COMING SOON... THE ULTRAGRRRL BACKLASH VOLUME 1 MILLION

I've been trying to dig deep into my old collection of what really got me living and loving life when i was 20ish years old.

There's been a lot of Kill Hannah revisiting in my life and I think I have Mikey (mazel tov) to thank for that. There was this little thing in SPIN asking MCR what they've been listening to and Mikey mentioned the shoegaze beauty of Kill Hannah -- which caused a friend to say "wait, they're not shoegaze, what's he smoking?" which caused me to play him "The Curse of Kill Hannah" which was all their early stuff from 96-98. i met Mat Devine -- the singer -- at a New Years Eve party 98/99, and thought he was the coolest looking dude i'd ever laid eyes on. He looked like Adam Ant with a stripe across his cheek, a marching band uniform, and wild hair. I immediately started talking to him and found out he was in Kill Hannah. I had heard about them through my friend Marti Zimlin, and was like "cool, you're in a band..." i wasn't impressed since basically everyone in nyc is in a band and they typically suck -- well, at least in 98/99 they did. I didnt get any kill hannah music, cause i didnt know where to find any since they only had releases in chicago and this was before e-commerce, so i was like, screwed.

Then this guy named Adrian somehow got my aim and started IMing me and I found out that he was from Chicago and was a fan of Kill Hannah so i got him to send me a cassette tape of KH on side A and he threw the Longpigs on side B. THIS WAS MY FAVORITE FUCKING THING THAT I OWNED when i got this. I would listen to the tape over and over again until it eventually wore out and broke. I also became friendlier with Matt over the next couple of years, hanging out with him and his bassist greg whenever they'd come to nyc and giving them a place to stay. (BY THE WAY PEOPLE, IF YOU EVER SEE A BAND PERFORM IN YOUR TOWN, PLEASE OFFER THEM A PLACE TO STAY. BANDS ARE BROKE AND THEY NEED A NICE PLACE TO LAY THEIR HEAD AND SHOWER AND HOTELS ARE EXPENSIVE AND BANDS DONT REALLY GET TOUR SUPPORT). Matt, Greg, and I would run around NYC like we had the keys to the city and I would show up to school hungover and smelling like puke and it was actually really an amazing time in my life that I will forever cherish. Adrian and I also became incredibly close. He changed his named to Adi after finding Judaism (i think i was his first jewish friend and attributed heavily to this, but i'm not sure). Adi is now like BFF with my brother Lawrence.

Anyway, in like 2000, Kill Hannah was looking for a new guitarist and i recommended Mikey for this position. Mikey and Matt talked quite a bit over the phone and online and there was a brief moment in time when it looked like Mikey (whom i called Mike back then, btw), was gonna be the guitarist for KH, but he either couldnt afford a plane ticket to chicago or his mom wouldnt let him go or something. Then about a year or so later, mikey joined his brother gerard's band and Johnny joined KH after Mikey met him at some Nine Inch Nails or Smashing Pumpkins thing that's that. Small world, huh?

But anyway, I played the "Curse of Kill Hannah" CD for a friend of mine whose exact quote was "I HAD NO IDEA WHY YOU LIKED THESE GUYS UNTIL NOW -- HOLY SHIT THIS STUFF IS SO FUCKING GOOD." That's not to say that their new stuff isn't. It's awesome, but this old stuff -- in all it's low-fi glory, is what made my car drive faster, my self-imposed alienation from my friends that much more tolerable, and gave me some sort of weird love for the midwest ... a land i had never seen before.

You can download a song here: Click Here

And click here to buy it from their website. It's worth it. i Promise.