The Kills

For other uses of the term "The Kills", see The Kills (disambiguation).

The Kills
300x200px Live at Heaven, London, March 2011
Background information
Origin	United Kingdom, United States
Genres	Indie rock, garage rock
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Domino Records Rough Trade Records RCA Records Dim Mak Records (former)
Associated acts	The Raconteurs, Blyth Power, Scarfo, Discount, The Dead Weather
Website	www.thekills.tv
Members	Alison "VV" Mosshart Jamie "Hotel" Hince

The Kills are an indie 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 garnered 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.

Career

Mosshart was previously in Floridian punk rock band Discount, and Hince was in the British rock bands Fiji, Scarfo and Blyth Power. Before the two had met, Mosshart overheard Hince playing music in an upstairs flat during Mosshart's European tour with Discount. They finally met up, and started playing around with some music ideas. After Mosshart went back to Florida under the influence of Lauren Antonina Herbert, she continued writing songs with Jamie, by sending her ideas overseas to London, where he lived. Mosshart saved her money and eventually moved to London. The duo officially started. Wanting to cut themselves off from their pasts, Mosshart and Hince renamed themselves "VV" and "Hotel", respectively. Hince said that he and Mosshart "got drunk one day and named each other off the top of our heads as a stupid romantic ode to the pop art scene." Later, after each wrote multiple band name ideas on typewriters, Mosshart and Hince decided on a new name, The Kills.

Together, they began writing sparse, 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 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 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" 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 live shows (which also included the drum machine). 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 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 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.

Midnight Boom

Midnight Boom was released in March 2008.

Its music was used throughout many American TV shows, including 90210. A big selection of songs from the album were featured within hit series Gossip Girl, and also, their track "Sour Cherry" was featured as the soundbed for Season Two's official trailer. "Sour Cherry" also featured on the footloose trailer.

The album also picked up new mainstream success for the band with various big TV performances in the UK; appearing on Later With Jools Holland, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, T4, The Album Chart Show, Sound, Live From Abbey Road, and From The Basement.

On October 21, 2008, "Cheap and Cheerful" was used on the show House during the opening scene of the episode "Lucky Thirteen". "Cheap and Cheerful" can also be heard on the NHL 09 soundtrack. It was later used in the Fendi's TV commercial for the "Fan di Fendi" perfume (2010). "U.R.A. Fever" was played during a love scene in the 2010 movie The Losers. Only the chorus of the song is played. "U.R.A. Fever" was heard in the 2010 film Welcome to the Rileys, as well as appearing on its soundtrack. It is also heard on the 2011 movie Catch .44 (partially) and the 2012 movie Detention. The bonus song "Night Train" appeared in the 2009 remake of the film Friday The 13th.

Blood Pressures

On September 11, 2009, it was announced on the band's MySpace page that they had begun work on their fourth studio album though no release date had been set.

"Black Balloon" from their "Black Balloon EP", released in 2009, was featured in the Season 2 episode of The Good Wife, "Net Worth", on February 15, 2011.

The Kills' fourth studio album, Blood Pressures, was released in April 2011. A video for the first single from Blood Pressures, "Satellite", was released on February 9, 2011, followed By Future Starts Slow, Baby Says, The Last Goodbye, and Wild Charms on September 2012. "Future Starts Slow" was also used in a promotion for the episode "The Wait Is Almost Over" of hit TV series True Blood (season 4). The song from the same album "Damned If She Do" was also used in the promotion of The Vampire Diaries third season, and has received positive reviews from the fans. "The Last Goodbye" was used in the 2012 film Just Like A Woman, starring Sienna Miller.

"DNA" was featured in the pilot episode of The Secret Circle.

"Future Starts Slow" appears in the trailer for the 2012 action thriller film Contraband, a March 2012 episode of the Vampire Diaries, in a promotion and, beginning with the second episode, was used as the theme music for the 2012 TV series Political Animals (miniseries), and was used towards the end of episode 16, season 2 of Person of Interest.

They contributed a cover of Dreams to the Fleetwood Mac tribute compilation "Just Tell Me That You Want Me", set for release on August 14, 2012 through Hear Music and Concord Music Group.

They released the photo book "Dream & Drive", made with their long time friend and photographer Kenneth Capello. Capello has also directed some of their music videos, such as No Wow and Black Balloon.

New album

Paris Spleen: The Kills Live at L'Olympia, the film of their show from November 2011 was released on 20 September 2013 in partnership with the French clothing company Equipment.

The Kills were set to go on a small American tour with Queens of the Stone Age in December 2013.

Shortly after the announcement of the shows, the band's record label, Domino Records confirmed that the duo are working on their next album. In May 2014, Mosshart said that they were looking for a new sound and that this new album will be completely different from the others. "You never know what's going to happen with a record when you're writing. - says Alison - It could be done all of a sudden in two months, or it could take another year. You get on these tangents, and you find new directions. You kind of follow the scent wherever it's taking you. Sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes it's fast as hell."

The Kills are part of the line-up for Coachella 2016.

Discography

Main article: The Kills discography

Studio albums

• Keep on Your Mean Side (2003)
• No Wow (2005)
• Midnight Boom (2008)
• Blood Pressures (2011)

External links

• Official website
• The Kills at Dim Mak Records
• The Kills at AllMusic