The Kills in concert this weekend. Recorded live this past November at La Gaite Lyrique in Paris by RTL Radio.
Singer Alison Mosshart and Guitarist Jamie Hince both played in other bands before they formed The Kills in 2001. Mosshart was previously the vocalist of punk rock band Discount, while Hince featured in rock bands such as Scarfo and Blyth Power. Mosshart encountered Hince when her band was touring England, where Hince was “staying in the flat upstairs from where she was staying” in London.Mosshart insisted on forming a band with Hince and “really persisted, and eventually we started writing and he encouraged me”. Hince supplied her with a four-track tape recorder and insisted she write music as well as lyrics while on tour with her band. The two continued to exchange music ideas by sending each other tapes.
Discount disbanded in 2000, and Mosshart moved to London in the same year. Before settling on a name, Mosshart and Hince performed as “VV” and “Hotel” respectively, Hince explaining that they “named each other off the top of our heads as a stupid romantic ode to the pop art scene”. The duo opted for The Kills as it “sounded like a band that could exist in any decade”.
Using the ideas on the tapes, Mosshart and Hince began to write minimalist songs with the aid of a drum machine. In 2001 they showcased their new songs on a 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 that 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.
After touring internationally, they went to 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 U.S. 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” and dark psychedelia of “Kissy Kissy”. The record was well received by the music press, though the White Stripes comparisons would not go away.
Mosshart chain-smoked while singing, rarely speaking to the audience; 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 2004 Mosshart and Hince bought a house together in Dalston, East London. In 2005, “Monkey 23” was used in the film “De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté”, where it played over the closing credits. It was also featured in season three of Peaky Blinders. In 2006, “Wait” was used in Children of Men, where it was described in-universe 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”.
Owing to COVID and the subsequent lockdown, The Kills returned in June 2022, playing their first show in almost three years in support of Jack White at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. In July 2023, the band released their first new original music in seven years: A double A-side single, “New York” and “LA Hex”. Both songs served as the lead singles to band’s sixth album God Games, which was released on October 27, 2023. A further two singles were released from the album prior to its release: “103” in August, and “Wasterpiece” in October.
Enjoy the show.
