A Facebook thread from earlier this week inspired this week's Unheard Music artist. My friend Jay posted about the 90's band Kitchens of Distinction. I really enjoyed their 1991 album "Strange Free World". Later that year, while home from college for the summer, I had the pleasure of seeing them perform at (Cabaret) Metro in an XRT Budget show for the tidy sum of $4. Can you imagine paying $4 now for a show? I've paid many surcharges bigger than that.
I guess you'd have to lump Kitchens of Distinction (henceforth KoD) with the so-called shoegazer movement but where many shoegazer bands were more into sound and look over subsatnce, KoD had much greater lyrical depth than most of their peers. Fronted by an openly gay medical doctor, who took a sabbatical from practicing medicine (talk about a fall back job) KoD enjoyed modest success on both sides of the Atlantic. The lead single from "Strange Free World" was a brilliant single called "Drive That Fast". You can hear the ethereal shoegazer sound but it's a cut above most of the material of the era. Follow-up single "Quick As Rainbows", while not as insistent as "Drive" also fared well on both commerical and college radio.
While I liked the next album "The Death of Cool" (1992), I lost track of the band not long after that. You know, post-collegiate twentysomethings don't have much disposable income. They would put out just one more record before amicably disbanding in 1996. While I had four or five KoD songs on my iPod, it was a pleasure to revisit their music, listening to the complete records again. Have a great weekend, enjoy the music.
Nice pick this week, Ken - I'm a big KoD fan. The "great" thing about forgotten major label alternative bands from the 90s is that you can usually pick up their albums for incredibly low prices. I think I managed to obtain almost the entire KoD discography for under $20.
Posted by: Mike | Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Drive That Fast is definitely their best tune and I remember it sounding great at the Metro performance, they played it twice that evening. I was fortunate enough to have dinner with the band before the show at the Leona's on Sheffield and they were a fun group to hang with. I miss the perks of being a music director at a college radio station.
I still enjoy listening to a lot of shoegazer bands from the 90's. I'm surprised how much of that music holds up. Ride is my favorite next to MBV and Swirlies.
And yeah, $4 for a good show at Metro is money well spent.
Posted by: Jay | Sunday, March 01, 2009 at 01:42 AM