Disc 324 is...Keep On Your Mean Side
Artist: The KillsYear of Release: 2003
What’s Up With The Cover?: Designed to look like either a school record or an intake record for the slammer (I'm not sure which), this cover shows the Kills posing as their alter ego, "Kid Tsunami" (those with good eyesight will see that name on the forms). It is all a bit silly, but the cover does capture the low tech sound of the band, so I'll give it a pass.
How I Came To Know It: I simply followed the yellow brick road, paved by Jack White's collaborations. I have long been a fan of the White Stripes, and when exhorting the virtues of the Raconteurs one night, my friends Joel and Sherylyn asked me if I'd heard of The Dead Weather, which I had not, but quickly purchased thereafter (and reviewed not long ago at Disc 263).
The Dead Weather is a collaboration partly composed of White Stripes architect Jack White and Alison Mosshart, lead vocalist of The Kills. It was a simple step backward to The Kills, which I got to a few months ago. I decided to start from the beginning for a change, so I bought their debut "Keep On Your Mean Side" first. I have since bought all three others in rapid succession.
So to review: White Stripes leads to Raconteurs leads to The Dead Weather leads to The Kills. If you're wondering how you can discover good new music without the terrible experience that is modern radio, this is how it's done. If you sadly find yourself friendless, Youtube also works, although it will take longer.
How It Stacks Up: I have all four of the Kills full length records. Of the four, I would say "Keep On Your Mean Side" is tied for first with their most recent effort, 2011's "Blood Pressures."
Rating: 4 stars.
As I noted when I reviewed the Dead Weather's "Horehound" (see above), Allison Mosshart has one of the great rock and roll voices of our time. I may not have put it that way at the time (I believe I said she was 'lasciviously bluesy' and that she stands tall among musical giants, but same difference).
Mosshart is both sexy and scary in equal proportion and her vocals are like nails on a blackboard, if those nails are attached to the hottest teacher in school. Many a recent artist has tried hard to capture the raw emotion of early blues masters like Robert Johnson or Muddy Watters. Mosshart manages it effortlessly, the sound coming from somewhere deep inside her.
The other half of this album are the crunchy rock riffs of Jaimie Hince. On tracks like "Pull a U" these riffs sit so low down in your gut that you're sure they're going to push you through the bottom of your chair. The song doesn't have any deep message, principally being variations on the three lines:
"Pull a U with your sexy low car
Got your black magic
And your two dollar love."
With Mosshart's delivery, and the low grind of Hince's guitar, they take on all the importance in the world. They remind you of every hot, dangerous girl you've ever known, and the many more you didn't have the guts to even say hello to. Lately, I'm obsessed with owning an early model Dodge Charger (call it a second mid-life crisis) and this song had me thinking about all those muscle cars I've ridden around in as a kid in a small blue collar town, and how great it was.
In fact, my buddy's older brother used to have a beefed up mid-seventies Chevy Malibu. The blower on the engine was so big, the hood never fit properly, and you could see the engine shaking around dangerously in there like a caged bear. He'd replaced the stock radio with a tape deck connected to two tower speakers, that were laid down behind the bench seat in the back, secured with a piece of unfinished plywood and some screws. It was one hell of a ride.
I guess what I'm getting at is that while we went around town in that car around listening to ACDC, it could have just as easily been "Pull A U" if the year was 2003 instead of 1983.
I don't remember where we used to go in that Malibu back then and it didn't matter; it was enough to take a ride and enjoy the journey. "Keep On Your Mean Side" is the musical equivalent of that experience. The songs are blues-inspired rock songs, powerful guitar licks, and a sexy lead singer dropping catchy sentence fragments that make as much sense as they need to, and no more.
Occasionally, "Keep On Your Mean Side" slows the tempo, putting in tracks like "Kissy Kissy", "Wait" and "Monkey 23" where the guitars ease back a little, and a slow echoey reverb takes over. These sections had me thinking of Concrete Blonde's early work, although Mosshart's scratchy voice holds a harder edge than Johnette Napolitano's more breathy vocals. Of these songs, I prefer "Wait", which is stripped down and acoustic and has an emotional vulnerability from Mosshart that is rare on the record.
Two or three times this record feels the need to end songs with ramblings by the "Kid Tsunami" persona, who sounds like some raving semi-literate in the throws of drug withdrawal. It is OK on the first time through for the novelty of it, but after a few listens I had the desire to cut those pieces out of the record as unnecessary filler on a record that doesn't need such tricks to be great.
"The Kills" are my great musical find for 2011, and "Keep On Your Mean Side" is as good as they get. I just wish it hadn't taken me eight years to discover them.
Best tracks: Superstition, Cat Claw, Pull a U, Fried My Little Brains, Black Rooster, Wait, Monkey 23
1 comment:
The Kills are a great band. I came to them late as well (after the Dead Weather like yourself.) Got a chance to see them at the Commodore on the Blood Pressures tour, and the live performance is as good or better than the albums.
They kill it.
Highly recommend the live show if you get the chance.
On another note, if you're enjoying the dirty blues...check out the Black Keys EP: Chulahoma: The songs of Junior Kimbrough. If you like that (and I think you will) they have another six studio albums (plus a couple eps, and live albums) to drill through - If you're so inclined.
Post a Comment