Weedkiller

Listening to the Kills on the way to work is hazardous. They don't write songs, more like a collection of hooks with nothing in between. The guitar lick is always perfect and memorable (and there's usually only one) and the vocals are usually two or three lines repeated over and over. As a result, they stick in the mind like melodic, haunting barbs and you tend to sing them out loud without meaning to.



This is dangerous because despite the langorous post-orgasmic sigh of Alison's voice, they're mostly kinda non-senior management lines. "It's been a long time coming," you sing, "gonna stab your kissy, kissy mouth. It's been a long time coming." Or, you know, you could sing the hook from Fuck the People which goes, let's see if I can remember it...oh, yeah, "Hey! Fuck the people!" Or you can get lost in the absurdist repetitions of "The kids wanna fuck and fight in the basement. Got a rattlesnake on in the basement. The young snake's got my name."

Sometimes repeating a hook line can get wearing, even with Alison's voice behind it, though. In the car, listening to the one that goes "All I need, all I need, all I need is one drop of weedkiller" for about 40,000 years I turned to STB and said, slightly irritatedly, "I've forgotten why she needs the weedkiller."

STB developed a contemplative, theorizing look much like a medical student on rounds being asked by his professor to sum up the case in the bed before him. "I believe her boyfriend became an evil tree," he eventually said.

Oh, yeah. That's right. The song about roads having a conversation is sometimes fascinating and sometimes grating too. "Dead Road 7 is a bitch!" you find yourself singing. But why are the roads dissing each other? You have to listen again. And you still don't find out.



It's not just the Kills, of course. A friend of mine often finds himself in airport lounges or cafes singing along to If You Don't Want to Fuck Me, Fuck Off or Fuck Tha Police. But there really is something special, something extra hooky in Kills records. Can't wait for the next one.