Be Movers, Be Shakers With The Kills Tonight

At the end of a workweek, do you like your rock barren and minimalist? Droning, sludgy guitar? Do you crave cagey vocals conjuring the heyday of early 2000s, pre-smoking ban, lo-fi garage rock? Austin, we know that you do.

The Kills play rock with the sustained tension of a chain smoker in the long moment just after a drag and before exhalation. This duo of Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince strip British indie down to its indispensables—those being his and hers guitars, a drum machine (get over it), and rebellious disaffection involving the occasional Dostoyevsky reference.

VV and Hotel came together after she heard him rehearsing in the hotel room directly above hers and the two sent recordings across the pond to one another before Mosshart moved to England. Now she wears her stylistic comparisons to PJ Harvey like a badge of honor, and has been reported to snub audiences and reporters like she was born right into the ranks of London rockers.

Adding layers to the inevitable comparison to a certain other male/female laconic duo, the Kills recorded their 2003 debut album Keep on Your Mean Side in the same studio as the White Stripes’ Elephant, Toe Rag Records. And VV also sings lead for The Dead Weather, a side project shared with Jack White, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs.

The Kills’ latest record, Midnight Boom, is a sleek, pounding anathema to all things dowdy. How apropos for ushering in the weekend. Rounding out the ticket tonight are fellow London garage rockers The Horrors and star-crossed hipsters Magic Wands.

The Kills [Official] [Myspace] The Horrors [Official] [Myspace] Magic Wands [Official] [Myspace]

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