I'll have to put them down as a group I could listen to no problem but don't like enough to go out and buy. Hope you're not too offended!

And I love the catchphrase you're using at the end of your posts - as you say, Stay Howling!

[incoasterble]

Yeah like evertime I mention them ppl are like 'oh the Killers?'. They've always had a pretty nichey following & it's easy to appreciate why when some of their songs have a limited musical backbone, some are about such scary dark romance, and some of it's fringing on pornographic. Not what everyone wants to hear. I think they also get some criticism for the drum machine but I'm all for it, it's such an integral part of their 'one on one' style.
Howl.

[incoasterble]

Sooo me, a friend and a friend of a friend had a wolf of a time at The Kills' gig in Leeds Met Union last night. They're a band I've wanted to see live for at least half a decade now, and they didn't dissapoint...

At first the idea of seeing a boy/girl/drum machine trio perform live seems kinda novel, bizarre even, but Hotel and ViVi had me drawn in deep from the moment the thundering of No Wow got rolling. The whole thing really does work. The songs seem perhaps a little slower and simpler than their album counterparts, but their act works all the better for it. I f**king love the way Jamie Hince plays his guitar, he gets such phenomenal sounds out of it and wtf ever effects they use, the bass just roars through you non-stop. Alison Mossheart is also a magical performer, I saw her back when The Dead Weather toured their first album, but with The Kills her wildness seemed more free, natural and commanding. The Kills truly are special to behold.
They played a good selection out of their full discography, the songs seemingly selected to compliment the feel of their most recent album Blood Pressures. I'd love to have seen The Good Ones, but I can see it would have unbalanced the kinda theme they had going. At one point they played an astonishing cover of Dawn Penn's No, No, No which they pulled off beautifully, and during second to last song 'Pots & Pans' Alison got bangin' on a couple of big drums reminiscent of Juanita in Radio Wars, except she was bangin' her head a whole lot too... as was I.
They finished off their encore kinda abruptly with Fried My Little Brains, and I guess since then my brains have indeed been a little fried by their mysterious but beautiful music!

Stay Howling