Keep on Your Mean Side

Keep on Your Mean Side is the debut album by UK based indie rock band The Kills. Originally released on April 1, 2003, through Domino Records, it was later reissued on May 4, 2009, with five additional bonus tracks.

The song "Wait" was featured in the film Children of Men (2006), while the song "Monkey 23" was featured in the film The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and in Adam Curtis' BBC documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace Part 1 (2011) while "Cat Claw" and "Wait" were both overheard in the Criminal Minds Season 3 episode, "Doubt". "Fried My Little Brains" was used in the Sherlock Series 3 episode, "The Sign of Three" and the game Gran Turismo 6

Background

Following international touring, they entered Toe Rag Studios, where The White Stripes had recorded their album Elephant, to record Keep on Your Mean Side, mostly on 8-track, in just 2 weeks. Distributed in the US and UK by Rough Trade Records, the album was similar in style to the EP, veering from the Velvets-esque stomp of "Wait" to the noisy, dirty garage punk blues of "Fuck the People" and dark psychedelia of "Kissy Kissy". The record was well received by the music press, though the White Stripes comparisons would not go away.

Maintaining an anti-careerist, anti-music industry attitude, the band rarely granted interviews. Rather, they got the music press to come to them with their minimalist yet powerful live shows (which also included the drum machine), the pair maintaining an air of tension by subverting the expected role of stage performer. Mosshart chain-smoked while singing, rarely speaking to the audience, whilst Hince violently ripped blues riffs from his instrument. At a New York City show following the ban on public smoking, Mosshart went on stage with three bottles of water, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to smoke constantly from the first song to the last note of the set.

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(70/100) ^[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[3]
Drowned In Sound	(9/10) ^[4]
Mojo	^[5]
Pitchfork	(7.8/10) ^[6]
Playlouder	(negative) ^[7]
PopMatters	(negative) ^[8]
Rolling Stone	^[9]
Stylus	C+^[10]
Uncut	^[11]
Yahoo! Music	^[12]
Tiny Mix Tapes	^[13]

Reviews for Keep on Your Mean Side were wide-ranging but mostly positive with a few exceptions. It has a normalized rating of 70 out of 100 on MetaCritic based on 18 professional reviews.^[2] Rolling Stone was complimentary saying the music was "dark, kick-ass garage rock" and the album was "a bruising disc of post-modern blues"^[9] echoed by Allmusic's "sneering, sexy blues-punk" that's "relatively fresh and distinctive".^[3]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Superstition"	4:40
2.	"Cat Claw"	3:32
3.	"Pull a U"	3:23
4.	"Kissy Kissy"	5:02
5.	"Fried My Little Brains"	2:08
6.	"Hand" (incorrectly labeled as "Gypsy Death & You" on original album sleeve)	0:50
7.	"Hitched"	4:02
8.	"Black Rooster"	4:24
9.	"Wait"	4:47
10.	"Fuck the People"	4:17
11.	"Monkey 23"	3:06
12.	"Gypsy Death & You" (incorrectly labeled as "Hand" on original album sleeve)	2:11

2009 Reissue Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Gum"	1:21
14.	"Jewel Thief"	2:47
15.	"Sugar Baby"	4:20
16.	"The Search for Cherry Red" (Jonathan Fire Eater cover)	2:58
17.	"Dropout Boogie" (Captain Beefheart cover)	4:07

Personnel

The Kills

Jamie "Hotel" Hince - vocals, guitars, dictaphone, organ, harmonica, electric viola, drum machine, production
Alison "VV" Mosshart – vocals, guitars, dictaphone, production

Chart performance

Charts (2003)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart	47
French Albums Chart	75

References

↑ "The Kills Keep on Your Mean Side (reissue + bonus tracks) > promotional copy". Domino USA. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
1 2 "Keep on Your Mean Side - The Kills". metacritic. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
1 2 Phares, Heather. Keep on Your Mean Side at AllMusic. Retrieved 28 June 2006.
↑ Irvine, Michael (March 9, 2003). "The Kills Keep on Your Mean Side > Staff Review". drownedinsound.com. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
↑ Mojo: 89. May 2003. Missing or empty |title= (help) Cited at "Keep on Your Mean Side - The Kills > Critic Reviews". metacritic. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
↑ Reid, Brendan (March 31, 2003). "The Kills Keep On Your Mean Side > Album Review". Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 28 June 2006.
↑ Harrison, Elizabeth (4 March 2003). "Keep on Your Mean Side The Kills > Review". playlouder.com. Archived from the original on 19 November 2006. Retrieved 28 June 2006.
↑ Horning, Robert (23 May 2003). "The Kills: Keep on Your Mean Side > Album Review". PopMatters. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
1 2 Relic, Peter (May 15, 2003). "The Kills Keep on Your Mean Side > Album Review". Rolling Stone (922). p. 130. Archived from the original on October 2, 2007. Retrieved 12 August 2007. Posted on April 22, 2003.
↑ Murphy, Kilian (2003-09-04). "The Kills Keep on Your Mean Side > Album Review". Stylus. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 28 June 2006.
↑ "The Kills - Keep on Your Mean Side > Album Review". Uncut. IPC Media. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
↑ O'Connell, Sharon (March 13, 2003). "The Kills 'Keep On Your Mean Side' > Album Review". Yahoo! Music. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2007.
↑ . Tiny Mix Tapes. December 14, 2006 http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/kills-keep-your-mean-side. Archived from the original on December 14, 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2014. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

The Kills
VV Hotel
Studio albums	Keep on Your Mean Side No Wow Midnight Boom Blood Pressures Ash & Ice
EPs	Black Rooster EP
Singles	"Fried My Little Brains" "Tape Song" "Black Balloon" "Willow Weep for Me" "Future Starts Slow"
Related	Discography The Dead Weather Discount Scarfo Blyth Power

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