The Kills "No Wow" LP Dead Weather Discount

$

70

The Kills "No Wow" LP Rough Trade/RCA (US)

Vinyl is NM, Jacket is VG+

Original Press

Out of Print!!

Track Listing:

The Kills is a rock band formed by American singer Alison Mosshart ("VV") and British guitarist Jamie Hince ("Hotel"). Their first three albums, Keep On Your Mean Side, No Wow, and Midnight Boom have gathered much critical praise. Blood Pressures, their fourth and most recent studio album, was released on April 4, 2011 worldwide and April 5, 2011 in the United States. They are currently on tour in the United States and Canada until May 14, 2011. From there they are touring the United Kingdom and other countries throughout the Summer and Fall. However, they will return to the United States for Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 5-7th.

Career

Mosshart was previously in Floridian punk rock band Discount, and Hince was in the British rock bands Fiji, Scarfo and Blyth Power (the latter describe themselves as a mix of The Clash, Steeleye Span and The Rubettes). The duo first met when Mosshart heard Hince practicing in the hotel room above hers, and when Scarfo and Discount disbanded, they struck up a songwriting partnership. For months, the pair air mailed work tapes across the Atlantic; this proved to test the patience of both artists as it took days or weeks to get each other's tapes, so Mosshart moved from her Florida home under the guidance of Lauren Antonina Herbert to London.

Wanting to cut themselves off from their pasts, Mosshart and Hince renamed themselves "VV" and "Hotel" respectively and began writing sparse, minimalist songs together with the aid of a drum machine. In 2001 they showcased their new songs on a well received demo tape; however, the pair shunned approaches from major record labels. Recording as VV and Hotel, they contributed the song "Restaurant Blouse" to the compilation If the Twenty-First Century Did Not Exist, It Would Be Necessary to Invent It. Shortly after this they recorded their debut release, the Black Rooster EP, which saw release on British indie label Domino Records and was picked up for distribution by Dim Mak Records in the United States.

The record could not have been more of a departure from both artists' previous bands. It was lo-fi in both musical and aesthetic terms. The record sleeve featured photos of Mosshart and Hince taken in a photo booth rather than professional photography. Musically, the record was a sparse, lo-fi Garage rock/Blues hybrid. Though the band cites Captain Beefheart, PJ Harvey, LCD Soundsystem, The Velvet Underground, The Fall, Patti Smith, Suicide and Royal Trux as immediate influences, the music press has largely compared them to another well-known boy/girl minimalist garage blues duo, The White Stripes.

Keep on Your Mean Side

Following international touring, they entered Toe Rag Studios, where the White Stripes had recorded their album Elephant, to record their debut album Keep on Your Mean Side, mostly on 8-track, in just 2 weeks. Distributed in the US and UK by Rough Trade Records, the album was similar in style to the EP, veering from the Velvets-esque stomp of "Wait" to the noisy, dirty garage punk blues of "Fuck the People" (this song is rumoured to be a reference/homage to the French convicted criminal Florence Rey) and dark psychedelia of "Kissy Kissy". The record was well received by the music press, though the White Stripes comparisons would not go away.

Maintaining an anti-careerist, anti-music industry attitude, the band rarely granted interviews. Rather, they got the music press to come to them with their minimalist yet powerful live shows (which also included the drum machine), the pair maintaining an air of tension by subverting the expected role of stage performer. Mosshart chain-smoked while singing, rarely speaking to the audience, whilst Hince violently ripped blues riffs from his instrument. At a New York City show following the ban on public smoking, Mosshart went on stage with three bottles of water, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to smoke constantly from the first song to the last note of the set.

In 2005, "Monkey 23" was used in "De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté", the film by Jacques Audiard. It played over the closing credits.

In 2006, "Wait" was used in Children of Men, the film by Alfonso Cuarón. It was played on Radio Avalon and described as "a blast from the past all the way back to 2003, that beautiful time when people refused to accept the future is just around the corner". In 2007, the songs "Cat Claw" and "Wait" were used in the Criminal Minds episode "Doubt".

No Wow

Their second album, No Wow, was released by Domino Records on February 21, 2005. Featuring an artier, less "guitar rock" sound, the record embraced post punk influences and sounded even more stripped down than Keep on Your Mean Side. Originally written to be performed on a Moog, the band was forced to change directions and record it primarily using a guitar as its central instrument after Hince's Moog broke and couldn't be repaired before entering the studio. A 40-minute DVD documentary was included with a limited number of copies and features interview, performance and on the road footage shot on tour.

The first single, "The Good Ones", from No Wow, was released on February 7, 2005 and reached number 23 in the UK Singles Chart.

Mosshart features in the title track of Placebo's album Meds, released on March 13, 2006 in the UK, and on April 4, 2006 in the US. She also features on the Primal Scream album Riot City Blues.

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