The year was 2005, and I just got this comp on CD called Let's Have Goddamn Fun! New York City 2005. It was a FANTASTIC comp mind you, but one of the bands that really stood out to me was The Little Killers. With a name like that, you really have no idea what the hell you're getting, right? But what I did get was this hot shit rock n' roll that shot fire like a blowtorch out of my speakers!
This three piece band was formed in 2001, in New York City by former Sea Monkeys singer/guitarist Andy Maltz, ex-Kings of The Fucking Sea bass player Sara Nelson and drummer Kari Boden. To an outsider, someone that's never set foot in New York City mind you, The Little Killers seemed to capture all my wildest dreams of that town. They somehow sonically conveyed all the excitement, sleaze and swagger I always projected on to "the city that never sleeps." Musically, The Little Killers fit well right between contemporaries like The Humpers and The New Bomb Turks. As far as influences go, I hear some Radio Birdman, Stooges, DMZ all balled together and thrown at you with some Dead Boys style delivery. Sadly, just a year after they released their second album, the band broke up in 2007
The Little Killers - S/T LP (Crypt Records) 2003
The band's big debut got released by Crypt FUCKING Records! Yep, and they fit well with label mates like The Gories and The Devil Dogs for sure. The LP featured 12 rapid fire shotgun blasts right into your ear hole. No let up, no misses, no time to reload, just one sure fire hit after another. To say this record delivers is an understatement. The album was produced my Dean Rispler which also produced bands like The Stallions, Electric Frankenstein and The Candy Snatchers so these guys knew what they were doing when they picked this dude to produce them. Classic record, go get it from CryptRecords.com, they still have some!
So here's where I suspect shit got a little haywire. I mean, Gern FUCKING Blandsten? The fuck? I associate this label with all that early emo post-hardcore stuff like Rorschach, Garden Variety and Rye Coalition. I mean, nothing against those bands but Little Killers don't seem like they'd be welcome to that party. But the label did also have Chisel and Weston too which is a little bit more their ilk, but not really. Musically however and much to their credit, The Little Killers still kept cranking out their brand of thunderous punk rock n roll like there's no tomorrow. Is it better than their debut you ask, probably not but only by a narrow margin. This time, they enlisted legendary knob noodler Jim Diamond to produce so yeah, this record doesn't suck!
Aside from these two long players, The Little Killers released a few 7"'s. One of them Bang Bang You're Dead was a live recording they did on the Terre T's Cherry Blossum Clinic on WFMU and apparently it was only sold by mail-order or at the Little Killer's live shows. Another one was a split 7" with a band called The Dartford Renegades on Norton Records where both bands did Rolling Stones covers. Little Killers did a great version of "Think" off The Stones album Aftermath LP. The last one was You Got It Made b/w Mellow Down Easy on some label called Sweet Nothing Records in 2004. Both non LP tracks!
And the last thing I wanted to touch on, is that The Little Killers did one of the last Peel Sessions in June of 2004, just before John Peel passed away in October of 2004. See the YouTube link below for the whole recording, you lucky dogs you!
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