Friday, June 4, 2004

HERE ARE THE YOUNG MODERNS

Back on New Years Eve 98/99 I introduced myself to a boy who later became one of my very close friends. He was wearing a really cool marching band jacket and make up and looked like Adam Ant at his peak. I thought to myself that I wanted to be this person if i was actually a boy (something I really wish i was -- i'd make a great guy, especially with my knowledge of women). So we chatted a bit and he told me he was in a band in Chicago. I pretty much was like, yeah, whatever, everyone's in a band. I didn't think much about it. He told me his band was called Kill Hannah, and I noted to myself to at least check out a band fronted by such a cute boy. Shallow? Yeah. I was 18. Sue me.

A few months later I somehow befriended this other boy named Adriel (whom also later became one of my very close friends) on the nerd who was from Chicago. I was totally excited because after searching endlessly for Kill Hannah tracks I had come up empty handed and finally I found someone who could send me songs. So he sent me a tape of a bunch of songs from KH eps. I popped it into my car's tape deck (I was commuting from NJ to my internship at spin.com at the time) and was totally estatic. It was so much awesome. Dreamy, sexy, New Order-ish, MBV-ish... I was in love! I listened to that tape over and over again until it was finally eaten up by the tape deck.

I remember once driving around Tenafly to a friends house blasting a song, feeling like a total iconoclast in comparision to the kids i went to school with who were all still getting stoned to DMB, the Dead, and Phish. Despite their illadvised taste in music, I thought they were always so much cooler than me, and wished that maybe, just maybe, one of them would hear the cool songs blasting out of my car and be like "Sarah, that's some cool stuff. What is it?" It never happened. Little did i realize that i was a huge dork for blasting the songs really loud out of my Nissan Stanza.

Anyway, the point of this is this: Today I got a package in the mail from Mat Devine, the singer of Kill Hannah. He wrote: "Here are a couple copies of the disc we just pressed -- please, you have to let the cassette go... it's a dead medium." Enclosed were two copies of The Curse of Kill Hannah 1996-1998. A collection of the songs from their early EPs that made me fall head over heels in love with them in the first place. Once again I'm sat here at my desk, blasting "Chloroform," hoping that at least one cool kid people i work with will stop by my desk and say "hey, that sounds pretty cool. what is it?"

Anwyay, the track listing for anyone else who might be a fan of Kill Hannah:
1. Hummingbirds the Size of Bullets
2. Kill Hannah
3. He Believes in Time Machiens
4. The Trains are so Loud
5. No One Dreams Anyway (demo)
6. Hummingbirds the Size of Bullets (remix)
7. Sleeping Like Electric Eels
8. Dazzle These Nights Dead
9. Held on By Wires
10. Agent Orange Skies
11. Stunt Pilots
12. Love Sick
13. Chloroform (Slow Reaction)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey
is there any chance you could post one of their songs? they sound really cool, but i haven't been able to find their albums nor any mp3s :(
(pretty please!)

n. said...

I love Kill Hannah, and this collection sounds fucking awesome. Thanks for the info Sarah!

Anonymous said...

There used to be this guy in Chicago that I'd run into at all these shows who looked like he should have been a member of Kill Hannah. I dubbed him my Kill Hannah stalker.

Adi said...

Do you remember what was on the other side of that tape?

Steve said...

This band = so durst.

Ultragrrrl said...

yes adi! it was the longpigs! i love them!

Adi said...

Oh yea! I had totally forgot that they were also on that tape. Funny shit.

Anonymous said...

You rock for posting this. That's kind of how I felt when I first saw them in concert. And if I can have a fangirl moment, I thought the lights on the guitars were really cool!

The song "Nerve Gas" made me pay attention, but "He Believes in Time Machines" and "Hummingbirds" made me fall in love with them. I had just never really heard anything like it before.

Anonymous said...

yay! kh! if you feel the need for some ear candy www.killhannah.net is a good place to start. she has alot under media. heh, strange, i'm wearing my kill hannah t-shirt now. spooky.

Aliah said...

I am truly greatful that you post about Kill Hannah. I feel somewhat bad for them in their current state with what little recognition they have received since signing with a major. They are truly something, and my high school years were laced with kh shows and found memories from those shows.They weren't just shows back then, they were "events." So, whenever I hear the slightest mention of them, especially heartfelt appreciation for what they do it makes me happy.
~

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