Black Kites

THE BLACK KITES:

The Black Kites began their initial flight back in 2005 when Alan Petherick and Nicki Nevlin started playing shows armed with only a guitar, a bass, some charming vocals and two retro drum machines. They attacked the Downtown L.A. art show scene with a vengeance, even though most of their shows ended up starting at around 3 am. Near the end of 2005, they fortunately acquired the multi-talented Evelyn Reyes (of Hona Lee) to provide some enchanting vocals and stargazing but dynamic keyboards to the music. Adding a drummer was the final step to take, and after playing many shows from Silverlake to Torance, that step was finally cemented in the final days of 2006 when Marcel Feldmar, a recent transplant from Seattle (and Black Nite Crash) stepped in to hit the kit behind the songs that could make a sad person dance.

Taking inspiration from an eclectic variety of sounds (Velvet Underground, Jesus & Mary Chain, Stereolab, AC/DC, the Cure, the Birthday Party, Sigur Ros, Neu!, Tav Falco, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, and various showtunes, to name a couple), the Black Kites successfully released a sweet little EP that has gotten some nice feedback and even found its way in to the realm of iTunes. Managing to combine a love of swirling and atmospheric shoegaze and an affinity towards feedback and delay with a driving sense of rhythm and gritty rock’n’roll pop hooked melodics, this quartet are poised to attack the country with what promises to be an exceptionally entertaining and musical live show.

With plans to record another EP in the spring of 2007, this band is one to keep your ears and eyes open for… because they sound so good, but also because they photograph well, they like their noise, and their red wine, and they enjoy going to dive bars as well as fancy art events. It’s most likely that nobody in the band has a twin, they have been described as sounding like Pink Floyd on speed (though I’m not totally positive that I agree with that statement), and you will very probably like them when you hear them… but I’m not going to promise you that, because, well... life’s full of empty promises.