Bristol punk rock - Kiss me, Killer

Riot grrl femme fatales

Davidkmk

Kiss Me, Killer hit London for Umlaut Records’ Dugstock II

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The band returned to London’s famous New Cross Inn over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend for Dugstock II – a three day fest put together by the mighty Umlaut Records. We appeared on the Friday bill with bands like The Murderburgers, Strange Planes and fast-rising Mancunian punks, Aerial Salad.

KMK members arrived there in dribs and drabs, meeting at the venue and happily everyone made it on time. The New Cross Inn is now a relatively salubrious place. It’s also one that’s grown in importance while other iconic haunts have closed down as the capital places property speculation above all other human activities.

Our friend and No. 1 superfan Ina the Dane says she misses the days when The New Cross Inn was a full-on dive bar with people out of their skulls on hard drugs, awakening from a haze to have a little dance before crashing out again, although I was taken with the fine selection of craft beers and real ales now available from the bar. I downed a morish Cornsish pint called ‘Proper Job’, which really touched the spot after nearly three hours on the Megabus.

Umlaut’s Mark greeted us before an enthusiastic Friday night crowd who were right up for some storming punk rock enjoyed the opening acts Dirty White from Brighton. Next up came Kent’s Dark Days feature gallic livewire, John, who charged around the stage like a man possessed, hammering his bestickered Telecaster with reckless abandon. He wore a Kiss Me, Killer snakes t-shirt. Nice. Everyone should have a Kiss Me, Killer shirt.

Most of the KMK and cohorts had invited cool London friends along and many showed up for their first taste of the new breed of punk rock, Bristol fashion. Our set was generally pretty strong, the sound good, and our eclectic mix seemed to go over well, with people appearing to dig our new song, Sliding into my DMs, with its wahwah-laden porno soundtrack intro and spy guitar riffage.

Emilia and Cooper from The Menstrual Cramps were there and Cooper took some abolsutely amazing images for us. Check these out…

Ariel Salad and the headliners smashed it.

KMK’s Easter weekend was not over, though as we returned to Bristol to play TWO more gigs at the Exchange and a fundraiser at The Red Lion! By the end of the third gig in three days I think we were ready for a good long snooze…

Bristol’s NITELIFE Magazine covers Hell Hath No Fury’s Menstruals gig

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Go into any of Bristol hipper cafes, haunts and night spots and you’re sure to have seen, or even picked up, a copy of Nitelife Magazine, which showcases the best is the city’s nightlife.

Nitelife has clearly cottoned on to the now exploding new wave of punk bands emerging both in Bristol and across the UK, which are bringing a lot of excitement, and covered a gig promoted by Holly KMK in her Hell Hath No Fury Promotions guise. The headline act were The Menstrual Cramps, one of the biggest and most authentic names in this dizzying explosion of incendiary new DIY music, mixing feminism, humour and onstage dynamism into an infectious package.

NITELIFE Magazine, Bristol
NITELIFE Magazine, Bristol

The gig made the cover with a stunning image of the band. Holly KMK can even be seen in the background if you look carefully. You can see the whole issue here.

Kess Me, Keller! St Patrick’s Day thrills with Punka Presents & Ruby Rawbone

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As a band we should never eat quality pies before a gig… The first time we ate some lovely Welsh pubgrub pies before a show and played to a couple of people with, um, a band that wasn’t really a good fit. On St Patrick’s Day we scoffed some of Bristol’s famed Pieminister products… and the PA blew up just a couple of songs into our set. Still, it wasn’t all that bad as we had a fun-packed Irish holiday all the same.

Punka Presents is a new series of gigs put on by Bristol’s Punka crew, who are tearing it up on Bristol’s LGBT nightlife scene. Promoter Stu had put in loads of effort putting the word out about the gig, which took place at The Trap venue below St Nick’s Market. With celebrated drag superstar Ruby Rawbone acting as compare the stage was set for a gig that went far beyond the humdrum run of the mill.

Local act Monocle were the first band on the bill and warmed up The Trap with some sonic pyrotechnics fronted by powerful female vocals from the energetic Becky. The were followed by Chang, who are getting a lot of attention with a musical mix that’s both absorbing and explosive in equal measure with involving grooves blending elements of neo-grunge, noise-rock and post-rock. It’s definitely a band to see if you like your rock music fresh.

Kiss Me, Killer had their photo taken by a chap called Marco Bardusco-Brazier, who’s making a documentary about the aforementioned Ruby Rawbone before we took off for pie and mash. Marco’s Instagram account can be found here and very colourful it is too.

Look, we got our photo taken by a documentary filmmaker who's been making a movie about the drag scene....
Look, we got our photo taken by a documentary filmmaker who’s been making a movie about the drag scene….

Notably, it was the first gig featuring deputy rhythm guitarist, Cooper Rose. Sadly, our lovely Cat had had to jet off to sunnier climes with work (and will soon be travelling again around Central America – alright for some). Cooper, or Coops as she’s often known, plays with our friends The Menstrual Cramps who are causing a stir across the UK with their feminism ‘n humour infused songs and have developed rapidly into an unstoppable live force. When not making videos for the Menstruals and DIY-recording with Logic Pro X, Cooper also performs with London’s unbelievably cool Bad Sidekick project. She also has one of those proper Instagram accounts with great poses, style, followers and whatnot. Northern and vegan, she chose Pieminister’s animal-free Kevin pie, which I think she very much enjoyed. I think we all enjoyed our pies. Pieminster know what they’re doing I think.

Everything was going swimmingly and the band was in a positive, party vibe mood for St Patrick’s Day, even though we had to feign our own terrible Irish accents in the absence of authentic Irish punk girl, Cat: ‘KESS ME, KELLER!’

We powered into Beware! EP favourite From the Inside and gave Rat Race a hammering before we realised something was up… Had Holly blanked in her lyrics for recently-written tune, Sliding Into My DMs? No, it was the mic, no, it was ALL the mics. Yep, the PA had failed completely… blown up… kaput… no funciona… muy jodido… t’be sure, t’be sure…

Kiss Me, Killer - featuring deputy guitarist Cooper Rose - with the majestic, Ruby Rawbone
Kiss Me, Killer – featuring deputy guitarist Cooper Rose – with the majestic, Ruby Rawbone

While Mr Soundman fiddled frantically with his equipment we bravely tried to fill the space with some improvised material, eventually easing into a completely new genre we made up on the spot – anarchojazz pornopunk – which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Vampiros Lesbos OST. Eeeking this twangy, sleazy wahwah-infused jam out as long as possible, and attempting a super-quiet version of our song Snooker so Holly could be heard without a mic, it was time to knock it on the head and call it a night…

Cheri Clouds managed to get some good shots of us, even if we weren’t on stage for very long:

Punka’s lovely Stu was deeply apologetic about the technical hitch, just one of those things, but was keen to have us back ASAP. And, yes, we’ll be playing another Punka Presents in June. Watch this space, people… Watch this space… We love Punka. They’re fabulous.

AJ drum depping for Drunken Butterfly at Bristol Dream Wife gig

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KMK drummer AJ will by deputising on drums for seminal Bristol riot grrrl band, Drunken Butterfly who are supporting Dream Wife at the Exchange venue

Drunken Butterfly
Drunken Butterfly

Dream Wife is a punk band from Brighton who released debut album Dream Wife in January and have really been blowing up big time in the UK. Go check ’em out if you can still get tickets!

Kiss Me, Killer hit the Pig and Fiddle, Bath

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It’s taken us over year but the band has finally made its debut in our neighbouring city of Bath at the popular Pig and Fiddle Pub. The gig was hosted by Cat Backlash of Bath DIY Punk Collective and we shared the bill with two storming punk rock juggernauts.

First on the bill were Bath-based Meekers who warmed up the crowd with an enjoyable slab of melodic punk rock. Accomplished bass and powerful drumming were backed by tuneful leads and washes of guitar. It’s just the kind of act you need to get a venue pumped for a night of live music.

The Pig and Fiddle’s main entrance becomes the ‘stage area’ on gig nights, which gives the bands plenty of space to move around and throw some serious shapes. The venue, lined with wooden panels, ephemera and interesting decor has a sort of small town Americana vibe and the images of the gig, from famed local gig photographers Cheri Clouds and Meg Manley Photography, looked great in this setting.

Martyrials' Sam (image: Meg Manley)
Martyrials’ Sam (image: Meg Manley)

The next band to take to the Pig and Fiddle’s massive la porte rug-come-stage was Wiltshire’s mighty Martyrials. This group has been causing a real stir on the UK DIY punk circuit with their searing keyboard-driven sounds. Lead singer and keys player Sam comes across like a The Nice-era Keith Emerson spliced with the Cardiacs’s William D. Drake fronting some mutant synthpop band, using and abusing his Roland machine with manic abandon. Dirty baselines were forged by Matt while drums were both caressed and pelted in equal measure by the enigmatic, emerald-haired Oana. It added up to a powerful package that got the punters rocking.

Kiss Me, Killer were the headline act. Following the Martyrials would be tough, especially as poor Holly had been feeling under the weather but, a trooper as always, she made it to the gig anyway. A revamped set saw us open with EP banger From the Inside with its animalalistic, metalesque riffage and the crowd lapped it up before we powered into Rat Race‘s sludgy riff, poppier hooks and Arabic-scale psychedelia.

Kiss Me, Killer in action at the Pig and Fiddle, Bath (image: Meg Manley)
Kiss Me, Killer in action at the Pig and Fiddle, Bath (image: Meg Manley)

Nat KMK had come armed with his brutally-effective Barefaced bass cab, a bit of gear that really brings his clever playing alive, basslines weaving in and out of my Gordon Smith GS1, Cat’s Telecaster and AJ’s forceful drumming. We’d thrown ‘first ever song’ Narcissistic Tendencies into the set and, oops, it rather fell apart through lack of rehearsal but thankfully we’d got the crowd on our side by then…

The crowd enjoy KMK.
The crowd enjoy KMK (image: Meg Manley)

Newish song Tear Your Heart Out (Rip it to Pieces) with its meaty, chugging breakdown went down well and when the Pig and Fiddle audience demanded an encore we took a chance on Sliding Into My DMs, a new tune with Holly lyrics that take aim at creepin’ dudebros. It was rough and ready (‘I had no idea what was going on,’ claimed AJ) but the audience seemed to like it regardless. Job done.

Holly KMK rocks the Pig and Fiddle (Image: Meg Manley)
Holly KMK rocks the Pig and Fiddle (Image: Meg Manley)

Cat Backlash has rebranded Bath DIY Punk Collective into a new events management/music promotion outfit called VIBE REVOLUTIONS. If her new venture creates more gigs like this one local music fans will have a lot to look forward to.