From amidst the city that never ever sleeps in New York has emerged one of the most original rock �n� roll bands this side of the Equator. There may be only two key players to The KILLS, but the awesomely raw sound and presence they have harnessed to their advantage needs but W and Hotel and a whole lot of blues and soul, rock and roll emotion of the darkest and dirtiest kind.
Live, they are a sight to behold. Hotel wears the trousers and, er, so does his partner in crime W. So as not to confuse, W is the lady singer and Hotel provides 5-star riff treatment via his guitar that works so hard for him it pains me. �Pull A U� does sound like every other song I�ve ever heard of theirs, but I woe betide anybody who denies them their distinctive, claustrophobic sound that�s lyrically accompanied this strike around by talk of �black magic, 2-dollar love� and W crooning gravely yet gracefully - and seemingly besotted with Joplin-pioneered individuality in her vocal creativity - �I�m not trying to wake you up.� Honest.
�Search For Cherry Red� is even better, and - for all I�ve said about their songs all sounding the pretty much the same - sounds markedly different, with an FX throb overwhelming Hotel�s slightly subtler but no less intimidating riff. Ok, you do need to call the paranoia police once the throb becomes so persistent you think your CD player is trying to tell you something and is ready for playing its last and finest song to date, but this track is kinda unique also in the fact that there is something of a repeated refrain which is rare seen as though Kills songs very rarely have distinguishable verse-chorus structures. What�s more, I love the line �In Hollywood I got the phone call that made my heart and my limousine stall.�
Both W and Hotel are pin-up icons with seemingly a lot on their minds. They don�t crack jokes or spill anecdotes. They are as moody as Halloween night in Communist Russia. But in light of their originality and enthralling presence I think they should fight for the right to swap band-names with The Thrills, because The Kills force their followers to really believe that they have everything to exhilaratingly live for.
(STEVE RUDD) 5/5
www.thekills.tv