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October 09, 2007
Bleak Girls Club
Though I haven't heard much of anything about them since 2005, the Kills were playing near constant New York City gigs in support of 2003's Keep on Your Mean Side and its preceding EP, Black Rooster. I managed to catch two or three excellent sets during that span. Strung out sexpot VV was doomed and striking, lighting cigarette after cigarette in the newly smoke free club scene. Her ludicrously named partner "Hotel' a bolt of spastic frustrated energy. They had the same minimal boy/girl cool that makes Prinzhorn Dance School so appealing now, only channeled in a blues based and sexually charged direction. The band's tense and dirty energy predicted a wider fan base that never fully materialized. A consistent set highpoint during this period was a cover of late nineties flame outs, Jonathan Fire*Eater entitled "the Search for Cherry Red." Shamefully, I had never heard the original version until it popped up on Fluxblog a week ago. Up until now, I was always extremely puzzled thinking the Kills had recorded a definitive song, only to find no place for it on an underwhelming sophomore disc.
JF*E's version, of course, turned out to be thrilling, with it's doomed little rich kid protagonists seemingly sprung from every nihilistic novel I ever loved in college. It was immediately more satisfying than full albums from the Walkmen, who rose from the ill-destined group's ashes. While dealing with the ensuing obsession that this late delivery has caused me, I've re-examined the track I assumed was meant to be the Kills bizarrely lost classic. It's still superb, and an easy peer to the fire eaters' glam/tragic flailings. VV's desperate vocals fight for space with a beat so gnarled and distorted that it sounds like some sort of malfunction. Though it trims down the original's vague narrative from suggestive to cryptic, it also adds enough menace to assure that the dots filled in by the listener are suitably nasty.
the Kills - "the Search for Cherry Red"
I'm not sure if this is an official video or what. It seems a little too well compiled to be a fan artifact, but still strangely cheap. It's like someone had access to a toppling mountain of Kills photo stills and live footage to put together a representative clip that could then be applied to any random Kills track. The live playing could be of anything, and doesn't even pretend to sync "Cherry Red" with the images flickering past. Also, there's the question of why this track, shunned to the b-side of a vinyl only "Pull a U" single back in 2003, would be granted a video at all. Better to concern yourself with repeated listening to the song below.
the Kills - "the Search for Cherry Red"
Nothing about Farah's "Law of Life" sounds Texan, though that's apparently where she spends her days. Like many crush worthy tracks on the After Dark compilation, the stately synth patterns are the handiwork of the Italians Do it Better label's prime creative force, Glass Candy/Chromatics member Johnny Jewel. But where his other gals go for sedated club glamour, Farah calmly rambles in a spooked deadpan. She sounds like the oracle in a nineties film version of an old greek myth, her complex truths made untrustworthy with affected ironic distance. At 3:30, Jewel's active backgrounds simplify, as Farah's eyes roll back and she slips into what might be lines of convincing Latin--her detached delivery casually possessed. From here, the drama escalates further, until a superior (and even icier) groove can take over. The intensity may pick up slightly in the vocals here, gain a little instrumental steam there, but neither disrupt the fine slow burn.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at October 9, 2007 09:20 PM
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Comments
Hey Jeff, did you get around to hearing JFE's Wolf Songs For Lambs album yet?
Posted by: Matthew at October 9, 2007 11:47 PM
I found it used, and it's en route now. I'm pretty excited though. I must have skipped CMJ the month their press was in full swing, as I was definitely in the market for aggressively hyped indie rock bands at the time.
Posted by: Jeff K at October 9, 2007 11:54 PM
The Farah song is really neat.
Posted by: D.S. at December 28, 2007 05:20 PM
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