THE KILLS - NEW ALBUM / TOUR
/THE KILLS Announce new album 'Ash & Ice' plus UK London date on top of IOW Festival
March 01, 2016
Photo: Kenneth Capello
Jamie and Alison's 5th album 'Ash & Ice', set for release on June 3rd through Domino. They have also unveiled the video for their first single 'Doing It To Death'
Jamie & Alison play Village Underground on May 4th. Alison says of 'Ash & Ice' - "One of the first songs that Jamie brought for the record was called 'Ash and Ice,' and we loved the title. He does that all the time -- he just starts with the title and he hasn’t written a word for the actual song. I guess he was sitting at some bar or some party or someone’s house, and it was just like people ashing into a glass of ice, in that disgusting thing that you just see all the time."
In Jamie's recollection - "I had a drink, and I just threw my cigarette in this glass of ice, and it was just as simple as that. It was like ash and ice, and I said I’ll just call it that. Which is kind of dull. I wish I’d come up with a better story, but that’s the truth of it. And I just like the connotation. It just sort of sounded right, and I liked the idea of it being these two opposite souls. I liked it being the idea of someone with a joint in one hand and a drink in the other."
The Kills have unveiled details on their highly anticipated fifth album. Titled 'Ash & Ice', the album will be released June 3rd on Domino. Accompanying today’s announcement is the video for brand new single ‘Doing It To Death’, directed by Wendy Morgan (Janelle Monae, Laura Mvula) and shot in Los Angeles last month.
Over their almost decade-and-a-half career, The Kills have released four records. Each one a restless, reckless enigmatic art statement that bristled with tension, anxiety, sex, unstudied cool and winking ennui, yet not one of them sounded like the previous one. Ash & Ice is the follow up to 2011’s critically lauded Blood Pressures and was five years in the making in part due to Jamie Hince’s five hand surgeries, which resulted in him having to re-learn how to play guitar with a permanently damaged finger.
Unlike earlier albums, which have largely been written and recorded at Key Club Studio in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the bulk of the recording for Ash & Ice took place in a rented house in LA and at the world famous Electric Lady Studios in NYC. The album was produced by Jamie Hince and co-produced by John O’Mahony (Metric, The Cribs), and mixed by Tom Elmhirst (Adele, Arcade Fire, Amy Winehouse) and Tchad Blake (Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys).
It was during Hince’s recuperation from surgery that he first started sketching out what would become the songs for the album. To shake up the writing process, Hince booked a solo trip on the infamous Trans-Siberian Express for inspiration while Alison Mosshart, now residing in Nashville, TN, wrote some of the most affecting, poetically candid lyrics that she ever has, painting word pictures that mine the dangerous terrain between romantic obsession, prophecy and tough love. Where previous albums had an air of detachment and emotional austerity, underpinned by an uneasy self-awareness and unexpressed anger, the 13 songs on Ash & Ice are more understated, less tempestuous and more affecting because of that, exposing the kind of push-pull you feel when you find yourself in a complicated but all-consuming relationship. Ash & Ice is The Kills at their emotionally charged, arresting best. Prepare to be slayed.
As if you need any introduction to their epic sound, here are a couple of their classics to whet your appetite for the upcoming live dates:
The album details come with additional tour dates, including a London show at Village Underground on May 4th. New shows go on sale this coming Friday 4th March.
The Kills Tour Dates
March 16 Mexico City, MX - House of Vans 50th Anniversary
March 17 Austin, TX - Culture Collide/StubHub Showcase (SXSW)
March 18 Austin, TX - Spotify House (SXSW)
April 7 Nashville, TN - Exit/In (Sold Out)
April 8 Louisville, KY - Headliner’s Music Hall
April 9 Columbus, OH - CD 102.5 Day (Sold Out)
April 11 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
April 12 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw (Sold Out)
April 13 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw (Sold Out)
April 15 Indio, CA – Coachella (Sold Out)
April 18 Los Angeles, CA - Mayan Theatre
April 19 Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory
April 22 Indio, CA - Coachella (Sold Out)
May 1 Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg
May 3 Paris, FR - La Cigale
May 4 London, UK - Village Underground
May 13 Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees Festival
May 14 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
May 19 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
May 21 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
May 22 Detroit, MI - St Andrew’s Hall
May 23 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
May 25 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
May 26 Kansas City, KS - Midland Theatre
May 27 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
May 28 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
May 31 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
June 1 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo
June 2 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
June 4 San Francisco, CA - Fox Theater
June 9 - 12 Newport, UK - Isle of Wight Festival
July 6 Kiev, Ukraine - U-Park Festival
July 9 Moscow, Russia - Park Live Festival
August 6 Katowice, Poland - Off Festival
Ash & Ice is available to pre-order now on 2xLP, CD, and digital download.
Pre-order: The Kills / Dom Mart / iTunes
Ash & Ice Tracklist
01. Doing It To Death
02. Heart Of A Dog
03. Hard Habit To Break
04. Bitter Fruit
05. Days Of Why And How
06. Let It Drop
07. Hum For Your Buzz
08. Siberian Nights
09. That Love
10. Impossible Tracks
11. Black Tar
12. Echo Home
13. Whirling Eye