Cougar Microbes

considering Jamie Hince‘s extended stint in the tabloid papers and Alison Mosshart‘s largely enjoyable The Dead Weather project The Kills may have been forgiven for losing focus once it came down to the business of recording music again. Instead with the release of ‘Blood Pressures‘ the duo returned with a bag full of attitude and some of their sharpest tracks to date.

Our girl Olivia added them to her Top 10 describing them as “One of the hottest, most sexual rock duo at the moment, the mix of Mosshart‘s moan and charisma and Hinge‘s guitar riffs still works wonders. This album actually sounds quite like 2008′s ‘Midnight Boom‘.

Perhaps it’s not their best work to date but remains quite the empowering album, with great tracks such as ‘Satellite‘, ‘Future Starts Slow‘ and ‘DNA‘ demonstrate particular flair“.

Nicole further discussed that “it should come as no surprise that a band named The Kills gravitates towards dark, gritty sounds on their latest album, ‘Blood Pressures‘. 

I can picture the title displayed in classic horror movie-style font. It seems a perfect combination of words for the duo, and certainly confirms their fascination with macabre subject matter.

Mosshart goes goth with lyrics like, “Baby says if ever you see skin/as pale or eyes as deep and as black as mine/ I’ll know you’re lying”, and it’s never been hotter. Meanwhile, Hince lays down such cool guitar riffs that you’ll feel like you’re part of The Brat Pack (see tracks “Baby Says” and “You Don’t Own The Road”).

I’ll also divulge that I found my musical soul mate on this album – “D.N.A” is one of the catchiest and most rhythmic songs I’ve heard all year. It had me at “hello” (i.e. when I saw them perform it at Emo’s during SXSW ‘11)“.

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The Kills – Future starts slow

As part of their NEVER HIDE campaign Ray-Ban have been involved in all sorts of cool events this year including a massive water gun fight at SXSW, a sweet Iphone app as well as continued support for Northern Irish stalwarts Two Door Cinema Club on their current tour.

We are teaming up with the legendary eyewear company to give away some Two Door Cinema Club t-shirts from the band as well as a Ray-Ban NEVER HIDE frame (as shown in the video) to a lucky Cougar Microbes reader.

To enter the competition is answer the following question:

Which item would you NEVER HIDE at a live concert?

Winners will be picked at random on the 1st of June. Submit your question via the comments below, our facebook page or by tweeting directly to @cougarmicrobes.

Good luck!

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Out of intense envy for everyone who is going to SxSW I considered a silent protest for the duration of the event. However, having featured Nevada‘s Burning Man Festival a few days ago I figured the awesome Austin event deserves some Cougar loving too.

Besides, as you can see from the flyer above the guys at Vagrant are putting on showcase next week is below featuring some of the bands we have been covering on these pages. If you are out there drop by and make sure you tell them Cougar Microbes sent you.

Talking of Vagrant bands, It has been a while since I have written about Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and that just can’t be right so here is a new remix of  ’Home‘. Considering this is my personal favourite track anybody fiddling with is heading into risky territory. I’m glad to say André Anjos of RAC manages to pull it off creating a track that is unique in its own right yet doesn’t hide the source material entirely from the listener.

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