[greenlight]

been listening to it. it's great. so far my favourites are:

* elected girl
* surf's up (really nice solo on this one. is this one feat. J. Mascis on it? - man I'll probably go see Dinosaur Jr. tomorrow, fuck my early next day. Dinosaurs are in town!)
* seasick
* help me
* the poet
* billboard
* monsters eye (i'd like to know what about is that song - uhh, my english - Kim's talking in the end must be about Thurston tho., or no?)

[Toxa]

very nice album. "Erected Girl" rules.

[Everyneurotic]

it's good, not extraordinaire; on first listen.

[greedrex]

i don't like it much so far
will need repeated listenings

[jennthebenn]

"Erected Girl" and "Seasick" for the ultimate victory.

[koolthing78]

All I've heard is "Seasick" (and the other 3 samples). I'm jealous.

[PAULYBEE2656]

inherit is no nice ass which i recon is their best album but its still great. i love it....

[guitarpro]

I'd love to see Free Kitten live.

[koolthing78]

Finally heard it! I love 'em all. That first riff in "Help Me" is killer, so is "The Poet." I'm usually more specific in my praise of things, but I'm still taking it all in. It's surprisingly good to listen to while going to sleep, though, the way many of the songs kind of fade in and out, like a dream sequence. Overall, couldn't be happier with it. Now I'll just have to preorder it from my local record shop, so I can buy it the day it comes out.

[hiland]

i uploaded the album to discogs... (with interiror art)
http://www.discogs.com/release/1338277

[Androol]

Originally Posted by Moshe

cover artwork:

 

more pics and mp3s are available here.

oh dear god fuck yes

[koolthing78]

Originally Posted by hiland

i uploaded the album to discogs... (with interiror art)
http://www.discogs.com/release/1338277

I just looked at the rest of the album art, and can I just say...AWESOME! Also, though I'm sure it was just an artsy, theatrical thing for the video/photo shoot, I found it interesting that Kim has an inverted pentagram painted on her forehead. It makes me think of those threads where people were speculating whether or not Sonic Youth were Satanists, or whatever. And even the design on the cd itself is awesome, reminds me of all those weird little doodles in the album art for "Sister" (which I also found kind of unsettling (in a good way), maybe because they reminded me of some of the symbols in the Necronomicon). Anyway, I'm pretty much creaming myself over this thing...

[Moshe]

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Free-Kitten

 

Free Kitten
Inherit [Ecstatic Peace; 2008]
3/5






Styles: experimental rock




Others: Anything in the Sonic Youth camp


Links: Ecstatic Peace



Free Kitten, the collaborative effort of Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Julie Cafritz (Pussy Galore, STP), and Yoshimi (Boredoms), began around the time Sonic Youth’s Goo came out in 1992. Within five years, Free Kitten released three albums but then took a Portishead-like hiatus. And now in 2008, the trio returns with Inherit, a distinctly stronger endeavor than their 1997 album, Sentimental Education.
Now, if you were to guess what Inherit sounds like, what would you say? Perhaps like Sonic Youth? Perhaps guitar-driven with some experimentation? Would you guess Kim Gordon is probably singing with her psychedelic, sometimes whispery voice again? If you answered yes to these questions, you’d be right. Predictably, Free Kitten is very similar to many side projects released by the Sonic Youth camp. We should of course expect these ladies to have indelible sonic personalities by now (think how easy it is to recognize the all-too-familiar “guitar sound” produced from Kim’s Fender guitars), but collaborations of this stature shouldn’t be relegated to "Sonic Youth side project" status.
Inherit begins with “Elected Girl,” the song most guilty of being a lost Sonic Youth track, so much so that people will probably be saying “here we go again.” There is really nothing new on this song that one couldn’t get from Sonic Youth’s last three albums. The good news, however, is that “Surf’s Up,” the next track, shifts slightly to a new direction with its nice wah-wah-washed guitar contribution from J. Mascis. Yes, we have to hear Gordon’s whispery voice again, but it’s actually okay. This could be the best track on Inherit. A couple other great songs to note are actually the shortest: “Roughshod” and “Bananas.” Since J. Mascis also plays drums on “Bananas,” maybe he should have appeared on more tracks. His presence is the one thing that pushes this project where it needs to go.
Ultimately, Inherit is neither a great nor terrible album. Although it certainly sounds like it was a hell of a lotta fun to record, I don’t think even die-hard fans will get overly excited about it. It’s good for a few listens, but so are thousands of other records that come out every year. Had Gordon, Cafritz, and Yoshimi opened up to new possibilities (different pedals, more instruments, new structures, etc.), perhaps Inherit could have gone somewhere surprising. Instead, they opted to stick with what they know and have left little to pique our imagination. There is certainly enough talent here, but coming up with an end product that separates itself from becoming labeled as “just another Sonic Youth side project” is not what happened.
1. Erected Girl 2. Surf’s Up 3. Seasick 4. Free Kitten on the Mountain 5. Roughshod 6. Help Me 7. The Poet 8. Billboard 9. Bananas 10. Monster Eye 11. Sway

[stu666]

does anyone have any live recordings of Free Kitten from when they first toured in the 90's, it would be really good if someone could share some on here i know that recordings exist because i have seen them on peoples trade lists but i didn't have anything to trade

[koolthing78]

While, on a personal level I disagree about this album "not being great," I can't really fault the reviewer for not going ape shit over this. Experimental music (with a lose or apparently non-existant structure, chords, etc.) can be very difficult to get into and fully experience, especially when your job involves being bombarded with loads of great (and not so great) music on a daily basis. And if this isn't like, one of your favorite artists *ever*, then you're even less likely to devote to proper time and effort to reaping the rewards. Luckily for me, there are very few artists I pay attention to anymore, so I've been able to fawn all over this album in all its glory.

[dionysusundone]

It doesn't sound like anything off the last few SY albums.
Unless you're reckoning the Demonlover soundtrack to be the last three albums, maybe.

[koolthing78]

(Also, I thought the wah-wah guitar in "Surf's Up" was either Kim or Julie, since I assumed J Mascis was doing the solo-y guitar thing).

[greenlight]

Originally Posted by koolthing78

(Also, I thought the wah-wah guitar in "Surf's Up" was either Kim or Julie, since I assumed J Mascis was doing the solo-y guitar thing).

that Surf's Up wah-wah guitar solo reminds me Becuz solo (soundwise)

[Moshe]

http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com:...e.aspx?id=7302

Free Kitten
Inherit
(Ecstatic Peace, 2008)
If the average lifespan of a cat in the US is 15-17 years, then this Kitten is roughly a Golden Girl. Although, as felines tend to spend roughly two-thirds of their lives sleeping, it’s just as true to form that the indie art-punk supergroup hasn’t put out an album in nearly 11 years. That aside, Kim Gordon, Pussy Galore’s Julie Cafritz, and Yoshimi of the Boredoms are obviously busy people. We’re lucky that they were able to collaborate and create this album, or any album at all, which is not just an expression; truly, we are lucky.
Or damned, depending on how you look at it. It takes some serious qualms and negative truths to fuel a Free Kitten record. Not that their records only come about when these things are in abundance, as if they simply cease to be in the interim; it’s just that nobody chooses and channels their gnashed teeth quite like Free Kitten. Their music is dissonant, often angry, and always point blank in its expression of certain menacing undercurrents in the modern experience, especially that of women. Yet they’re also far too adroit, assertive, and at times esoteric to be pigeonholed as tapping into any particular or even generalized “plight,” as not only is there plenty of real beauty and concord, but that word has been subjugated into any number of platitudes regarding our dominant (male) society’s malevolent habit of suppressing anything other than itself. Rather, Free Kitten rock more as an objective matter of fact. Objective, in that there’s a wall between it and you, but only if and when their passion sees fit to have it there. Fact, because their expression doesn’t seem to be about wielding influence or exacting change. It’s retributive at times, though at other times just an aesthetically entrenched and knotted observation. Free Kitten shines their UVs, as it were, to expose the invisible ink of our subconscious societal prison tattoos, among other unfortunate stains.
Inherit is both aggressive and aloof. It’s neither the most congenial listening experience, nor is it constantly an affront, nor does it care. Rhythms are unhurried and sometimes welcomingly imperfect, and though songs drift frequently into exploratory sonic meditations that would deter the average pop listener, they generally remain more “rock” than “experimental.” Its most confrontational moments are also among its most forcefully melodic, such as the rewardingly belligerent punk march of “Bananas”, which stomps like an elephant, spits like a camel, and cuts like a knife (and features auxiliary drums by J. Mascis). The schizo-claustrophobic “Help Me” serves as well to amp up a shade of barrier anxiety/gridlock hostility in a context that functions both literally and metaphorically, either way rippling the entire running order with its threat of meltdown. These two numbers tower poignantly enough as to underscore the album’s more peaceful moments with a latency of potential aggression, yet those peaceful moments do exist, and do succeed in tempering the stew with their greater depth and/or detachment, and even prettiness.
The cartographic, 11-and-a-half minute “Monster Eye” plots a mostly delicious noisescape, for example, drifting in and out of structure and eventually settling into focus on a Kim Gordon oration describing an on-stage performance of noise-rock guitar lust. The verbal, literary treatment of a noise-rock scene delivered in the midst of an actual exploratory noise-rock song is likely directly correlative to Gordon’s appreciation of Jonathon Lethem’s indie rock novel You Don’t Love Me Yet, in which a fictitious rock band, poised for fame in the early ‘90s, writes a song called “Monster Eyes.” Lethem publicly invited any actual band to spin the snippets of lyrics in the book and on his website into actual songs, free of licensing fees (Lethem is an outspoken critic of our problematic copyright laws). Gordon’s vocals for the first eight minutes are so bathed in reverb and buried by guitars that it’s impossible to determine if this extended feedback whirlpool is Free Kitten’s take on the fictional hit, though the album credits make no mention of Lethem at all, so it’s probably just a nod. Either way, it’s an effective example of Free Kitten’s loaded art. Without knowing Gordon’s tastes or being a Lethem reader yourself, the most obvious assumption is that her narration is some kind of sweet celebration of the work of her hubby Thurston Moore, though really it’s an art containing an art that imitates art that imitates life—Kim Gordon’s life, of creating such art, as it happens.
“Uh… Yeah!,” we might be tempted then to say, “And besides, Free Kitten’s never sweet!” But that, too, would be a bit wrong. “Seasick” is a love song, full of strong characters and melodic, fuzz-laden guitars, and it is sweet. It winds down with heartbreak, spurn, and sour grapes, so maybe it’s only bittersweet, but there’s still that element of sweetness. Regardless, whether in acrimony or in defense of tenderness, the fists of Inherit are balled with complexity and hang poised at the ready to smash one sheet of glass or another. It’s up to the listener to determine if that glass is a window or a mirror, though either way, it’s definitely worth looking into.


Listen: Various Tracks [at ecstaticpeace.com]

[koolthing78]

Now that's a review