Oh, New York City—what a place! Full of theaters, art galleries, record labels and live-music venues, the Big Apples practically a Promised Land for creative young people. Really, who hasnt dreamed of moving there some day? With opportunities at every turn, you might just make the big time if you work hard enough.
Well, thats what they say, at least. If youre considering making the move, you might want to listen to K-Holes song Rats, off the Brooklyn bands new album, Dismania. In a whirlwind of scorching guitar riffs, pounding drums and raging saxophone, the song perfectly captures the soul-sucking disenchantment of a New York City musician at his wits end. We are rats! screams singer-guitarist Jack Hines.
Hines co-wrote the song with fellow K-Holes singer Vashti Windish during a rough time in his life. He was broke and scrounging to survive, working the late shift at a rat-infested diner. Though the problem was eventually brought under control, the experience got him thinking about how rats and humans really arent that different in some ways.
Theres millions of em, Hines says, speaking by phone from the bands tour van on the way to Montreal. They swarm and they both live in cities, and they both kind of degrade the places wherever they are. I heard this statistic . When youre in New York, youre never more than 15 feet away from a rat.
A former New York City resident myself (I went to college in the city and lived there for five years), I can relate to the relentless grind. And yet its precisely the songs nightmare vision that makes Rats so incredibly exciting. If it comes up randomly on my iPod, Ill crank the volume up to full blast, pump my fists and scream along, We are rats! The line feels like a rallying cry, an embrace of the rat within.
Thats what makes K-Holes—Windish, Hines, his bass-playing wife Julie, drummer Cameron Michel and saxophonist Zumi Rosow, who recently replaced Sarah Palmquist—so utterly necessary. While plenty of buzz-bands go the escapist route with nostalgic garage-rock or dance-floor-ready synth-pop, K-Holes face problems head on, striking a defiantly repulsive stance in the style of The Birthday Party, Pussy Galore and New York City no-wave bands like James Chance and The Contortions.
You can practically smell the gutter on Dismania, which came out in May via Hardly Art. Child, the albums opener, is a feverish dirge of teeth-clenching guitar riffs and caveman-style cymbal crashes, topped with tortured sax howls and Windishs creeping snarl: I wont change for no one / cause I dont give a damn. But with tracks like the slow, bluesy, quietly sinister Window in the Wall, you can also find beauty in the mess.
To Windish, the album reflects the frustration of living in the city: Not being able to hold down jobs. Watching people all get fucked up and beat up or die. Its not like our lives are that insanely crazy, but that kind of shit happens.
Times have been tough for New York Citys underground music scene. Last year, K-Holes had to find a new practice space after the shuttering of Monster Island, a well-known DIY arts complex in Williamsburg; the landlord plans to redevelop the property, which sits on prime real estate. And, recently, Cake Shop, a modest venue in Manhattans Lower East Side thats served as a haven for emerging indie-rock bands, launched a fundraising effort to avoid eviction.
With rising rents and gentrification in hip Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Bushwick, members of K-Holes say the citys begun to look like Disneyland. And its hard to get by.
Im not independently wealthy, Hines says. I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, and the paychecks arent really coming.
Amid the daily grind, though, the band hasnt lost its sense of humor—a track off their 2011 self-titled debut is titled Werewolf with a Tan. Even the sneering melodrama of Rats is so over-the-top that it verges on hilarity.
As it happens, the bands name—a reference to the drug ketamine—is itself kind of a joke. When K-Holes first started several years ago, they picked the name on a whim because they were planning to play only one show. And then people were like, Thats awesome!, so we had to keep playing shows and we had to keep the name, Julie Hines explains, stifling a giggle.
And despite their intense music, the band has a relaxed approach. I think that were all really good friends and honest with each other and confident with what everyones doing, Windish says. Its a nice vibe. Its not like any other band Ive been in.
As for the challenges of living in the city, theyre undaunted.
Well always be like, It sucks! Its terrible! Its dirty! Windish says. But we actually all really love it, too.
K-Holes play with Teenage Burritos at Bar Pink on Friday, June 29.
Well, thats what they say, at least. If youre considering making the move, you might want to listen to K-Holes song Rats, off the Brooklyn bands new album, Dismania. In a whirlwind of scorching guitar riffs, pounding drums and raging saxophone, the song perfectly captures the soul-sucking disenchantment of a New York City musician at his wits end. We are rats! screams singer-guitarist Jack Hines.
Hines co-wrote the song with fellow K-Holes singer Vashti Windish during a rough time in his life. He was broke and scrounging to survive, working the late shift at a rat-infested diner. Though the problem was eventually brought under control, the experience got him thinking about how rats and humans really arent that different in some ways.
Theres millions of em, Hines says, speaking by phone from the bands tour van on the way to Montreal. They swarm and they both live in cities, and they both kind of degrade the places wherever they are. I heard this statistic . When youre in New York, youre never more than 15 feet away from a rat.
A former New York City resident myself (I went to college in the city and lived there for five years), I can relate to the relentless grind. And yet its precisely the songs nightmare vision that makes Rats so incredibly exciting. If it comes up randomly on my iPod, Ill crank the volume up to full blast, pump my fists and scream along, We are rats! The line feels like a rallying cry, an embrace of the rat within.
Thats what makes K-Holes—Windish, Hines, his bass-playing wife Julie, drummer Cameron Michel and saxophonist Zumi Rosow, who recently replaced Sarah Palmquist—so utterly necessary. While plenty of buzz-bands go the escapist route with nostalgic garage-rock or dance-floor-ready synth-pop, K-Holes face problems head on, striking a defiantly repulsive stance in the style of The Birthday Party, Pussy Galore and New York City no-wave bands like James Chance and The Contortions.
You can practically smell the gutter on Dismania, which came out in May via Hardly Art. Child, the albums opener, is a feverish dirge of teeth-clenching guitar riffs and caveman-style cymbal crashes, topped with tortured sax howls and Windishs creeping snarl: I wont change for no one / cause I dont give a damn. But with tracks like the slow, bluesy, quietly sinister Window in the Wall, you can also find beauty in the mess.
To Windish, the album reflects the frustration of living in the city: Not being able to hold down jobs. Watching people all get fucked up and beat up or die. Its not like our lives are that insanely crazy, but that kind of shit happens.
Times have been tough for New York Citys underground music scene. Last year, K-Holes had to find a new practice space after the shuttering of Monster Island, a well-known DIY arts complex in Williamsburg; the landlord plans to redevelop the property, which sits on prime real estate. And, recently, Cake Shop, a modest venue in Manhattans Lower East Side thats served as a haven for emerging indie-rock bands, launched a fundraising effort to avoid eviction.
With rising rents and gentrification in hip Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Bushwick, members of K-Holes say the citys begun to look like Disneyland. And its hard to get by.
Im not independently wealthy, Hines says. I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, and the paychecks arent really coming.
Amid the daily grind, though, the band hasnt lost its sense of humor—a track off their 2011 self-titled debut is titled Werewolf with a Tan. Even the sneering melodrama of Rats is so over-the-top that it verges on hilarity.
As it happens, the bands name—a reference to the drug ketamine—is itself kind of a joke. When K-Holes first started several years ago, they picked the name on a whim because they were planning to play only one show. And then people were like, Thats awesome!, so we had to keep playing shows and we had to keep the name, Julie Hines explains, stifling a giggle.
And despite their intense music, the band has a relaxed approach. I think that were all really good friends and honest with each other and confident with what everyones doing, Windish says. Its a nice vibe. Its not like any other band Ive been in.
As for the challenges of living in the city, theyre undaunted.
Well always be like, It sucks! Its terrible! Its dirty! Windish says. But we actually all really love it, too.
K-Holes play with Teenage Burritos at Bar Pink on Friday, June 29.
Email peterh@sdcitybeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @peterholslin.
