10 for 2013: #10 – Kill It Kid
In the last couple weeks, we asked you to vote for the top 10 artists you thought would be big in 2013. Starting the list off at #10 in fine fashion are a grunge/blues band from Bath…
Kill It Kid are going to rock your world in 2013. Their astonishing revival of the blues via crunching, wall-demolishing guitars sweetened with tongue-tingling girl vocal lines means their only competition on the circuit is similarly bi-gender practitioners of homespun blues-rock Band of Skulls. Think a contemporary backyard G ‘n’ R with prominent piano and a *strong* female influence that never gives up even when faced with several channels of guitar onslaught and the usual male tendency to dominate.
In the sparse, keening intro to ‘Wild and Wasted Waters’ (video below), one is reminded how desolate and yet fulfilling the delta blues of south-west North America can be, particularly when interpreted through the body and soul of practitioners from a geographically similar region of England. There’s nothing to pick between the regions for sincerity and conviction; indeed the sentiment that Kill It Kid ply is married to that of the spiritual USA: it’s heard in the enthusiasm for minor keys, the worship of the diminished fifth, and the vintage-toned arrangements.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys8dTSLQPiU[/youtube]
Theirs is the world of smoky, aromatic last-minute shows; scuffed and scraped Les Pauls hurriedly mated with ancient Twin Reverbs, frayed leads and cracked pop guards further reinforcing the intimate, heartfelt nature of the performance. ‘Feet Fall Heavy’, 2011’s seminal long-player, is a skeletal homage to Robert Johnson’s desolate accounts of the redemptive power found within the dark reaches of the heart, as liberated by six amplified strings and the sound of air deliberately split asunder.
Kill It Kid are surely the go-to band for 2013’s blues revivalists, steampunks, and grizzled old bluesmen awaiting the second coming. Await no longer… at least if the Devil can be distracted from listening to this tour de force of contemporary electric blues to attend to you. It’s a thankless task, but someone’s got to do it.
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