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The Kitty Kill
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THE KITTY KILL also have a couple of Chelsea on Fire connections: they were one
of Chelsea's preferred opening bands for a long while, and drummer Jen Chouinard is a
former member. At present, they also share a rehearsal space with McLaughlin and
DiSciullo. And despite a difference in sound The Kitty Kill have poppier leanings, with
more harmonies and no metal they seem to have inherited Chelsea's reputation as one of the
angriest female trios in town.
" Do we look angry to you? " asks bassist/singer Jenn Dagger, who in fact
looks reasonably genial as she relaxes over drinks in the Abbey's back room. And when the
Kitty Kill are tearing it up on stage, it's Dagger who provides the softer presence. The
snarls come from hard-pounding drummer Chouinard (who's also played drums with Vic
Firecracker) and from singer/guitarist Sandrine Merhy, who shreds her tonsils in an
emotive style that brings punks like Poly Styrene and Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker to
mind. " It's true, Sandy's the angry one, " Chouinard notes. " We have to
beat her up a lot to keep her pissed off."
From the
sound of things, Merhy is pissed about a particular relationship on the self-released Domesticated,
which traces the cycle of a break-up from asking " Hey, what the hell was I supposed
to do? " on the opening " I Can't See " through making peace with
singlehood on the closing " By Your Side. " The band's pop leanings are more
pronounced on the album than on stage there are lots of hooks and harmonies here.
" I've never written a good song when things in my life were going great, "
Merhy says. " So don't piss me off, because you'll end up in a song if you do. If
there's a theme on this album, it's something I didn't realize until the end of the album;
that's when you discover all the things that you did subconsciously. Some of the songs are
about one person. We haven't talked about it, but she probably thinks the whole album is
about her. "
As was the case with Chelsea on Fire, the gay context of the Kitty Kill isn't denied or
played up in their songs. It's just there. The trio have shared bills with grrrl-rock
icons the Butchies and Le Tigre, and they're booked to play the Michigan Women's Music
Festival this summer. They also acknowledge that their name makes people think of Bikini
Kill. " That was a mistake, " Merhy says. " We just liked the idea of a
sweet little thing that can get the job done. " But they're just as glad to play with
a roomful of straight-guy bands in the clubs.
" If people are going to come to us thinking, they're a bunch of lesbians,that's
what they're going to hear," Dagger points out. " But I think the songs could
say just as much to a 15-year-old girl who's just broken up with her boyfriend. The gay
theme is in our music only because it's in our own lives. I think that anybody who's
scared off by that wouldn't be in our audience anyway. "
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