In keeping with the underground theme for the weekend, meet Kath Edmonds (Vocals, guitars), Shaneen Mooney (Bass), and Matt Larkin (Drums). Collectively known as Kath and the Kicks, this Leeds trio have unleashed their latest single Underground to an unsuspecting public and, if anything they’ve released over the last seven years is in any way suspecting … well, as one of the reviews on their website, categorising these guys is a waste of time. You think you have it down and something like this comes up.
Starting on Soudcloud with their “Paying Billy” EP in 2013, Kath and the Kicks explore music as an art-form. On “Neptune” (2017), “20 Years of Screaming” (2016), and Paying Billy, they present straight-ahead grunge / rock, rockabilly (Stray Cats, The Living End, Fireballs, etc), smoky bar-room semi-acoustic turned full-on-rock. But on the acoustic collection Behind The Scenes (2019) we get a collection of a girl and her guitar, the whole band in the MTV-unplugged styled Blue Mood, and the 10’19” study in acoustic bass with ethereal accompaniments White Noise. An amazing collection that loses nothing without the amplifiers. And then Let It Out is a mystical Eastern flavoured straight-ahead heavy rock-almost-metal in a voice I am struggling to identify.
Most of these tracks were released to Bandcamp late last year, to which they also added Walls Between Us, and this month’s banger. Kath and the Kicks kick arse where necessary, lay it back otherwise, or turn it on its ear to keep you guessing, but never stick to the same formula or genre two songs in a row. Slam! There are no pretensions about Underground! Playing with time-signatures like a prog-artist, and delivering yet another surprise addition to an already wide and varied canon and, hopefully, a sign of things to come album-wise.
The North sure know how to rock, as we’ve discovered with The Big Dirty, Ten Foot Wizard, and Tides. Kath and the Kicks can sit comfortably on a bill with one or any of these acts and knock any of them out, respectively, with their sheer variety and Kath’s sheer rock-’em-out style. Check them out in a venue or at an online gig near you. Your ears won’t thank you but your musical appreciation most certainly will!