Kills - Minim-al(t) rock

Intro 1

When their second album, No Wow, brought them international attention, the impression was that this was a band out of step with time, with a personal sound that didn't wink at this or that genre-specific fanbase. Garage-rock? Maybe, but also maybe not... Lo-fi? Well, yes, technically, perhaps, but what does that mean in terms of actual sound? The Anglo-American duo, with Scottish family roots, has often described itself as blues, but here too we're far from the orthodoxy that defines that style.

For those who love rock in its rawest form, without far-fetched decorative touches or merely technical displays of virtuosity, Kills represent a breath of fresh air in the new millennium. What grabs you is the relentless beat, the anger that's sometimes only hinted at but always lurking in the background, the non-boredom of the songs, to paraphrase the title of their aforementioned breakthrough album. Kills offer compositions of varying success, but nearly all of them are digestible, easy to listen to, even if they don't fit the commonly understood definition of "catchy" tracks

Intro 2

The daughter of a used-car dealer (the very quintessence of American suburban commercial spirit) and an art teacher, Alison VV Mosshart began her career in her hometown in Florida with the punk band Discount, whose influence can be heard on Kills' debut album. The band achieved modest success, with its teenage frontwoman standing out from the other members for her talent and creativity. While still in high school, Alison went on a European tour with the band, and during one stop, in an apartment in some British city (neither of the two seems to have ever specified which, but it was probably some London neighbourhood), Alison heard music coming from another apartment in the same building. That's how she first met Jamie Hince, who was in turn a leading member of a local rock band, Scarfo.

As the story goes, Alison was struck by such an intense bolt of inspiration for Jamie's compositions that she started up an intercontinental correspondence aimed at exchanging recordings and ideas for possible musical projects. For three or four years the two kept in touch from a distance, and only around the start of the new millennium, following the breakup of Discount and a rather battered physical and mental state, did Alison decide to take the plunge and move to London to work directly with Jamie.

Black Rooster

The duo, long imagined and, in a way, "prepared" by their years-long exchange of letters, finally came to life in 2000, with their first shows in London's Soho district. Under the stage names VV and Hotel, still in use and dear to longtime fans, the future Kills quickly built up a devoted following thanks to their lean, essential, compelling sound, defined by her extraordinary vocal qualities and his undeniable compositional talent. It didn't take long for the London underground press to draw the first weighty comparison: nothing less than the Velvet Underground of the Nico era. Whether fair or not, the comparison helped boost the band's status, and they quickly became one of the most hyped next big things on the London indie scene.

After two years as VV and Hotel, and having discarded dozens upon dozens of possible names, the duo finally settled on The Kills, just before releasing their debut EP, Black Rooster (2002). Commercial success was modest, but critical acclaim was nearly unanimous, with music writers sensing the band's enormous potential. Their shows gradually became more polished and better attended compared to their very first live performance, back in February 2002 - a key moment in Alison's life, so much so that she decided to have the date tattooed on her left hand.

Keep On Your Mean Side

In 2003 came their debut album, Keep On Your Mean Side, which revisited three tracks from the debut EP. All the elements that would come to define the Kills' distinctive sound are already in place: Keep On Your Mean Side is a stripped-down record, where alt-rock minimalism meets the punk attitude of late-70s New York, clear blues roots and healthy doses of electronics. The sound is inevitably raw, though thoroughly enjoyable in its artful alternation of harshness and melody, and some influences still feel a touch forced. The distorted whirl of "Hitched", the sprawling "Wait" and "Monkey 23", the propulsive "Cat Claw", "Fried My Little Brain" and "Fuck The People" are among the standout moments. Comparisons between VV and other legendary female vocalists, such as Patti Smith or PJ Harvey (just listen to "Superstition" or "Pull A U"), as well as the already mentioned Nico, were inevitable.

Made with the help of a drum machine and recorded on a real lo-fi 8-track recorder, the album was released by Domino Records. Commercial returns were anything but spectacular, but still significant given their underground status. The album received reviews positive enough to secure distribution in the United States too, and in 2009 it was given a substantial reissue with five extra tracks, including a cover of Captain Beefheart and one of Jonathan Fire-Eater. For the time being, though, little to nothing was known about the Kills in continental Europe.

No Wow

Word started to spread with the tour preceding No Wow, which arrived in February 2005 like a stiletto blade through the contemporary alt-rock landscape, with its successful blend of blues and wave, guitars and electronics. On one hand, the duo drew on the indie trends of the new millennium, on the other on 80s aesthetics, though they stumbled somewhat on a drumming style that was a bit too static and repetitive. Even more stripped-down, bare, dark, direct and restrained than the debut, No Wow unfolds through tracks of impeccable quality, and thanks to a mid-course correction in the choice of singles, commercial success followed too: "Love Is A Deserter" was followed by the more direct "The Good Ones", which knew how to pave the way.

On No Wow the punk and blues influences grow more subdued, or rather, they become the backdrop to a new sound, quite different from that of other key artists of the time, such as the hugely popular White Stripes, to whom the Kills were (unjustly) compared even in Italy. Less colourful and iconic than Jack White's band, decidedly more claustrophobic and intense, the Kills prefer the shades of a black-and-white nocturne, the cursed-poet aura of Nick Cave, the usual nods to PJ Harvey, and occasional detours, as in the case of the country-flavoured "Rodeo Town". There are certainly no compromises with the market on this album: VV and Hotel continue along the path traced since the exchange of files and cassettes across the ocean a few years earlier. A bonus disc was also released for the European market, featuring remix versions (some of which also appeared on the singles) and assorted outtakes.

Collaborations 1

The success of No Wow did not go unnoticed within the Anglo-American alt-rock community, and in particular Alison Mosshart went from relative unknown to sought-after vocalist. In 2006 she collaborated with two monster bands: VV took part in Primal Scream's solid "Riot City Blues" and duetted on "Meds", the title track of Placebo's successful album that same year.

Midnight Boom

In 2008 came Midnight Boom, the album that definitively sealed the Kills' commercial success, reaching the top 50 across much of Europe and topping the US Hotseekers chart, a sort of ranking of "hot records" stateside.

Qualitatively it's half a step backwards, proving more predictable, more polished and less lean than its predecessor. The atmosphere becomes less claustrophobic and decidedly more pop, with more than a few tracks possessing everything needed to break into the North American cultural mainstream, though there's no shortage of interest for longtime fans either, such as the distortions of "M.E.X.I.C.O.", the dancefloor digressions of "Cheap & Cheerful" or the undeniably successful "U.R.A. Fever".

One gets the sense of holding a more calculated product, artfully arranged in pursuit of a breakthrough on both sides of the ocean. The songs work so well that the Kills become one of the most heavily plundered bands by hit films and TV series. "Sour Cherry" in particular would become a cult hit after being used in "Gossip Girl", turning into one of the most recognisable tunes of the year.

But that wasn't the only TV tie-in that would make use of the Kills' music: that same year, "Doctor House", "Criminal Minds", "90210", "Friday the 13th" and numerous films all featured songs by the band.

Collaborations 2

Meanwhile, the Kills became even more visible, for reasons that had little to do with music itself. In 2008 Jamie met Kate Moss, the famous model, who would become his new partner and, three years later, his wife.

Alison, meanwhile, grew closer - at least professionally - to one of the most celebrated and admired musicians on the British alt-rock scene, John Anthony Gillis, aka Jack White, already the leader and rock icon of the White Stripes.

Alison and Jack, together with two other familiar faces of the global rock scene, Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs and Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age, formed Dead Weather, whose 2009 debut, “Horehound“, was a huge success in North America. Just a year later came the equally acclaimed follow-up, “Sea Of Cowards“, which stuck to the same blues-rock territory as its predecessor.

The Dead Weather collaboration would prove decisive in launching the Kills singer's career once and for all, sending her profile soaring. At this point Alison seemed to be drifting away from her original project with Jamie: rumour had it that the duo's creativity, having already shown some signs of wear on Midnight Boom, was no longer at the level it had been in the early days.

In 2010, however, VV and Hotel went back into the studio to record what would become their fourth album, released in March 2011: Blood Pressures. It's the work of a band that had by now reached a solid level of maturity, enriched by Alison's experience with Dead Weather, and lucky enough to land at a moment when expectations for the band had been considerably scaled back. In such a context, it becomes easier to win over the average listener. The album opens with no reverential fear, with "Future Starts Slow" and "Satellite" (chosen as the first single) immediately proving to be a great listen, setting the tone for the whole record. It's garage-rock of excellent craftsmanship, less minimalist than in the past; there are melodies, but there's also the right dose of "noise", with the added bonus of Alison's ever-effective (and often sensual) voice, by now a kind of brunette Debbie Harry for the contemporary indie scene.

The Kills aren't afraid to draw blood, and they reaffirm as much on tracks like "Nail In My Coffin" or "DNA", where the guitar crunch really bites. But there's also room for a few thoroughly successful midtempo numbers that add further credit to the project: "Baby Says" (a potential heartbreaker of a single), with its wave echoes, and the closing "Pots And Pans", an electric blues that wraps things up masterfully. The other ballad, "The Last Goodbye", is more forgettable, the only track where guitar is set aside in favour of piano. Even what might seem like filler actually reveals other interesting facets of the duo, like the Beatles-esque touch given to the brief "Wild Charms", or the Roxy Music echoes in "Damned If She Do". The tracklist is rounded out by the skippable "Heart Is A Beating Drum" and "You Don't Own The Road". As the weeks went by, Blood Pressures established itself as the Kills' most accessible record, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and after just two months of still-solid sales (Top 10 in France and Belgium, and Top 50 again in the UK and US), the band decided to make the entire album available as a free download on their website. A sign of the times, proof of how records have by now become little more than promotional vehicles, and of how today bands can only really make serious money through a dense web of live shows.

Despite decent commercial success, at least within the underground circuit, by the end of 2012 Alison VV and Jamie "Hotel" remained among the most underrated artists on the global alt-pop scene. And that might not entirely be a bad thing: after all, it's a pleasure to find yourself pleasantly surprised listening to albums like No Wow or Blood Pressures, made by a band like the Kills, from whom you don't necessarily expect a masterpiece. Even if they sometimes end up coming remarkably close.

Ash And Ice

After five years marked by Mosshart's other commitments and some physical troubles for Hince, June 2016 brought Ash And Ice, the fifth studio album, again on Domino. Ash And Ice confirms the duo's established formula, not shifting an inch from the past, delivering a pleasant but repetitive record.

The synthetic backing of "Hard Habit To Break", the old-school minimalism of "Hum For Your Buzz", the interplay of voices on "Bitter Fruit" and "Echo Home" (an inevitable tear-jerking ballad), the piano taking centre stage on "That Love" - these are the moments through which the Kills try to inject some variety into an otherwise rather monotone record. But the results fall short of expectations, especially when the enveloping, quasi-Afro spirals of "Days Of Why And How" fade out too soon, when "Let It Drop" and "Siberian Nights" go by in an utterly anonymous fashion, and when even the opening and closing tracks leave you completely indifferent (incidentally, "Doing It To Death" was chosen as the lead single). Among the best of the bunch are "Heart Of A Dog", "Impossible Tracks" and "Black Tar". The fact that, after five years, this represents the best they've managed to write can only sound like a dangerous and worrying alarm bell.

In 2017, to celebrate 15 years since the release of their debut EP, the duo put out a new one, entirely acoustic, Echo Home - Non Electric Ep, containing five tracks, including a cover of Rihanna's "Desperado".

Late 2020 instead saw the release of Little Bastards, a collection of twenty B-sides and rarities covering the band's early years, from 2002 to 2009. There are tracks that deserved far more attention and visibility, like "Superpowerless", released in 2008 as the B-side to "Last Day Of Magic", or the lively urban-blues minimalism of "Passion Is Accurate", the distorted, sandpapered rock'n'roll of "Kiss The Wrong Side", the "garage-pop" of "Night Train" and "Blue Moon", the sensuality of "Baby's Eyes", the melancholy of "The Void".

Rounding out this compilation are a previously unreleased demo version of "Raise Me", and no fewer than four covers: "I Put A Spell On You", the evergreen standard originally made famous by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, "Forty Four" by Howlin' Wolf, "Sugar Baby" by Dock Boggs, and a personal take on "I Call It Art" by Serge Gainsbourg. For the curious, "Little Bastard" was the affectionate nickname given to the drum machine the Kills used to make their earliest recordings, which also doubled as an eight-track recorder and sequencer - a kind of extra member during the band's first steps.

After the pandemic years, in October 2023 the Kills returned, following seven years of absence, intent on giving their sound richer shades. Guitarist Jamie Hince has said that he started writing the material that would become God Games with a side project in mind, but as he went along he realised how well these songs would fit on a new Kills album. He then finished the work with the usual team made up of Alison Mosshart and producer Paul Epworth.

There's something spiritual about the twelve new tracks on God Games, not just because of the chosen title but also due to the gospel choirs that enrich the spoken-word delivery of "LA Hex" and the cathartic unfolding of "Going To Heaven". It's not a religious turn, though, but rather a kind of "secular spirituality" that manifests itself in a solid, visceral, dark and urban garage-blues-rock album, with the only flaw being the reliance on modern recording technology, which dissolves the genuine lo-fi approach of their early days. The scorched guitars of "103", the very White Stripes-like riffs of "New York", the triumphant gait (in its own way) of "Wasterpiece", the retro approach of "Blank" are other facets that characterize a thoroughly convincing comeback.

In September 2024, the Ep Happier Girls Sessions brings together four tracks from "God Games" revisited in unplugged form. These are "103", "New York", "Better Days" and "My Girls My Girls". Added at the start of the tracklist is a cover of "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish.

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