The Kills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Country | United States, United Kingdom |
| Years active | 2000 – present |
| Genres | Garage Rock |
| Labels | Domino Records |
| Members | Alison "VV" Mosshart, Jamie "Hotel" Hince |
The Kills are a garage rock band formed by American vocalist Alison "VV" Mosshart and British guitarist Jamie "Hotel" Hince.
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[edit] Career
Mosshart had been in Floridian punk rockers Discount and Hince in British rock band Scarfo. When these groups disbanded, the duo, who first met when Mosshart heard Hince practicing in the hotel room above hers, struck up a songwriting partnership. For months, the pair air mailed work tapes across the Atlantic; after this proved to test the patience of both artists, as it took days or weeks to get each others tapes, Mosshart upped sticks from her Florida home to fly to London.
Wanting to cut themselves off from their pasts, Mosshart and Hince considered their new project to be Year Zero in their careers, so they renamed themselves VV and Hotel respectively and began writing sparse, minimalist songs together with the aid of a drum machine. In 2001 they showcased their new songs on a well received demo tape. In true punk rock fashion, however, the pair shunned approaches from major record labels. Recording as VV and Hotel, they contributed the song "Restaurant Blouse" to the compilation If the Twenty-First Century Did Not Exist, It Would Be Necessary to Invent It. Shortly after this they recorded their debut release, the Black Rooster EP, which saw release on British indie label Domino Records and was picked up for distribution by Dim Mak Records in the United States.
The record could not have been more of a departure from both artists previous bands. It was Lo-fi in both musical and aesthetic terms. The record sleeve featured photos of Mosshart and Hince taken in a photo booth rather than professional photography. Musically, the record was a sparse, lo-fi Garage rock/Blues hybrid. Though the band cites PJ Harvey, The Velvet Underground and Royal Trux as immediate influences, the music press has largely compared them to the other boy/girl minimalist garage blues duo The White Stripes.
Following international touring, they entered Toe Rag studios, where the White Stripes had recorded their album Elephant, to record their debut album Keep on Your Mean Side, mostly on 8-track, in just 2 weeks. Distributed in the US and UK by Rough Trade Records, the album was similar in style to the EP, veering from the Velvets-esque stomp of "Wait" to the noisy, dirty garage punk blues of "Fuck the People" (this song is rumoured to be a reference/homage to the french serial-killer Florence Rey)and dark psychedelia of "Kissy Kissy". The record was well received by the music press, though the White Stripes comparisons would not go away.
Maintaining an anti-careerist, anti-music industry attitude, the band rarely granted interviews. Rather, they got the music press to come to them with their minimalist yet powerful live shows (which also included the drum machine), the pair maintaining an air of tension by subverting the expected role of stage performer. [citation needed] Mosshart, who had only recently taken up smoking (after years of publicly critiquing cigarettes and smokers), spent her time on stage chain-smoking and vomiting, rarely speaking to the audience, whilst Hince violently ripped blues riffs from his instrument. At a New York City show following the ban on public smoking, Mosshart went on stage with three bottles of water, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to smoke constantly from the first song to the last note of the set. The Kills have been criticized for their alleged anti-American and anti-corporate attitudes, whilst putting out their record in the U.S. on an American, corporate record label, RCA, which features The Kills prominently in their label's artist list.
Their second album, No Wow, was released by Domino records on 21 February 2005. Featuring an artier, less guitar rock sound, the record embraced New Wave and post punk influences and sounded even more stripped down than Keep on Your Mean Side. Originally written to be performed on a Moog, the band was forced to change directions and record it primarily using a guitar as its central instrument after Hince's Moog broke and couldn't be repaired before entering the studio. [1] A 40-minute DVD documentary was included with a limited number of copies and features interview, performance and on the road footage shot on tour.
The first single, The Good Ones, from No Wow, was released on 7 February 2005 and reached number 23 in the UK singles charts.
Mosshart features in the title track of Placebo's latest album Meds, released on 13 March 2006 in the UK, and on 4 April 2006 in the US.
[edit] Discography
- Black Rooster EP, Domino Records, (2002)
- Keep on Your Mean Side, Domino Records, (2003)
- No Wow, Domino Records, (2005)
[edit] External links
- Official site
- The Kills at MySpace
- The Kills at Last.fm
- Domino Records site
- Dim Mak Records site
- The Good Ones music video
