Final Kiss or Kill Show: Preview

Below find some videos from the bands performing at the Final Kiss or Kill this Wednesday December 12th @ El Cid

Underwater City People's Hynotized Video


The Thriller Performance from Halloween 2007
UCP Thriller Video at Kiss or Kill Halloween Show!!
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Silver Needle

Zen Sushi 2004


Savior Skin Video featuring 04/05 Footage


@ Key Club Kiss or Kill First Fridays 2006



@ Safari Sams



Midway

Zen Sushi 2004



Music Video to Space Station

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The Randies

@ Zen Sushi 2004



@ Safari Sam's 2006



I Thought I Could Change Music Video


Bang Sugar Bang

@ Zen Sushi 2004



Posh Kids Video



Kis or Kill 2006 @ Safari Sams



2007 @ Safari Sams


That's Okay Video

A Note from Mike Schnee...

I think Kate Hudson is boring. I don’t know why I think that. . I’m
sure that if I met her, I would find her charming and beautiful. Pretty
girls have that effect on me. But, since I don’t think I’ll ever meet
her, I only have my gut feeling to go by, so Kate Hudson is boring.

And so will Wednesday nights be, after next week.
Kiss or Kill will be no more.

Sure, I’ve stopped going to Kiss or Kill recently (for the most part). I
can’t quite put a finger on WHY I’ve stopped, though. It certainly isn’t personal.

I owe a WHOLE lot to Kiss or Kill. It really did change my life.

Back in the early days of KorK ( the Garage era), Matt Southwell and I
were AIM buddies (FUITA). We’d chat daily about everything from
celebrity nudity to the latest awesome band that Matt saw at KorK
(Dollyrots, Waking Hours, OAOT’S, Letter Openers, etc).

I never left the house back then. I’d threaten to come out to KorK,
but never did. Instead I wrote and recorded tons of Wormstew songs that no one would ever hear. It didn’t bother me at all.

Anyway, Matt and I used to chat a whole lot on AIM. One day, he
suggested that I make a documentary on Kiss or Kill. It seemed like a crazy idea to me, based on the fact that I had only made a few short
videos at the time...but what the heck. Why not?

This idea went back and forth for a few weeks and almost died until one
night in early 2004. My friend Veneta and I went to check out the
Breeders at the Troubador. It ended early, so we jammed on down to Zen
Sushi, where we caught Bang Sugar Bang’s last song at KorK.

Finally, I was at Kiss or Kill! There was only one band left called Midway, and I figured I’d stick it out and hang around and see them.

I was blown away! The songs were so CATCHY. I was hooked.

So, I came around the next week. I brought my video camcorder. I was
gonna make a documentary! Matt introduced me to all his friends as
“the guy that’s gonna make the doc”.

I was treated like royalty- GIRLS would come up to me and talk. You
gotta understand, I’m the guy that hides in the corner if I go to a
party AT ALL.

I met many of the people I wanted to meet and be friends with….people
I had seen in pictures and videos…Joe, Danny, Simon, Sir Ian, Eric, The
Randies, Flaco, Johnny 99, Andre, etc….SO MANY people…and they were
ALL COOL.

After that, I met another ton of people that I hadn’t seen in
pictures and videos: Jon Rustad, Kevin from Midway, Celeste, forget it…too many.

If I go on, I’ll forget to mention some major people that mean a
whole to me.

And, of course, there is Rob Z. I sort of knew him (through Matt)
before Kiss or Kill. The man is amazing. To me, he symbolizes Kiss or Kill.

As for the documentary, this is how it worked: Each week, I’d get
there early and set up. I’d get a half way decent sound from 2 mics and to
board inputs…not the greatest, but better then “camcorder” sound.

Then I’d get myself and 2 other camera operators and film a selected
band’s entire set. I’ve got boxes of tapes.

The camera operators? Glen, Sir Ian, Jerdog, Nate, and a few others. Their work was INCREDIBLE. I’d go home, pick a song, and start editing…. They gave me SO much to work with. Many times, people would offer to pay me to film their band at a non-KorK event, but I’d
decline.

I couldn’t get my regulars to work with me, so it would end uplooking
like shit.

(Fuck..this blog is getting LONG. I didn’t expect it to be long. And
it’s getting to be boring. Kate Hudson boring. Sorry. If you’ve gotten this far, I’ll try to wrap it up.)

I was limited in free time to work on the documentary. I seemed to only
have time on Tuesday nights…KorK nights. I never got anything other
than performance clips. That’s okay though…the clips I got were pretty
good (thanks to my fellow camera operators and THE BANDS).

Let me talk about WHY I love KorK. Each of the bands (in the heyday) wrote SONGS. They were songs that stuck in my brain. I couldn’t get
enough of them. All the members were really nice, which was surprising
to me.

All the people on the “other side of the stage” were just as
important. We all felt like we were in an exclusive club (that anybody could
join).

The documentary (for ME) came to a close once KorK moved to the Echo
and my spare time was taken up with Pu$$y-Cow. It really WAS a dream come true to be able to play Kiss Or Kill. It was an honor.

It still is.

Instead of a documentary, I pledged that I would still use my talents
to help out KorK by making “video flyers”. Check them out if you’ve
never seen them…I have tons of them on my YouTube site. In fact, KorK promos take up probably 75% of my videos.

(To view a sampling click here or visit: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9021A78F47CE42B8)

Here are a couple of examples of the genius that are the KorK Video Flyers created by Mike Schnee






The Echo days were also very special. Many more people were met
(Ashley, the New Fidelity, etc), including one of the coolest and funniest
people around- Johnny Pumpkin. Did you know that it was SHE that invented the
term Creepy Cool? She’s pretty neat, but you all know that.

Here is that Chissum Worthington video for Creepy Cool:


Oh, that’s right. It was at the Echo where I met Chissum Worthington.

View more Chissum Worthington videos here

Nice guy.

After the Echo, Kork moved to Safari Sam’s. There were more cool
people to meet (Carina, David, Kjell etc).

It was around this time that I stopped going every week, and eventually
crawled back into my shell at home…writing tons of Wormstew songs that
no one will ever hear.

I’d go once in a while, but it always seemed to be when my band (or
Chissum) was playing. I felt pretty awful, to tell you the truth. I
feel that I should have EARNED the right to play KorK by showing up every
week.

Now Kiss or Kill is ending it’s long ride at El Cid. Great place.

It’s gonna be weird this coming Wednesday. Sure, I don’t go that
often, but it was always there…if I decided to come out of my shell once in
a while.

I’ve got a few hundred people to thank, but I will only mention a few
right here: Matt, Cooper, Johnny 99, Siria, Andre, Amanda and Rob Z.

You all should be proud of yourselves for making many people happy.

See you all Wednesday.

How I Came Across Kiss or Kill: Jason Pancake

by Jason Pancake

“Wow, how can you go out every Tuesday (or Wednesday) night?” someone asks me at the coffeemaker. With my dark, sunken eyes, ringing ears, and crooked tie, I say, “It’s Kiss or Kill night!” My older co-workers give me puzzled looks, but somehow, they eventually grow to understand. It sort of reminds me of my favorite scene in the movie “Fight Club” where the fighters go about their ordinary 9-5 jobs in their suits and ties, but they all look noticeably haggard with random injuries. Luckily for me, Kiss or Kill usually doesn’t leave me with black eyes or crutches.

I had been to shows at the Garage once or twice before, but it was at Zen Sushi on Hyperion that I became a regular. One night after seeing the Dollyrots at Mr. T’s Bowl, I struck up a conversation with the band and they told me to come and see them at this sushi restaurant that has rock bands playing. It sounded cool so I went that next week, and then again the next week, and soon it became a regular occurrence. The padded walls, the swinging light fixtures, $2 shots and PBR, kickball, togas, POW-camp style patio. Yes, this was the place to be! The unifying theme that brought everyone together for Kiss or Kill was the music and that was really what helped it work out. People appreciated the music and camaraderie rather than the “scene” and just about everyone associated with Kiss or Kill was either in a band, played an instrument, worked a music related job, was reliving the glory days of being in a band (like me), or was used to hanging around musicians. Most importantly though, it worked because the people involved with and who attended Kiss or Kill were among the nicest, friendliest people I know in LA. What made it so cool was that people weren’t worried about BS, hipster elitist “coolness”, yet also weren’t zombies to the masses.

My first real bonding with the bands and the awesome trio of Johnny 99, Cooper, and Matt came in 2004 when I was a svengali out to find bands to play my Rock Against Bush show. Thanks to them and some Kiss or Kill bands, it turned out to be an incredible show at the Echo featuring a killer lineup of the Bell Rays, Bang Sugar Bang, the Dollyrots, the Randies, and Los Abandoned—all united as one against the Dark Side. We might have lost that year’s battle, but during my time at Kiss or Kill, I discovered that in addition to the expected Left Coasters, New Englanders, and real Englishmen who would share my views, I also found so many great, like-minded Midwesterners, Southerners, and yes, even Texans. When I get on my soapbox to rail against injustices and hypocrisy, it’s wonderful to find people that actually get it. But, you can’t be an angry hippie all the time, so then it’s nice to be able to switch the conversation to geek talk about guitar bridges or reminisce about getting frostbite during the Boston winters.

Special thanks to Johnny 99, Cooper, Matt, Siria, Andre, Amanda, Rob Z, and everyone else who helped keep the train on tracks and running. Thank you Midway, Dollyrots, Randies, Bang Sugar Bang, Silver Needle, She’s Your Sister, UCP, Waking Hours, classic Sounds of Asteroth, Cakecutter, Power Cords, Rainman Suite, Bobot, Pcow, and many more I’m totally blanking out on, for getting your songs stuck in my head while I was negotiating budget items the next day with the Governator’s staffers. Thank you Johnny Pumpkin for being pretty much one of the coolest persons in history.

And there are so many more awesome bands and great people that it would take forever to try to list cool memories of them all now. I’m pretty sure I would leave some important names off my list and feel guilty about it. So as they say, “you all know who you are.”

xoxo,
Jason Pancake

How I Came Across Kiss or Kill: Automatique

Automatique

www.myspace.com/automatiqueband

Playing in a new band in LA, or any city, the one thing I always wanted but couldn't find was that legendary "music scene" that existed somewhere, but somehow nobody knew where it was.

My friend Jon Hershfield hosted a radio show on Killradio.org called "...is good" and Automatique played his show. After, he mentioned meeting Siria, and learning about Kiss or Kill. When he described it to me it sounded like the closest thing to that music scene I had been looking for but never located. He said "It's amazing, it's about 40 or so bands that rotate throughout the month, they do a show every wednesday (it might have been a different night at the time) and it moves around. And they have their own draw, so as a new band it's the best way to make new friends and fans."

Siria came down to see us at the Scene in Glendale (I think it was our fourth show ever) and she seemed to like what we were up to.

A month later we played our first KOK at Safari Sam's and we were freaked out because we were like "there's the most people we've ever seen in front of the stage". Since then we've played KOK half a dozen times and every time it's been better than the last.

We're going to be really sad to see it go. But it was a good run.

Holy Shit!

How I Came Across Kiss or Kill: Kelly

By Kelly:

When I moved out to California to start graduate school, I was desperate to make some money. Those who know me realize that prostitution wasn't an option for me, so I opted for the next best thing: a work-study job at my university. I started working for the music school, answering phones with my fellow musicians in a church basement that housed some of the scariest crypt-like hallways that I've ever seen. My coworkers and I became fast friends, trading band names and favorite show memories like currency. One of these coworkers would always come in bleary-eyed (and often twenty minutes late) on Wednesday mornings, and proceed to tell me about her escapades the night before at this "awesome club," Kiss or Kill.

At first I was skeptical. Certainly I was intrigued by Emma's stories about the social interactions among members of this tight-knit community, but mostly I was interested in the music. She swore that some of these local bands were the best she'd heard, but this still wasn't enough to get me out of my cozy house on a Tuesday night to mingle with a group of folks I was sure would shun me for not being cool enough to run with their crowd.

I resisted Emma's invitations to come to Kiss or Kill for months, even after Laura Red was hired as our boss at work. Every Wednesday, I would listen to the two of them rehash the previous night's events over coffee, stifling yawns but never fully able to conceal grins about the great time they'd had hopping onstage to sing "Sunday Night" with Bang. This went on for about eight months until I finally sucked it up and agreed to come out with them to the second comp release party at the Knitting Factory.

From the instant I walked in, I felt at home. People I had never met before were hugging me hello and telling me their personal histories, all to the backdrop of some of the most infectious, honest local music I'd heard in LA. A frequenter of several indie shows, I was used to the stand-back-with-arms-folded-and-glare-appraisingly-at-the-band stance that so many of LA's concert-goers adopt; here, there was a feeling of community, excitement, and energy between crowd and band that I hadn't seen in years. Not once did I feel out of place for not knowing lyrics to a UCP song, or hand motions to go along with Midway tunes--I knew I'd learn.

The past few years have been incredible. I've discovered so many talented bands who have revitalized my interest in a local music scene that I'd all but written off. I've made lasting friendships with folks whose last names I still don't know. I've gone through countless pairs of earplugs, lost hours and hours of sleep, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Thank you, Kiss or Kill!

Wednesday December 5th - Two to Go...

This Wednesday December 5th

The Second to last final Kiss or Kill show...



Taking place at El Cid (4212 Sunset Blvd)
$5 Cover

line-up:

9:45 pm - The New Fidelity
10:30 pm - The Dollyrots
11:15 pm - The Automatic Music Explosion
12:00 am - The Letter Openers


9:45 pm - The New Fidelity
Kiss or Kill @ The Echo 2005


Kiss or Kill Playa's Picnics The Old Towne Pub 2006


Kiss or Kill @ Safari Sams 2007

10:30 pm - The Dollyrots
Kiss or Kill @ Zen Sushi 2004
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Because I'm Awesome Video -2007

11:15 pm - The Automatic Music Explosion
at Kiss or Kill @ Safari Sam's January 2007

Kiss or Kill Presents Metal Skool @ Key Club August 2007

Metal Skool November 2007

Midnight - The Letter Openers
You Won't Remember My Name - 2006



Highland Grounds during the Rob Z Acoustic Nights - 2006

How I Came Across Kiss or Kill: The O.A.O.T's

The O.A.O.T's

www.myspace.com/theoaots

As told by Eddie:

I was definitely underage and just an alcoholic college kid playing in a shitty band who stumbled on mr ts. then we soon met mike tv and he booked us at some show at the echo with billion stars who we had met before and the letter openers who we had not. i was blacked out for some reason or another when i met nancy jean and cooper there. they say we danced, but to me its like it never happened. i lost my amp head that night and poked matt in the eye so i had to find a ride home with someone else.

A few weeks later mike tv booked some show at the alterknit and matt and i were there. from across the room i heard nancy say, its the oaots. she even pronounced it right. i had no idea who this girl was, but i'm sure matt covered for me somehow.

The sequence of events gets blurrier and blurrier as i moved to silverlake and became perpetually wasted. i remember one night at the echo talking to matt bang. i had my recorder and have the minidisc somewhere in my moms house of him talking about exactly what kiss or kill was supposed to be. not having to call up every one of your friends and beg them to come see you do what you love because they love it too. i guess we all just wanted cooler friends. found them.

We played a show at the garage a little bit before kiss or kill started playing there. all the coolest kids were there. i think it was just random justice and bang, maybe silver needle and false alliance. i think we then played two KOK nights a few months after that and the second night the place was fucking packed to the back. were we residents that month? i think it was pretty early on. i dont remember. i was underage and abusing my body during a still developmental period in my life. i;m sur ei have slight brain damage from it.

im sure i had fun. sleeping behind bangs drum kit, breaking my bass constantly, wasted in vegas, recording with matt southwell, international noise conspiracy, breaking other peoples belongings continually, busted hand cast rock show on all a bunch of codeine with a guest bassist, too drunk to sing at the knitting factory in front of the biggest crowd we ever played to, our drummer quitting (again) over it.

all in all a spectacular part of my life.

Here are two OAOT's videos:

The OAOT's in New York

Their Video for Guided by Choices