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THE KILLS

The Kills

God Games

    Whether we look for him or not, we all find God somewhere. It could be in nature. It could be in church. It could be in the metaverse. It differs for each and every one of us. In terms of where God might be, The Kills aren’t necessarily saying, but the duo - Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince - certainly sound like they’ve seen him. How else could you explain the primal call-and-response between Alison’s full body blues-soul vocal catharsis and Jamie’s swaggering, guillotine-smooth guitar transmissions on the duo’s sixth full-length offering, God Games?

    The Kills have emerged as international rock stars, setting the pace for the genre, shaping this era’s sound, and redefining what rock music can be in the 21st century. They’re the rare force of nature who can tour with Queens of the Stone Age or Guns N’ Roses and light up Coachella. Returning home from the road in 2019, Alison and Jamie commenced writing for what would become God Games. However, the old adage, “Make plans, God laughs,” couldn’t have been more apropos.

    Stretching boundaries, Jamie encouraged Alison to “buy this 100-dollar keyboard and try to write.” She added another creative tool to her arsenal, while he tinkered with textures, sounds and “wrote on guitar less than ever,” opting to primarily compose on piano for the first time. This powerful combination of forces gave the album its own sonic identity, a new path forged in the pair’s creative bond.

    The Kills decamped to an old church (a bit ironic now isn’t it?) where they recorded with old friend and Academy and GRAMMY Award-winning producer Paul Epworth [Adele]. “Paul was our very first soundman in 2002,” recalls Jamie. “Since he was with us when we had two amps, a lightbulb, and a couple of mics in a van, it seemed perfect. He knew how far it had come and could trace the thread back.”

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: The Kills have been known for pummelling a riff or two, and though there's no shortage of that on 'God Games', it's by far their most contemplative and mature outing yet. Incendiary passages are tempered with blues, post-punk and even bits of folk seep into the mix, and it's all the better for it.

    The Kills

    No Wow - The Tchad Blake Mix 2022

    On their seminal second album, No Wow, The Kills established the ethos that would set the tone for their expansive career - capture the rawest emotions and sounds, and then push them to the furthest possible edge.

    The band is celebrating No Wow’s 15-year anniversary with a deluxe reissue featuring a fresh new mix by the multiple grammy award-winning Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, Fiona Apple, Arctic Monkeys) that brings new life to the 11 vivid tracks.



    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: A superb new mix of this seminal Kills LP from 2015 sees legendary deskman Tchad Blake give the raucous percussion and grinding overdrive room to breathe below Mosshart's legendary vocal fire. A wonderful album, and an essential purchase for those of you unaware of the power it holds. Superb.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany
    2. Love Is A Deserter
    3. Dead Road 7
    4. The Good Ones
    5. I Hate The Way You Love
    6. I Hate The Way You Love, Pt. 2
    7. At The Back Of The Shell
    8. Sweet Cloud
    9. Rodeo Town
    10. Murdermile
    11. Ticket Man

    Chubby & The Gang

    Speed Kills

      At the start of 2020 several US publications began running glowing reviews of ‘Speed Kills’, the breakneck debut album from Chubby & the Gang, a West London punk troupe comprised of members of various bands associated with The New Wave of British Hardcore, among them Violent Reaction, Abolition, Big Cheese and more. At the time, the band - helmed by local electrician Charlie Manning - had developed a cult following in the UK, largely rooted in the cross-pollinating nature of the punk scene, select shows including dates with Sheer Mag and an impending, last minute US run with Royal Hounds.

      ‘Speed Kills’, produced by Jonah Falco of Fucked Up, would go on to be called “the best punk-pop LP in recent memory” by Paste Magazine, a debut that “comes alive with liberating energy” in an 8.0 review from Pitchfork and full of “massive barroom gang choruses, power chords at breakneck tempos, rock spelled R-A-W-K and visceral gratification” as Stereogum put it. Impressive going for a band at the time with no publicist, no big budget label backing and no industry clout per se, beyond increasingly fervent underground support.

      Following the quietly blossoming success of ‘Speed Kills’ earlier this year, Chubby & the Gang now find a new home on Partisan Records (IDLES, Fontaines D.C., Laura Marling, Fela Kuti) who reissue the album in remastered form with the unreleased cut ‘Union Dues’ included to boot and with new music on the horizon.

      TRACK LISTING

      Chubby And The Gang Rule OK?
      Pariah Radio
      All Along The Uxbridge Road
      Speed Kills
      Can’t Tell Me Nothing 
      Trouble (You Were Always On My Mind)
      The Rise And Fall Of The Gang
      Hold Your Breath
      Moscow
      Bruce Grove Bullies
      Blue Ain’t My Colour
      Grenfell Forever
      Union Dues

      The Kills

      Little Bastards

        The Kills have compiled an extraordinary career spanning b-sides and rarities album titled, appropriately, Little Bastards. The songs date back from the band’s first 7-inch singles in 2002 through to 2009. All of the material has been newly remastered for release on 2 x LP, CD & Digital and marks the first ever vinyl pressing for some of these tracks.

        The compilation includes the unreleased and never-before-heard demo “Raise Me” from the 2008-2009 Midnight Boom era. Other highlights include “I Call It Art” from the Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited covers compilation, the brilliant Midnight Boom digital bonus track “Night Train,” a blistering performance of “Love Is A Deserter” from an XFM radio session and a handful of classic American roots songs performed with the kind of bruising delivery they’re famous for: Howlin’ Wolfs’ “Forty Four,” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell on You” and Dock Boggs’ “Sugar Baby.”

        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: It always amazes me when a band releases a b-sides album that could easily have held an album’s worth of material. In the case of the new Kills retrospective, ‘Little Bastards’ (named after a presumably disobedient Roland 880 sampler) it could easily have been two albums worth.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. SUPERPOWERLESS / Last Day Of Magic 7” - 2008
        2. PASSION IS ACCURATE / Love Is A Deserter CD Single - 2005
        3. KISS THE WRONG SIDE / Cheap And Cheerful 7” - 2008
        4. RAISE ME / Unreleased Demo 2009
        5. NIGHT TRAIN / Midnight Boom Digital Bonus Track 2008
        6. HALF OF US / No Wow 7” - 2005
        7. LONDON HATES YOU / Tape Song 7” - 2008
        8. I CALL IT ART / Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited Compilation - 2006
        9. FORTY FOUR / Black Balloon 7” - 2009
        10. LOVE IS A DESERTER / Recorded For XFM - 2005
        11. THE SEARCH FOR CHERRY RED / Pull A U 7” Single - 2003
        12. MAGAZINE / Love Is A Deserter 7” - 2005
        13. BLUE MOON / Future Starts Slow 7” Single - 2011
        14. JEWEL THIEF / Fried My Little Brains 7” Single - 2003
        15. BABY’S EYES / The Good Ones 7” Single - 2003
        16. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU / Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Cover - 2009
        17. RUN HOME SLOW / The Good Ones CD Single - 2005
        18. WEED KILLER / Black Balloon 10” - 2009
        19. THE VOID / No Wow Expanded Edition CD - 2005 

        The Kills

        Black Rooster EP

          The Kills’ eponymous debut mini album ‘Black Rooster’, originally released in 2002, has been reissued for the first time.

          The mini album was recorded on an 8-track at Toe Rag Studios by Liam Watson, except ‘Dropout Boogie’ which was recorded during a live performance at Paint It Black.


          TRACK LISTING

          Cat Claw
          Black Rooster
          Wait
          Dropout Boogie
          Gum

          Over their almost decade-and-a-half career, The Kills have released four records. Each one a restless, reckless enigmatic art statement that bristled with tension, anxiety, sex, unstudied cool and winking ennui, yet not one of them sounded like the previous one. Ash & Ice is the follow up to 2011’s critically lauded Blood Pressures and was five years in the making in part due to Jamie Hince’s five hand surgeries, which resulted in him having to re-learn how to play guitar with a permanently damaged finger.

          Unlike earlier albums, which have largely been written and recorded at Key Club Studio in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the bulk of the recording for Ash & Ice took place in a rented house in LA and at the world famous Electric Lady Studios in NYC. The album was produced by Jamie Hince and co-produced by John O’Mahony (Metric, The Cribs), and mixed by Tom Elmhirst (Adele, Arcade Fire, Amy Winehouse) and Tchad Blake (Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys).

          It was during Hince’s recuperation from surgery that he first started sketching out what would become the songs for the album. To shake up the writing process, Hince booked a solo trip on the infamous Trans-Siberian Express for inspiration while Alison Mosshart, now residing in Nashville, TN, wrote some of the most affecting, poetically candid lyrics that she ever has, painting word pictures that mine the dangerous terrain between romantic obsession, prophecy and tough love. Where previous albums had an air of detachment and emotional austerity, underpinned by an uneasy self-awareness and unexpressed anger, the 13 songs on Ash & Ice are more understated, less tempestuous and more affecting because of that, exposing the kind of push-pull you feel when you find yourself in a complicated but all-consuming relationship. Ash & Ice is The Kills at their emotionally charged, arresting best. Prepare to be slayed.



          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: The Kills return with their newest album since 2011's 'Blood Pressures' and this might just be their most intricate and emotive offering yet. Further emphasising their innate ability to pluck at the heartstrings whilst soothing the soul. Mossheart's vocals are as sultry and emotive as ever, and the instrumentation is just as you'd expect : raw, honest and beautiful.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Doing It To Death
          2. Heart Of A Dog
          3. Hard Habit To Break
          4. Bitter Fruit
          5. Days Of Why And How
          6. Let It Drop
          7. Hum For Your Buzz
          8. Siberian Nights
          9. That Love
          10. Impossible Tracks
          11. Black Tar
          12. Echo Home
          13. Whirling Eye

          The Kills

          Blood Pressures

            The Kills - Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart - are back with a new studio album, "Blood Pressures", the highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed third album, "Midnight Boom".

            The 11 tracks find The Kills embracing a fuller sound and becoming more adventurous in the studio, while the lyrics are honest, heartfelt and sometimes just plain heartbreaking.

            As one of the most vital, striking bands recording today, The Kills' vividly unique "rock" is at once effortless, edgy and timeless.

            STAFF COMMENTS

            Andy says: Superb return to form: song after top song. Mega sound too. Everything you love about The Kills on one album.

            David says: How contrary are The Kills? That they've managed to find the time to make an album at all is an achievement, what with Alison Mosshart touring and recording as Dead Weather and Jamie Hince preparing for life in the tabloids as Mr Kate Moss. But that “Blood Pressures”, their fourth and best album to date, should swagger so effortlessly, well...
            The band's trademark Delta sleaze, boogie-box blues could never be described as original and, yes, they're certainly walking a road that many have walked before them but, if you're of the opinion that there's never been need for any more than three chords, a pair of skinny jeans and a decent pair of sunglasses, then look no further: this is the album for you.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Future Starts Slow
            2. Satellite
            3. Heart Is A Beating Drum
            4. Nail In My Coffin
            5. Wild Charms
            6. DNA
            7. Baby Says
            8. The Last Goodbye
            9. Damned If She Do
            10. You Don't Own The Road
            11. Pots And Pans

            The Kills

            Midnight Boom

              The eagerly anticipated "Midnight Boom" sees The Kills offering their most stunning album yet. The production on this album, featuring beats and studio smarts from Spank Rock's producer Alex Epton aka Armani XXXchange, combined with Alison's confidently teasing vocals, creates a truly forward thinking, fresh new sound for the band. Taking inspiration from Pizza Pizza Daddio, a Sixties documentary about kids in inner-city schools in the USA, The Kills' Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart started building rhythms influenced by the children's dark playground songs, on an old school hand-punched MPC-60 hip hop drum sequencer. The results are shown in some of the hypnotic original tracks on the album, like "Cheap And Cheerful".

              The Kills

              No Wow

                On "No Wow" The Kills' vision, showcased on their highly acclaimed debut, remains undimmed. The band, whose objective has been to marry all areas of art and life, have pushed the parameters with "No Wow", a record that sees them reduce rock'n'roll to its barest components, making the space in between the notes just as important as music itself.


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