Just a quick note here — the world lost an extremely talented musician this week with the death of Kittens drummer David Kelly. Despite having been out of the picture for around a decade, Kittens were one of Canada's best noise rock bands and one of my favourites period. The band recently played a reunion in Winnipeg, prompting hopes on the part of more than a few people — i.e. me — that they might be reforming for new material. Alas, that was not to be.

I didn't know David myself, but Raising the Fawn's last Western tour was with Mico, whose bass player at the time was Jahmeel Russell of Kittens. Jahmeel tolerated, heck, maybe even enjoyed, my endless praise of Kittens and even took the stage with us in Vancouver to cover the Kittens' tune "The Waterskiiers". It was one of the bigger thrills of my career with RTF. Even prior to that, we had covered the same song at a Sonic Unyon Xmas party (both our label and Kittens' at one time) and an old band of mine often covered "Carpenter" at practice and gigs.

The influence of Kittens on heavy bands is wide-reaching and continues today — Cursed did a bang up job covering "Hawaii" on an EP last year — but what may not be as immediately apparent is how huge an influence they were on my own songwriting with RTF, esp. on The Maginot Line and The Warmth of your Flame EP. Kittens had a different understanding of heavy — one that embraced minimalism and primitivism that gave them as much in common with a band like Low as more obvious contemporaries like the Jesus Lizard. They were one of a kind and they deserved far more recognition than they ever received in this country or anywhere else for that matter.

If you can find it, Bazooka and the Hustler will change your life and make you believe in a country-punk-metal hybrid that is still without peer.

Our deepest sympathies to everyone in the Kittens extended family.

John