A 5-Song Intro to The Kills

Singer Alison Mosshart met guitarist Jamie Hince while she was touring in England with her punk band Discount. Soon, they formed a gritty duo called The Kills and have since released six studio albums.

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The Kills arrived amid the early 2000s garage rock revival movement that launched The Strokes and The White Stripes. (The White Stripes released their self-titled debut in 1999, and Mosshart eventually formed a supergroup with Jack White called The Dead Weather.)

But as with White’s duo, The Kills pare things down to basics, using Mosshart’s voice, a drum machine, and Hince’s riffs to make heavy blues. You might find your new favorite indie blues duo below.

“Future Starts Slow”

The Kills’ lo-fi production began sounding hi-fi on Blood Pressures. “Future Starts Slow” opens the fourth album with a pounding drum loop driving the chaos of a tumultuous relationship. No matter how bad things get, Mosshart and Hince are resigned to sticking it out even when the future’s in doubt.

“Doing It To Death”

This track uses a chance metaphor where one rolls a double six but must keep going. Mosshart and Hince sing about excess and the plans that never come. Meanwhile, Hince’s distorted guitar riff drives the cinematic track over a dancehall groove. The song’s characters confront the reality of a dark ending to this party, but they’ve committed to it, nonetheless.

“Black Balloon”

Not to be confused with The Goo Goo Dolls’ “Black Balloon”, The Kills’ track became popular after appearing in the CBS drama The Good Wife. It was the final single released from Midnight Boom and remains one of the duo’s best-known songs.

“The Last Goodbye”

On “The Last Goodbye”, Mosshart says farewell to a “dime-a-day” love. Her voice is clear, but the vintage piano resonates through a distressed and warped progression. The sad instrument might be the busted romance slowly becoming a thing of Mosshart’s past. Here, she’s content to let this old flame die and fade like a snuffed candle.

“U.R.A Fever”

“U.R.A Fever” lands somewhere between the garage blues of The White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ electro-art rock. Its boom-bap stomp slices through low synths and a detuned guitar, mixing krautrock with early blues while navigating the dark side of the human condition.

Photo by Myles Hendrik, Courtesy TCB PR