Dryvetyme Onlyne

Kissing Cousins
Pillar Of Salt
Velvet Blue; 2009

Record labels, PR people, and music critics often concoct these elaborate comparative statements in an attempt to describe how any given band might sound. They often read something like this: “Band Under Examination A sounds like Genre L mixed with Classic Singer B and Unknown Act Mentioned For Street Cred Z. You’ll love/hate it!” My reviews certainly aren’t immune to such verbal chicanery, because there are instances when readers might need sonic touchstones upon which to understand the music of an underground band. Not only do I recognize the need, I’m going to employ this nefarious writer’s trick with this review: on Pillar Of Salt, the band’s debut full-length, Kissing Cousins sounds like what Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would have created if she had grown up listening to Patsy Cline and ‘70s hard rock instead of trying to channel Debbie Harry of Blondie.

If that above statement wasn’t clear enough, let me say that I’m really digging this record. Led by Heather B. Haywood, Kissing Cousins has created some exemplary lo-fi, quasi-gothic psychedelic country-rock, complete with heaps of dirty fuzz. Yes, there are a great many musical ideas at play here, but the siren call of Haywood’s voice and the ghostly flute-work (that’s right, flute-work) of Kara Haro serve as the firm foundation upon which this all-female act makes its music.

Acting as a further complement to the creepy, gloomy stoner rock atmosphere that predominates the album, Haywood calls upon the memories of her southern Pentecostal childhood for her lyrical material. The album’s title itself, Pillar Of Salt, and the song “Don’t Look Back” bear explicit reference to the story of Lot’s Wife from Genesis 19.

On the whole though, the record works because it doesn’t drone on endlessly like the music from many acts of this genre often does. This is due in large part to the relatively short and punchy nature of the songs, complete with aggressive, no-nonsense garage-y guitar work, as best displayed on the standout tracks “First In The Fire,” “Come Back To Me,” and “Red Lamb.” Much like Subrosa (whose excellent album, Strega I reviewed last year), the women of Kissing Cousins stand as further proof that women most certainly know how to rock. Produced by Richard Swift, Pillar Of Salt is fitting complement to the now-classic tunes of Neko Case and actually-deserves-the-hype sounds of Vivian Girls.