THE KILLS - KEEP ON YOUR MEAN SIDE Domino. The Kills are the sort of band that cause adjective shortages in music writing, as hacks scramble for the last remaining synonyms of ‘dirty’ and ‘raw’ to describe a distillation of bad-living chic. And they may be a pair of try-hards who’ve had more than a hand in the making of their own myth, but guy/girl duo Hotel and VV still scrub up as well as anyone stylistically, armed with 40-a-day insouciance and a drum machine that pierces worn basement rock with tinny, bone-bare rhythms. They’re as fresh as a corpse, and they pursue a credible mystique by looking and talking like one too: Why else would we be treated to a snippet of VV’s stoned voice and TB-patient cough between tracks one and two? Keep these two away from the Marmite, because they lay it on pretty thick. Which isn’t to say the music doesn’t work, because it does. Their skeleton-crew line-up invites all sorts of comparisons, most topically with The White Stripes, whose bastard blues echo around Black Rooster’s booze-soaked repetition (“baby wanna fuck and fight in the basement” – a line straight out of the Everett True’s wet dreams), and whose deceptively rough guitar technique shares more than a little with Hotel's. More interestingly, the opener Superstition sounds like a ragged, junkie incarnation of minimal pop heroes Young Marble Giants, their stark restraint choked with smoke and distortion.
	Elsewhere it’s all undemanding but perfectly executed stuff: Cat Claw judders and yowls into a propulsive, stunningly banal chorus, Pull A U lets VV Patti-Smith it over a strong, crunchy riff, Kissy Kissy serves up refried, spiked country. No less worth the entry fee is Wait, a chugging, melodic offering like BRMC at their most JMC, which lets VV give it some soul and Hotel sing la-la-la-la like a big girl. They sound almost human. Despite all manner of lyrical improprieties – with lines like “it’s been a long time comin’” and “you got it, I want it” they ain’t keeping Costello up at night – these two have put their pseudy names to one of the more convincing records of rock’s popular renaissance. Buy it, but don’t write fan mail; you’ll only encourage them. Nathan Midgley Nathanmidgley@hotmail.com www.the-echo.com Click here to discuss The Kills on our music forum.
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