Kiss or Kill Gets Intimate

The Return of The King Cheetah

www.myspace.com/thekingcheetah

1. Where are you from originally, and what brought you to Los Angeles (if you are not originally from LA)?

Robert Paul Maune: East London. Robin Holden: West London. Simon Hancock: Aldbourne, a small village about 75 miles west of London. We came to the USA because England is finished.


2. How did the current line-up meet? How long have you been together?

Robert and Simon met in London when they played together in a Camden Town band called STEN. They released three records under this name, then formed CHEETAHS which made one record with MAXIM from THE PRODIGY before eventually crossing the Atlantic, meeting Robin on their first day of rehearsals in Hollywood and finally becoming THE KING CHEETAH.

3. We originally met you as a four-piece. Is the plan to remain a three piece?

We were never a four piece, you're confusing us with Nirvana.
*(interviewer apologizes, I was briefly on crack...PSA:don't do drugs...you ask stupid questions)


4. What instruments do you each play?

Simon plays: Drums, Guitar, Bass, and sings. Robin plays: Drums, Guitar, and Bass, and sings. Robert Paul can't play Drums at all but does play Guitar, Bass, Cello and Keyboards.

5. What made each of you get involved with music?

Nothing could keep us away.


6. You guys have had the opportunity to tour with Morrissey. How was that experience?

It proved to us that if the people get exposed to it, then the people will get it. Every show was amazing, and since we'd been kind of starving to death in a Hollywood crackhouse up until that point it was a welcome change.

7. Do you actually enjoy touring? Are there any plans for a tour in the near future?

Touring can be pretty amazing if you're playing to a great audience. Driving to Phoenix to play to ten people doesn't do it.


8. What has been your favorite venue or town/city to play while out on tour?

Probably El Paso.

9. When did you play your first Kiss or Kill show?

Robin used to do live sound back when Kiss or Kill started at The Garage, it was immediately obvious that it was very different from the horrible Hollywood glam scene hangover nights we'd got used to.


10. You have taken a sort of hiatus from playing shows this past year. What was this due to?

Robert spent a chunk of time in Paris, when he got back we wanted to rip everything apart and then build it up again fresh from the ground up.

11. In your own words how would you describe The King Cheetah sound?

Adventurous, Bold, Challenging, Diverse, Exciting, Fresh, Grinding, High energy, Intense, Jaw Dropping, Killing, Loud, Mighty, Natural, Overpowering, Potent, Quasi-religious, Righteous, Stunning, Tight as fuck, Urgent, Virtuous, Warlike, Xacting, Your freedom constructed in Sound, Zealously pushing for perfection.

Here is the video for "Six Inch Killaz" by The King Cheetah



12. How do you feel your sound has evolved over the last few years?

See above.

13. What do you hope everyone will come away with from your performances each week throughout your August Residency?

Damp clothes and hearts on fire.

14.What advice would you give to bands that are just starting out?

Go your own way.

15. What would be your dream bill to play on?

Power trio night in Heaven: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, supported by Nirvana, Cream, and The Police.

Here is a Cream performance of "Sunshine of Your Love"

AT HOME HE’S A TOURIST :" Snakes on a Plane"

“Snakes on a Plane”
By Jason Pancake


The next time you fly from Europe, you might be surprised by how much the government will be able to learn about you. In a deal, signed July 26 by the United States and approved in Europe, all airlines flying from Europe to the United States can be required to provide personal data of passengers to U.S. authorities if it exists in their reservation systems. Even if you are a US citizen!

The Washington Post reports that “according to the deal, the information that can be used in such exceptional circumstances includes ‘racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership’ and data about an individual's health, traveling partners and sexual orientation.” The United States claims that personal data can only be used "where the life of a data subject or of others could be imperiled or seriously impaired," such as in tracking a terrorist plot.

However, whether this restraint will actually be followed is another matter. Especially with the track record of the current Bush administration and of an Attorney General who “does not recall” a number of events and who went as far as to try to get a hospitalized and drugged John Ashcroft to sign off on his domestic eavesdropping program. Yes, according to testimony by a Justice Department official, Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s Chief of Staff Andrew Card actually visited the bedside of Ashcroft, who was recovering from gall bladder surgery and who was in pain and under sedation, to seek his signature on the reauthorization.

Anything you put down when buying an airplane ticket and making travel plans may reveal a lot more information about you than you think. The Washington Post article, says that “airlines do not usually gather [personal] data, but officials say it could wind up in passenger files as a result of requests for special services such as wheelchairs, or through routine questioning by airline personnel and travel agents about contacts, lodging, next of kin and traveling companions. Even a request for a king-size bed at a hotel could be noted in the database.”

This is a tricky issue because I support precautions that would make flying safer and keep me from catching tuberculosis or the plague from the person sneezing in the seat next to me, but sometimes what people don’t realize how abuse of this type of program, or even a simple clerical error, can screw up your life. In the best-case scenario you might miss your flight and be inconvenienced, but in the worst-case scenario, you might end up in a secret prison somewhere for a few years. I wish I could be kidding, but it has happened!

It is easy to dismiss this kind of profiling when you don’t expect it to happen to you, but what if you are of Middle Eastern descent? Or speak with a funny accent? Or share the name with the wrong person?

Next time: Catch my 2.5 cents on the 2008 Presidential hopefuls as we approach only a half a year to go until the California Primary elections.

On a completely unrelated note for your viewing pleasure here is the video for Final Countdown - by rock(?) group Europe:

TONIGHT!!!! THE PRIX CD RELEASE!!!!!

Tonight!!!! The Prix release their EP "ST. Domino"

check out Kevin Bronson's write-up on them in his LA Times Buzz Bands Blog here

he also happens to have a free limited time mp3 up for download of their song "The Chevelier"

They are joined on this special night by: The Service Group, The Power Cords, and Star No Star

all goes down at EL Cid (4212 Sunset Blvd. - between Santa Monica and Fountain at Sunset Junction)

18 + $3 before 10pm $5 after $3 Tecate

Line-up:

9:45 pm - The Service Group

10:30 pm - The Power Cords

11:15 pm - ThePrix

12:00 am - Star No Star

Kiss or Kill Newsletter

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At Home He's a Tourist

AT HOME HE’S A TOURIST (7/8/07) – By Jason Pancake
“The Business of Free Newspapers”

Almost everyone that has lived in LA has read the LA Weekly, just as anyone in New York has read the Village Voice, in Boston the Phoenix, and so on. These weekly newspapers are packed with extensive information on restaurants, music, art, and local events and best of all, they are free. If you think about it though, you have to wonder how such a publication can be free yet, somehow get printed each week and end up in piles on every other block and in all the stores and venues that you or I go to. These aren’t some little DIY zines that you press in your basement and hand out at backyard punk shows. I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that as with any product that reaches so many people, these “alternative weekly” papers are also a big business.

Unlike standard newspapers that rely more on subscriptions and sales from machines and newsstands, these free alternative weekly magazines make their money from the sale of advertisements. This is why at least a third of the LA Weekly consists of ads for things like plastic surgeons, “escorts”, and female “college” students offering massages.

In 2005, like with other big businesses, there was a corporate takeover/merger involving the LA Weekly as the New Times Media bought the LA Weekly (along with five other alternative papers including the Village Voice) from the Village Voice Media. Even though the New Times was run by a conservative businessman from Phoenix, Arizona, at the time, it looked like just another merger and didn’t make big waves. Here is an article on it describing how it was viewed at the time. Like all shrewd businesses, the New Times Media eventually took the name Village Voice Media so that it would sound more respectable even though it had bought it out.

From general appearances, the Weekly still looks pretty much like the Weekly. I could still count on the basics like being able to find an awesome cartoon by Tom Tomorrow, food reviews from Jonathan Gold, Weekly Rock Picks, and recently, the funny/informative syndicated columns “Ask a Mexican” and “Savage Love.”

However, there does seem to be something different. Here is an interesting article by a Weekly contributor Jon Wiener about how the newspaper is changing and things like reporting and national coverage on issues like the war in Iraq have pretty much disappeared from the Weekly. According to the author, the LA Weekly “has been truly great among alternative weeklies, with news coverage and political writing that towered above its counterparts--including the Village Voice and the eleven metro weeklies owned by the Phoenix-based New Times chain.” However, “the changes at the LA Weekly in the past six months have been dramatic: virtually no more writing about the war in Iraq or other international or national news topics, no more endorsements of candidates in elections and no more stories about the forces trying to make LA a more egalitarian and less polarized city.”

Sadly, the new style of the Weekly appears to be shifting from hard-hitting journalism to sensationalist tabloid-like pieces or pop entertainment-related stories. The article describes how: "There was a time not all that long ago," said Tim Rutten of the LA Times, "when we felt like we had to read the Weekly as soon as it came out, because they were competing with us. I don't think people at the Times feel that way any more. That's a loss to the city." The Weekly's star writers are increasingly turning out New Times-style hit pieces. In February [noted writer David] Zahniser blasted away at a school-board member whose offense consisted of remodeling his house without a building permit.” Next thing you know, they will start doing a story on some councilmember who doesn’t leave a tip at a restaurant.

Indeed, if you look at this week’s LA Weekly and consider all of the news that’s happening in the world (um, Scooter Libby anyone?), why is the main story about Christian Bale and the Art of Extreme Acting ? He’s a good actor and all, but when should an article about his new movie be a cover story of the LA Weekly?

The Weekly is still more respectable than cable or TV news, but it is still a major loss if it moves on to mainly only covering things like bad-behaving entertainment celebrities or local politicians. These free alternative papers are among the few places where reporters can report on important, investigative stories yet still actually make a living. That type of journalism just isn’t tolerated at large corporate news companies that need to protect their business/political interests. It is sad that pretty much the only hard-hitting mainstream investigative journalism source is “60 Minutes” or “Dateline” (when it isn’t spending all its time doing “to catch a predator”). If papers like the Weekly and Village Voice go down the path of your local TV news, it will be a sad day.

Kiss or Kill Wednesday July 18th!!!!!

This Wednesday July 18th!!!

Kiss or Kill

at El Cid

4212 Sunset Blvd (between Santa Monica and Fountain)

Silverlake/Los Angeles, Ca 90027

$3 before 10 pm $5 after

18 and over

Line-up:

9:45 pm - The Service Group

10:30 pm - The Power Cords

11:15 pm - The Prix (July's Resident Band)

12:00 am - Star No Star