Music Reviews

The Kills

Black Rooster

Dim Mak

Seems you can’t go anywhere these days without bumping into a male/female garage-type rock duo, and sometimes it gets a bit too much. The Kills, however, is a band you don’t want to miss out on – not if basic, uncompromising ’70s strut rock is your thing. This fiive-track EP is a convincing first release (bar one self-released demo) from a band that’s only been around for about a year.

The first song on here is the very, very cool “Cat Claw,” which sounds like early Pretenders on a particularly sleazy day, a really great kick-off track. The title track is a glammy, laid-back, hip-shaking pub-rock kind of thing that moves between Lou Reed and Iggy and comes out looking all the better for it. “Wait” is a Velvet Underground sort of thing, and probably the real, hidden gem on here. Captain Beefheart’s “Dropout Boogie” drags the riff from “You Really Got Me” to hell and back, and it’s only the closing “Gum” that fails to reach the heights of what’s come before.

If not the most original band in the world, The Kills deliver with style and wit and this is well worth the attention of you leather-clad mods and rockers out there.

Dim Mak Records: http://www.dimmak.com


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