CT PUNK ROCK: 2 New Tracks from Killer Kin
I have good news and good news. First, it’s a new week which means we’ll be sharing more great Connecticut music with you. Now for the other good news, we’re kicking off this week with new music from Killer Kin. Last we saw the New Haven punk tandem, they had released their EP Bad, Bad Minds! On Friday, they blessed us with two new tracks, “Sonic Love” and “Narrow Mind.” Listen and enjoy them in all their distorted glory.
Killer Kin is a punk pure-play. They don’t mess about and they don’t dip their toes in the waters of other genres. Chloe Rose and Mattie Lea come in the mold of their punk rock forefathers and foremothers from the 1970s and 80s, donning all black leather and applying enough distortion to make your rich uncle ask you to “turn down the gain.” You remind him that you’ve never owned a hi-fi and you don’t even know what gain is. (As a matter of fact, what is a hi-fi?).
With a growl of the guitar and a wail, “Sonic Love” fires off at a swift pace. Even after 2020s Bad, Bad Minds! it’s strikingly raw, which is hard to believe. You’d be hard pressed to find anybody who would call Bad, Bad Minds! clean and polished, but “Sonic Love” sounds like it was recorded in the concrete basement of your local hardcore club, picking up all the bad acoustics and reverberations. It’s a great sound for a track that speeds along like a ramshackle Trans Am. At no point does “Sonic Love” take its foot off the gas pedal, which gives it some nice contrast to “Narrow Mind.”
“Sonic Love” is a very good record, but “Narrow Mind” is the gem of the two. It opens at a slower pace allowing the track to breathe. The thing that makes “Narrow Mind” cool is what happens halfway through the track, when the tempo momentarily kicks into high gear. The guitar roars, Mattie Lea gives us a distorted wail and the feedback sounds hum freely. The Killer Kin Trans Am then downshifts to a more comfortable speed. While the pace might be slower, the music still exudes raw unbridled power, like an elephant moving across the savannah. All of a sudden, the heat is back on with Rose and Lea moving into their frantic, rabid mania. You can imagine Lea foaming at the mouth as he delivers line after line before the song rolls across the finish line with the gas light on. The changing tempo is a great addition that adds another layer to an already heavily textured track.
“Sonic Love / Narrow Mind” is available for a limited time on a 7” vinyl available through the Pig Baby Records store. The digital single is also available for purchase via the Killer Kin BandCamp and is streaming on your favorite platform.
KEEP LISTENING - Bad, Bad Minds! by Killer Kin
Michael Stroneski, editor at mvsicthovght, has started several blogs and multi-media projects you’ve never seen. He is a life-long cheerleader for Connecticut and underground music. You can reach him at contact@mvsicthovght.com.