Lust for Life is Van Gogh's biography, a classic Iggy LP, and an
uproarious NY dive housing punk-art aesthetics and DOLLS-metal superficiality
with fetish and disco bringing up the rear. On this particular Wednesday night,
KITTIE, four feisty felines creating a Ragnarokian racket, are blowing the roof
off the dump for a video shoot. CheapTrashNYC met up with cat nippers Morgan and
Mercedes: "When we filmed the video 'Brackish,'" begins vixenish vocalist
Morgan, "we recorded without the crowd for four hours, and then we recorded an
entire show with the crowd and will incorporate those shots into the final cut.
The director says the rough cut looks excellent. It's a live video by the same
people who made SEVENDUST's 'Denial' video and has the same feel.
"I wrote the lyrics to 'Brackish' and we all wrote the music. It's three years
old and the first song we wrote. We have demos of it from '97. Writing is a
collective effort. One person will come in with a riff or a drumbeat and we'll
all just work together. Whoever is singing usually writes the lyrics."
"We tend to write about everyday occurrences based on personal experience, so
people can relate. The inspiration of life drives us to create. Listen to the
lyrics and don't perceive the songs are just about promiscuity or sex. Dig
deeper because we have more substance than meets the eye: 'Choke' is about
someone telling you they love you so much, they put you on a pedestal and make
you feel great, then they turn around and say 'screw you.' 'Do You Think I'm a
Whore' is about the way I perceive myself and the way other people tend to
perceive me. There are times I really don't think people get what we're doing
and understand where we're coming from. Plus we incorporate many different
influences: light and heavy. We can't pinpoint one band as a direct influence
because we draw from so many different sources."
KITTIE's eponymous debut is chromatic powerhouse of 90's intensity and 70's
dexterity: "Garth Richardson is the producer. He's done RAGE AGAINST THE
MACHINE, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, ALICE COOPER [the author speaks with Mercedes'
mom concerning an ALICE show]and OZZY OSBOURNE."
Where these minors are going is evident from their energy and verve, but
Mercedes explains how they got here: "We're from London/Ontario, Canada. We got
together in '96. Fallon and I played together for about a year before. The music
scene there is pretty crappy. There's only a few good bands. The metal scene is
very underground and most bands think they're better than they are. Only a few
metal bands are even signed and have an impact on the Canadian market. People
expect us to suck, then we get on stage and blow them away." They don't know
much about HELIX and less about ALDO NOVA so we move on.
Regarding their feverishly scratching moniker, Morgan concludes: "Mercedes,
Fallon and I signed up for a battle of the bands and we wanted a name that was
completely contradictory to the heavy music we were playing."
Kickin' on vinyl, killer live, keep up with KITTIE at www.kittie.net.
-STONE, Cheap Trash NYC
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