LA-based trio Kills Birds got the kind of boost most new bands can only dream of when none other than rock and roll royalty in the form of Dave Grohl started championing their cause.

The Foo Fighters leader has sung the band’s praises in interviews, worn their t-shirt for a feature with Rolling Stone magazine, and invited them out to support his band on tour. And if that wasn’t enough, Grohl even invited them into his Studio 606 music studio to record their new and second album, Married. 

Comprised of vocalist and frontwoman Nina Ljeti, guitarist Jacob Loeb and bassist Fielder Thomas (drums on the album are provided by Bosh Rothman), much of Kills Birds best work inhabits the kind of throbbing, urgent grunge that Grohl himself specialised in with Nirvana, rather than the stadium rock Foo Fighters now focus on. 

Opening effort Rabbit bursts out of the traps, a sub-two-minute whirlwind of spoken word, pounding drums, and a brutally honest exploration of abuse (“This is how you talk about me: you made me who I am today / I could have tanked you, ended you / But I’m not like the other girls”). Coughing Up Cherries follows hot on its heels with its crashing guitar riffs and the first big chorus of the album. Glisten twists and turns like a mountain pass, forcing more sonic punches into the equation with each switchback it navigates, finally burning out on Ljeti’s panicked refrain of “Why don’t you want me?”

Reasoning builds from a Feeder-like indie intro into a howling beast, while Woman is a frantically lo-fi 30-second assault that ushers in the album’s closing act, where the throbbing introspection of Good Planning stands out for its screaming vocals and absorbing nature. Married, the album’s sole acoustically-led number, closes proceedings with a painful lament on heartbreak.

It’s no surprise that a man such as Grohl has tipped Kills Birds for the big time. He knows a thing or two.

Married tracklist:

1. Rabbit
2. Cough Up Cherries
3. Natalie
4. Glisten
5. Reasoning
6. Offside
7. Woman
8. PTL
9. Good Planning
10. Wallowing
11. Married

Watch the official video for Cough Up Cherries below.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.