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Free Kitten "Inherit" on Ecstatic Peace! May 2008
What difference does a decade and a year make? We all live between then and now. Generally, most of us treat then as a movie we demand final cut over, a series of scenes we arrange and re-arrange according to the narrative we prefer to present to the world: I was happy. Cut to: My family was whole and happy. Fade to black.
The status quo presumes a number of things, too, chief among them being the power of facade. The family home looks perfect, so--perforce--the family is perfect, and that separates us from "them." Take a picture. Better yet, make a movie of us in our pique perfection. Cut to The Wife. Cut to The Wife and the family dog. Fade to black.
A decade and one year ago, Free Kitten released their third album, Sentimental Education. On it, one heard Kim Gordon's vocals and guitar. One also heard Pussy Galore's Julie Cafritz's vocals and guitar. Drums were played by the Boredom's Yoshimi; bass: Mark Ibold, formerly of Pavement. There were guest stars, too, but for the post-punk, indie, noise uninitiated, the draw of this album,--and 1994's "UnBoxed," and "Nice Ass" after it--was less its pedigree than the music's ability to challenge or even stop the movie lies that generally play in all our heads, such as: I am happy. Cut to: my family is whole and happy. Fade to black.
Free Kitten's music suggested otherwise. Free Kitten liked fading to black--and, in the process, drawing a curtain over the status quo. Free Kitten told stories about the family dog as well, less in their lyrics than in their sound, which brought Mom to mind, too, but Mom wielding a knife near the neck of the family dog that refuses to run away--or shut up.
But that was then. As to now: Free Kitten is releasing its fourth studio album. Titled "Inherit," it reacquaints us with Gordon, Cafritz and Yoshimi. On the disc, then and now are collapsed into the present. And it is our present that is most effected by songs like "Erected Girl," which reminds one of bossa nova rhythms run through a Kosher meat grinder. And then there's "Free Kitten on the Mountain," which amounts to a travelogue of sorts--but through a Lord Buckley-like subconscious mind.
In short, the thematic eclecticism evinced in Free Kitten's present work is a movie that doesn't lie, because truth is its standard.
Hilton Als, March 2008
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