Kittie: Safe EP

Kittie is: Morgan Lander-guitar, vocals. Mercedes Lander-drums. Jeff Phillips-guitar. Jennifer Arroyo-bass.

The Safe EP has the title track in two forms, six live tracks, and video of three songs from another show. So the question is this: Why would they put out an EP like this? You know that I am very much against re-releasing shit in any form EXCEPT in this case. When is the last time ANY of you have seen Kittie live? The last time Kittie came around my way was Ozzfest 2000-I didn’t get there in time to see them, and here it is nearly goddamn 2004. So this EP is for you and me-the silly fuckers who have never been able to catch Kittie live. There is NOTHING like a live fucking performance. There aren’t mixing boards or ‘do-over’s’. I like that straight from the fucking gut live performance to tell me what a band is REALLY about-and there are a lot of reasons to really like Kittie. Remember Kittie was playing hard and loud before Lacuna Coil and Otep got big. Morgan Lander was just picked as Uranium’s best female metal/hardcore vocalist beating out Lacuna Coil, Arch Enemy, and Otep (three other women who can make the rubber meet the road. As a side note, why wasn’t Tarrie B. from My Ruin in this poll? -But that’s it kids, five. Only five.) Kittie doesn’t stand on stage, suck on lollipops, make out with other girls like Tatu seems to be forced to do, and their songs aren’t about fucking. Kittie hasn’t resorted to a bunch of fucked up commercialized tactics in order to sell records. Kittie is about hard, angry, intense music. Kittie reminds me of L7, Godsmack, and Black Sabbath. Kittie kicks more ass than a lot of the boy bands do-and they get precious little fucking credit or critical praise. –I saw a review on Safe. The reviewer on the track said the high point of the album was the remix by Sascha of KMFDM, and he had nothing good to say about the rest of it. He did not like the quality of the recording-which led me to believe he only listened to the track remixed by Sascha and NOTHING else. I read a few OTHER reviews by this same person-he loved Slipknot and Chimara and THEIR sound. Let’s be real-Chimara plays the same fucking song over and over again and tries to overwhelm the listener with volume and numbers, not musicianship. This fucker, I think, has the same opinion about women who do hard music that a lot of misguided old men have-girls should be onstage dressed like whores making the male dick hard, and if they don’t they are a horrible band. Yes, sexuality is a part of music-but it is not the only part so give me a fucking break. Somehow, the public has latched on to the idea that all young women should be Britney or Christina. If you need that, I HAVE A MAGAZINE FOR YOU-it is called Hustler. Larry Flint’s publication serves a purpose in the world, and I hope he continues to make a million but his field is not hardcore music now is it? Those idiots who think women need to be dressed as whores to sell music are making the public just fucking stupid. –So that is the first reason I like Kittie. Sex is not the primary objective. Music is.
I like Morgan Lander’s voice. She can growl like Corey Taylor, howl like Axl Rose, and carry a melody like Steven Tyler. She is just as good, if not better, then a lot of the men out there today. Guess what? Morgan can play fucking guitar too, just like James Hetfield. I am thinking she would have been better suited to the MTV Metallica Icon show than Avril Lavigne. Morgan is a musician first, and everything else is secondary. Let’s talk about Mercedes Lander on the drums. Go ahead-name five strong female drummers out there today. Too hard? Name two, and I will bet you come up with Mercedes and one of The Donnas. Mercedes Lander IS strong on the drums. That rolling thunder style of hers reminds me of Mike Terrana from RAGE. The other prominent female drummer out there right now is Meg White. Meg is a great drummer, but I will be she has a lot more personality than she puts out on stage. Mercedes has no such problem. She is a drummer with a stage presence-she also reminds me a lot of Morgan Rose from Sevendust. Let’s talk about Jennifer Arroyo on bass. Go ahead-try to name a current female bassist that kicks ass-other than a Donna. Tough one huh? Here’s one for you-she has a style that reminds me of Glenn Hughes. Pull out your copy of Songs In The Key of Rock by Hughes, and then give Safe a spin…give her a few years and she will turn into one of the great ones. –Jeff Phillips. Call him the Kittie affirmative action boy. When the other guitarist left, Kittie tapped Phillips, who was then a guitar tech, as the replacement. This proves that the objective with Kittie is the music, and not anything else. They could have very well held auditions looking for another girl to fill the spot-but they went with the most qualified person for the job. Phillips is pretty fucking great on guitar. He just may have enough power to hang with Morgan musically. –Let’s talk about the tracks on Safe.

1. Safe- This one was originally on the Oracle CD. This came out long before Amy from Evanescence was asking us to save HER. Why didn’t Amy credit Morgan as a musical influence-no fuck no, she only credits the incredibly WHINY and TALENTED Tori Amos. This version of Safe takes no prisoners and shows off the melodic side of Kittie. Needless to say-I like this version much better than the Sascha remix.
2. Safe (radio edit)-So Sascha gave us a version we can dance to in a club. Sascha-you know I love you and I think you a really great musician, but the mix you did of this is not true Kittie. You didn’t even make them into a mini KMFDM-this version makes them sound like a half assed Lacuna Coil. Adding the ultra heavy, computerized beats would have been cool if it was YOUR band-but fuck you gave them something DJ’s can spin in clubs. Who am I to bitch?
3. No Name (live)-This one was also originally released on Oracle.
This one is also full of heavy, melodic music. This is the shit children. It is also fucking poetic and full hope. Look at the message that it puts out there-you might get bled dry by life and feel like you have nothing left, but the phoenix rises. You will rise again. We will rise again.
4. Severed (live)-Lyrical poetry once again. This song is about
Fucking Treachery and Lies, and what it takes to let go of the person that is harming you and to tell the truth. This song should be an anthem for women in their twenties, without a fucking doubt.
5. What I Always Wanted (live)-Ah yes, the bad relationship song.
Every great hardcore release has to have one, but this one is excellently poetic, hard and intense without screaming about killing themselves or anyone else for that matter.
6. In Winter (live)-Good fucking god, when did grief get so fucking
Beautiful. This song I really love, it is beautiful and melodic. Listen to it, really listen to it-it will RIP your fucking heart out.
7. Pain (live)-Hard, driving-beautiful and speaking directly to the
Experience of EVERY Kittie fan. Hell, it speaks to the experience of every form everywhere-and it is extremely poetic. It fucking rocks.

Kittie Rocks. That’s it-plain and simple. Yes, buy the Kittie cd. Don’t think of them as chicks with guitars. Think of them as superior musicians who play music. They deserve the respect that other musicians in the genre get-in fact they deserve more.



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