NO WOW NOW

During the summer of 2004, The Kills became obsessed with a console/drum-machine named the Flickinger. Hotel, one half of the duo, said, "There was only 20 of them ever made, then the designer had a mental breakdown. We heard about one that used to belong to Sly Stone and was supposedly cursed. So we tracked it down." The Kills ended up in Benton Harbor, MI. In this bleak town, they wrote their second LP in three and a half weeks. They brought it back to NYC and recorded it in another few weeks. Unimpressed with the current state of music, they titled it No Wow. It is released in the US today.

The album starts out with a thumping drum machine beat, much like their debut Keep On Your Mean Side. But this album is not a rehash of the guitar skronk and throttling drum machine that marked their first album. The Kills stripped down their already minimal sound to its bare bones, gave it a digital beating heart, and made a record spattered with blood, oozing with sexuality, covered in dirt, cigarette smoke drifting out the speakers. This ain't "no wow" no more.



Hear the album, see live performances here.

BBC interview and live performances.

Video interview on MTVe.

New York Times feature.

Guardian Unlimited feature.

VV photos in Another Magazine.

Download the Four Tet remix of "The Good Ones" here.

Audio interview here.

More at pull_a_u.