Kill Hannah Finally Wake Up
“…a song I haven’t sung since I was a little brat in Connecticut,” sings Kill Hannah’s Mat Devine on their latest effort, Wake Up the Sleepers.
He’s right.
Sleepers is no doubt Kill Hannah’s most honest and ambitious album to date, the “album we’ve always wanted to make,” according to the band. More than their major label efforts, For Never and Ever and Until There’s Nothing Left of Us, this album stays truer to the original “Kill Hannah sound” that decorated the band’s first albums: an infectious blending of sludge and sleaze, glitter, dance beats, space cadet effects and afro-Cuban drum parts. Somewhere inside this album lies the aural cocktail that’s been eluding them since the release of American Jet Set in 1999, and they’ve attempted every trick in the book to re-discover it, including guest appearances by everyone from Benji Madden to Amanda Palmer.
One must take risks in producing such an ambitious effort, and Kill Hannah has not fallen short in that regard. In doing so, however, they must be prepared for those risks to turn people off. Several of Kill Hannah’s influences have learned this the hard way, notably U2 (Pop) and The Smashing Pumpkins (Machina/The Machines of God).
Key track “Escape Artistry” is “All That He Wants (American Jet Set)” updated for 2009 and “Living in Misery,” is every bit as grandiose as Devine’s dreams—an epic, hopeful ballad featuring larger-than-life Twitter-er and sometime musician Palmer, a children’s choir and the chorus, “We are living in misery, but we have to hold on.” With throwaway lyrics and a beat meant to move you, “Tokyo (Dance In The Dust)” takes influence from friends Shiny Toy Guns and their hit “Le Disko,” despite the questionable and unnecessary T-O-K-Y-O chant let loose toward the end of the song.
Self-produced and pieced together in four different studios around Chicago and in Canada, the album alternates from hopeful to hopeless, lovesick to love-heals-all-things. The fact a few of the songs were written years apart from one another explains some of the manic-depressive mood swings. Fan favorite “New York City Speed” was an internet demo leaked years ago, while rock-love song “Acid Rain” was written during the Until There’s Nothing Left of Us sessions. These songs act as the glue holding the album together and bind new with old, attempting to keep the band’s promise to “unite all the Kill Hannah fans from the last 10 years, and do everything in our ability to continue to earn [their] loyalty.”
The mixing on the album feels just as scattered—tracks like “Mouth 2 Mouth,” “Escape Artistry” and “Strobelights” sound like they belong on one album, while “Living in Misery” and “Laika” on another. Complete downer “Promise Me” samples a string orchestra and features live tympani drums, but the subtleties are such it barely seems to break through demo waters. The song has potential to be a heart-rending, moody ballad, but comes across as neglected next to the slick production of “New York City Speed” and “Radio.”
Dan Wiese performed virtually all of the guitar work (aside from a couple guest turns), due to the departure of Jonny Radtke (who makes a sole appearance on “Acid Rain”). He gives the album a depth missing in previous KH efforts, layered in distortion and effects, a mad concoction of thick sound. Wiese’s vibe is more indie than metal, and instead of sprawling solos you get sonic landscapes crafted from the belly of this effect scientist’s laboratory. The guitars are dripping with whatever Wiese can pull from his pedal board, adding a refreshing touch to a tried-and-true formula.
Drummer Elias Mallin plays on his first record with the band and adds the touch of metal flair with a thunder of double bass and added rhythmic complexity. His contribution is especially noticeable with improvements on old favorites (“Welcome to Chicago Motherfucker”) and the occasional stray from the 4/4 time supported by bassist Greg Corner.
Devine lets his voice loose, stripping away the Pro Tools and letting his elfin, strained moans and shrieks come to life on their own terms. It’s one of his finest performances vocally and lyrically as he tries to tackle subjects only hinted at on previous albums. While his trademark turns of phrase are evident (“…and so we say goodbye, with thunder in our eyes…”) he also takes the blame (“Promise Me”), gives a free-style confessional (“Why I Have My Grandma’s Sad Eyes”) and tells his detractors to fuck off (“Radio”).
While Wake Up the Sleepers has some cringe-worthy moments (the T-O-K-Y-O chant) it has some triumphant ones as well (the chorus to “Strobe Lights”). By far my biggest complaint about the record is song order. While likely intended to be schizophrenic and experimental it comes across as sloppy and disagreeable. The album jumps and jars so often I finally gave up and made my own playlist, which I’ll post below.
Regardless of the collective opinion, Kill Hannah make no apologies and have again made an album unlike any of their contemporaries. They are busy living, creating, and taking risks—rather than catering to a specific audience or delivering a disc put together by a label. They are honesty warriors making the music they want to make. From their ambitious Chicago roots Kill Hannah’s message has always centered on hope and the unbeatable desire to press ever onward.
They’ve faced obstacles that have destroyed other bands; their suffering supplements their art. Through fire, trial, struggle and change emerges “a renewed sense of fearlessness and freedom during the writing and recording process that we haven’t felt since our independent DIY days in Chicago. We took a lot of chances, because this is the album that we want to be remembered by,” said Devine.
They danced with major labels and painted their faces; now Kill Hannah seem eager to jump into the bare grit of the sweat-soaked crowd, the sleepless that have always been awake, wearing trademark sniper hearts on their sleeves.
Julie M. T.’s recommended song order:
- Mouth 2 Mouth
- Snowblinded
- Why I Have My Grandma’s Sad Eyes
- Radio
- Escape Artistry
- New York City Speed
- Strobe Lights
- Tokyo (Dance in the Dust)
- Laika
- Vultures (Be There For Me)
- Acid Rain
- Promise Me
- Living in Misery
- (Bonus) Welcome to Chicago Motherfucker
(Visit killhannah.com for numerous Wake Up the Sleepers packages, or buy the album on Itunes here. Kill Hannah are currently on tour with Jet and Papa Roach. Check their Myspace for details.)
Tags: acid rain, dan wiese, dance in the dust, dancing with major labels does not make you a good dancer, elias mallin, elias used to have a mohawk, finally some double bass, for never and ever, greg corner, i want chocolate cake, i'd love to watch mat play the piano on mouth 2 mouth because his fingers are suckable, i'm going to smoke a cigarette, jonny radtke, kill hannah, mat devine, promise me should have been a good song, the record release party was freezing, the smashing pumpkins, U2, until there's nothing left of us, wake up the sleepers, wiese is the musical conscience of kill hannah
October 9th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
I’m going to post your review on the killhannah.com website.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Great review J! I see we agreed on a few parts there, not so much on the track list though lol. You write so much better than me its sickening. Keep using your gift.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Hi! Just an editing thing. You said Strobelights twice (once for Track 7 and once for Track 2). I’m sure one of those is probably meant to be Snowblinded.
Also, I really liked this review and I agree completely. Part of me feels a little jealous on some levels because I had many of the EXACT same thoughts with respect to the record (I’ve literally said, “Escape Artistry is All that He Wants ‘09″ to several fans/friends while discussing this record) and you beat me to the punch! Ah well.
Here’s how I would sequence the record:
1. Radio
2. Living In Misery
3. Laika
4. New York City Speed
5. Why I Have My Grandma’s Sad Eyes
6. Tokyo (Dance In The Dust)
7 Acid Rain
8. Mouth To Mouth
9. Snowblinded
10. Strobe Lights
11. Vultures (Be There For Me)
12. Promise Me
13. Escape Artistry
I sequenced this record as if I was sequencing multiple movements within a record. Think of it as a couple of killer EP’s strung together with tracks that bridge those movements. I think the first and last movements should be a mix of slow and fast components (mixed). I think the second movement should have most of the energy, though. In my mind, the last movement should have some of the quieter and weightier songs (by subject matter) and should also leave on the best possible note.
For the first movement, I like Radio as an opening track, so I’d lead off with that. I sort of imagine Radio as the epic helicopter flight over Chicago that introduces the record and the basically says “We’re back, fuckers.” The ending of Radio calms down enough to lead perfectly into Living In Misery (try it – you might like it!). I like having Laika follow it because it kicks the tempo up without feeling like we just ingested some New York City speed and are tweaking all over the place. Laika can ramp things up for a big New York City Speed dance fest on Track 4 . I think Why I have Grandma’s Sad Eyes is different and quirky enough to serve as a proper cool down and a bridge track for the next movement.
Movement Two should start of as punchy and direct, and I think Tokyo fits that bill nicely. Acid Rain is also an up tempo and punchy song, but it has a nice slow intro that eases you into things with the slow intro so you once again don’t feel like you are ingesting too much sugar/crack at once. As such, I think it is a perfect track 7. The reality of this album is such that you are going to get some faster paced or really energetic songs next to each other. You just can’t avoid it unless you literally separate the album into slow halves/fast halves, which I don’t think is as creative or interesting (personally). So, I bit the bullet and followed up Acid Rain with Mouth To Mouth because it has a minute long intro that ramps things up and will hopefully give people a bit of breathing room after Acid Rain’s frenetic double-bass fuck fest and rockin’ outro.
That brings us to Movement 3. I really wanted to start this movement with Snowblinded because it is such a gorgeous love song and Benji Madden brings SO much A-game to this instantly mind blowing track. Despite being fairly mid-tempo, the song feels VERY Romantically moody to me – especially the outro refrain with the simple vocalizations (”bah bah bah bah – I just want you to know”). I think that moodiness sort of mentally slows down things, even when the rock is still keeping pace. The song makes you think and has such an elegant string crescendo that I find it perfect in that spot. Vultures slows things down a bit more, but it is the heaviest song on the record (lyrically) and what I think is personally the best song Kill Hannah has ever written. I relate to that song so much on so many levels! Anyway, I followed that up with Promise Me because I almost treat Promise Me as a sort of quiet interlude. On the commentary, Mat talks about how the song was originally only a minute long or so. Mentally, it feels very focussed and minimalist – just like a one minute musical segue. Considering the heaviness of that subject matter and considering the fact that I didn’t want to use it as a bridge song or toss it in anywhere else (it would just kill any momentum that might be generated by a movement), I found it appropriate to tack it onto Vultures, since Vultures is so damn heavy. HOWEVER, I didn’t want to end with that as the last track because I don’t think it should end on such a sober note. I don’t think that reflects the general mid -tempo to uptempo vibe of the record or the . One of the things I learned in speech and debate is that people remember things by primacy (whatever they hear first) and recency (whatever they hear last that is most recent).I was pretty cognizant of that fact. Like you and I have both said (independently of each other), Escape Artistry is basically All That He Wants ‘09. All That He Wants opened American Jet Set in a HUGE way that I think it would be so awesome to end like that. Instead of letting the heaviness of Promise Me and Vultures drag one down to some sort of epic Van Goh-esque fugue of depression, I figured that Escape Artistry could serve as the light-at -the- end- of -the- tunnel song.
After all, Mat’s big message (I think) in Living In Misery is “BUT WE HAVE TO HOLD ON.” I think Escape Artistry can convey that same thematic message if delivered as the parting shot after Vultures/Promise Me. To me that says, “Yeah, we’ve been through hell and back, but we still have fire in our bellies and the spirit that made you guys fall in love with us in the first place. That pioneer spirit that makes us just take off with no destination in mind. The spirit that is reflected with the thunder in our eyes.”
In a sense, that spirit is conveyed with the opening song as well (Radio) which basically says, “Fuck you, you guys doubted and we stepped up to the plate every time and keep swinging no matter what and continue to knock balls out of the stadium.”
Kill Hannah has such life-affirming music that I think that theme should be reflected with the ending song.
Anyway, I spent forever typing this out! I hope I didn’t bore you to tears! Regardless, I would seriously encourage you to give my mix a shot. I’ll definitely do the same with yours.
Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Evan Sanchez
October 9th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I really love this album. It reminds me of 20 some years ago, I was a teenager listening over and over to “Standing on the Beach…” by the Cure. But perhaps because I am in a much better place than I was back then, the upbeat and hopeful sound and lyrics of WUTS leaves me feeling so much more positive. I feel like I have been waiting for years for a band to create this type of music again, and Kill Hannah has done it with resounding beauty, talent and preserverence that I am grateful for.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Nice review! And I agree in every way, particularly about the song order. I will try your playlist and the other one listed above. The main thing that hit me when I first heard the album was the upbeat feeling from it… hope instead of hopelessness. Which is really why I think Radio needs to be the lead song… telling detractors to fuck off is just right, and I even wondered if it was autobiographical, looking back at the original Hannah and saying, “Look the fuck at me now!”
October 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
This is a great review. I like it when a reviewer is honest about what doesn’t work for them on the album, but still is obviously positive and upbeat about the album as a whole.
That’s how I felt about Wake Up The Sleepers. The stuff that didn’t work for me REALLY didn’t work, but it works as a whole, and I really enjoyed the album. I think KH deserve to be proud of what they’ve accomplished.
Of course, as is pretty much always the case with KH, the songs come across even better live. Can’t wait to hear more of the album translated to the live show.
October 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
As I told you in text, I am in agreement with this review. I love the album, but I’ve ended up sequencing it different. Still, I am really happy with how they broke out of certain conventions and made a record that made sense to THEM. After everything this band has been through, I think they deserve to do that.
Great job, Jules. <3
October 14th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Thank you for sharing your review with us. I agree with most of your song order, but mine is a little more A.D.H.D
Fabulous!
November 12th, 2009 at 3:09 am
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