Tag: Jamie Hince

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Kills Releases a Sultry and Gritty Blues

Throughout the course of this site’s 10+ year history, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of ink covering the critically applauded and commercially successful duo The Kills. And with the release of albums like 2003’s Keep on Your Mean Side, 2005’s No Wow, 2008’s Midnight Boom, 2011’s Blood Pressures and 2016’s Ash & Ice, the duo — Alison Mosshart (vocals) and Jamie Hince (guitar, production) — have firmly cemented a reputation for crafting a scuzzy and swaggering power chord-based blues and garage rock sound and approach.

Since the release of Ash & Ice, the duo have been busy with their own, individual creative projects: Mosshart published a book of poetry and photography and released some solo material while Hince has been busy with production work. But the duo close out 2020 with the release of Little Bastards, a career-spanning compilation of B-sides and rarities.

The album derives its name from the affectionate nickname that the pair gave to the drum machine they used in their early days and a wry comment on the tracks eventual fate: in many cases, the tracks were crafted on to fill bonus-track space on CD singles, they effectively vanished with the release format that necessitated their creation. The material dates back from the duo’s first batches of 7 inch singles released between 2002 and 2009.

Newly remastered for release on CD, digital and on vinyl LP, it also marks the first ever vinyl pressing for some of the tracks. A significant portion of the compilation features covers — including their feral and sensuous cover of the oft-cover Screamin’ Jay Hawkins‘ “I Put A Spell On You.” Continuing in a similar vein the compilation’s latest single is the serpentine blues number “Weed Killer.” Centered around slashing bursts of distorted guitar and Mosshart’s sultry delivery, the song is everything I love about The Kills: gritty, dirty blues rock delivered with an ass-kicking, name-taking swagger.

The recently released Sally Walker Hudecki-directed video features footage from a Kills show in New York back in 2012. It’s an accurate representation of the duo’s live show and a reminder of what many of us miss so dearly.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Kills Cover Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”

Throughout the course of this site’s 10+ year history, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of ink covering the critically applauded and commercially successful duo The Kills. And with the release of albums like 2003’s Keep on Your Mean Side, 2005’s No Wow, 2008’s Midnight Boom, 2011’s Blood Pressures and 2016’s Ash & Ice, the duo — Alison Mosshart (vocals) and Jamie Hince (guitar, production) — have cemented a reputation for crafting a scuzzy and swaggering power chord-based blues and garage rock sound and approach.

Some time has passed since I’ve come across new material from the JOVM mainstays. Individually, the members of The Kills have been busy with their own creative projects — Mosshart published a book of poetry and photography and released solo material while Hince has been busy with production work. But interestingly enough, earlier this month the acclaimed duo announced that they would be releasing a career-spanning B-side and rarity compilation titled Little Bastards.

Slated for a December 11, 2020 release through Domino Recording Company, Little Bastards consists of material that date back from the band’s first batches of 7 inch singles released in 2002 up until 2009. The material has been newly remastered for release on CD, digitally and on LP — and it makes the first ever vinyl pressings for some of the tracks. A great deal of the compilation features covers — including the album’s second and latest single, a somewhat straightforward cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ oft-covered Halloween classic “I Put A Spell On You” that bristles with a feral sensuality.

Edited by the band’s Mosshart, the recently released video for “I Put A Spell On You” features live footage from shows in Portland, OR; Pomona, CA; and San Francisco. While capturing the duo’s live energy, the video makes me miss live music so very much. Sigh.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

San Antonio-based duo The Holy Knives — New Orleans-born, San Antonio-based siblings Kyle and Kody Valentine — derive their name from a combination of two of their favorite works of art: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and Frank Stanford’s The Singing Knives. Both works — although in very different media — conjure a flood of beautiful, thought-provoking imagery while centered around a fearless quest for truth through the irrational that the duo strive to capture in their own work.

Inspired by Portishead, Leonard Cohen, Arctic Monkeys and Timber Timbre, the San Antonio-based duo specializes in an eerily cinematic sound featuring Western-inspired soundscapes and downtempo grooves to create a sound that sounds as though it could be part of an episode of Twin Peaks or True Detective. The duo’s latest EP Always Gone was released as a series of singles earlier this year — and the band will continue to release a song a month for the remainder of the year.

Recently, The Kills‘ Jamie Hince remixed, the brooding EP single and title track “Always Gone” — and his touch manages to be subtle: it retains the song’s brooding atmospherics, and sonorous baritone but while gently pushing the pace up a bit with some subtly industrial-like boom bap beats and an extra layer of shimmering reverb. Interestingly, both the original and the remix manage to remind me of Daughn Gibson’s work — eerie, brooding and seemingly haunted by lingering, old ghosts of regret and despair.