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 THE
KILLS – Black
Rooster (Dim Mak) I
strongly suspect that the UK’s, The Kills, is the lovechild of a torrid
affair between The Velvet Underground and The Kinks.
The Black Rooster EP is a
five-song collection of raw, tough, and yet simple tunes. No…make that four songs and one recording that sounds more
like fetish material than a traditional song.
VV and Hotel, members of The Kills, alternate
back and forth between lead vocals demonstrating more aural variety than
most groups can produce. “Cat
Claw” is the highlight of the disc with a hard-fisted
and gutsy attitude. “Wait”
wafts through your speakers with a fundamental guitar sound and with a
clean-sounding production. The live performance of “Dropout Boogie”
however, makes me end up humming The Kink’s “You Really Got Me”
instead of The Kills’ song that I’m listening to. “Black Rooster” has got a pretty cool groove, but not the
kind of lyrics you want to sing in front of dear old Mom and Dad.
Finally,
“Gum” is more along the lines of weird performance poetry for those
with bubblegum idiosyncrasies, and I have no idea how to review it other
than to say that it’s a little too much of an oddball
piece for a music CD.
Though crude, Black Rooster is good for a
listen if you’re in the mood for veering from the mainstream.
But I tend to think that The Kills would be more fun in a live-show
atmosphere than in listening to a recording. -Melanie Falina
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