The Kills, who hail from bloody old England, are the newest guy/girl garage-rock duo kicking out the solid-gold jams. On their debut EP (full-length will be released in Spring), the duo aims to be the United Kingdom's answer to the White Stripes; and though the concept is becoming a bit passé, they do a pretty good job playing mechanics in the classic rock chop-shop. The songs on this EP come across like a young Chrissie Hynde recording some demos on an answering machine with Lou Reed. Call it fuzzed-out raunch rawk if you like. Add to that sound some sassy stage names, (the girl goes by VV while the guy goes by Hotel), and one can already hear the roar of the hype machine revving its engine.
But it's not as though the attention is completely unwarranted. The first song, "Cat Claw", has VV strutting around singing "you got it, I want it" with enough gritty sex appeal to send all the young dudes into epileptic fits. Similarly, "Black Rooster" uses a spare guitar grind and kick drum beat to nice effect, as Hotel reveals what the "kids in the basement" like to do. It's predictably naughty. VV then takes everything down a notch on "Wait," with breathless vocals and a dirty guitar chug that recalls early Spacemen 3. It's probably the best song here, leaving one with an idea of what sucking on a cherry blow-pop found in the gutter would be like.
Unfortunately the last two tracks fall a bit flat. As good as it is to hear a cover of Captain Beefheart's "Dropout Boogie" from the wonderful Safe as Milk, it's probably best saved for the live act. They have the sloppy fuzz down and give it a solid go 'round, but it pales in comparison to the original. If you are going to cover Beefheart on record, you better tear that thing apart. The last song is a spoken word bit by VV about chewing gum that tries to come off as sexy but ends up sounding lame. It's not even worth going in to, trust me.
In the end, this mixed bag leaves the listener wondering if these two aren't just hip pretenders instead of the real deal. Perhaps it's the over-studied cool of a band whose members take names like VV and Hotel, or its shameless attempt to gain indie cred by pointing out in their bio that they "declined a tour with Vines earlier this year because Vines suck." They'd be better off if they quit the name calling and let the music do the talking. And let's face it, as nice as the first three songs were, all we can gather from Black Rooster is that The Kills have some of the same records that we do. Putting a little more under the hood on the full-length may give them license to speak like that, but until then, shhhhhhh!
Barin McGrath
Junkmedia Magazine Review
My favorite new band.......
Junkmedia Magazine Review
