The Pub is Burning Down! Kitchens of Distinction--Love is Hell

About twenty years ago my friend, the real World's Most Interesting Man asked me if I wanted to go see some new band that was really good. The Kitchens of Distinction. Being me, I said sure, though I didn't know anything about them. I picked up their first album Love is Hell and was pleasantly surprised. They were somewhat like Echo and the Bunnymen, one of my favorite bands. Very strong album.

We danced the Mamushka at CBGB's

So a few weeks later we drove down to see them. I drove down to his apartment in the Bronx and then he drove his van into downtown New York. We drove up to the club and....

Something obviously was wrong. I went up to the door where there was a message posted. The concert was cancelled due to illness and would be rescheduled!! Damn.

So we wound up going to CBGB's that night and got to see The Poster Children and Bailter Space (whose tour was probably sponsored by a hearing aid company) for $6. A not too shabby Plan B.

Ultimately we did see Kitchens of Distinction live a few months later. And it was worth the wait, believe me.
They are undoubtedly one of the best bands of the 90's, in my estimation. Julian Swales takes a back seat to no one on guitar, and Patrick Fitzgerald is a magnificent singer and lyricist. Dan Goodwin is a fine drummer. But when we got to the show we were in for a small surprise.

When we got to the show, it seemed as though half the people in the audience were wearing kilts! We felt a little bit out of place there, like we were supposed to have known this was a costume party. You don't see that many kilts in a day in Edinburgh! Well, it turns out that these people were part of some gay rights organization like Act Up!, though I couldn't tell you who they were conclusively. My friend was baffled, saying I had know idea... Well Patrick Fitzgerald was openly gay, something that was not that common back then and this group came en masse to see the show. Well I do have to admit I should have been a little curious about the band when I saw the album cover. Boy, I was pretty dumb. A Corndog from Westchester.

That being said, the show was amazing. And don't get me wrong, I don't care about what people wear or the sexual orientation of the bands I listen to. It is something that matters, its a very important thing, but great music is always welcome in my home. Once I was just as surprised when I saw Julian Cope on stage wearing a dog costume during Reynard the Fox. But Kitchens of Distinction was an awesome live band. The guitar of Swales literally smothered us in a warm glow, and Fitzgerald was a charismatic force and in fine voice. I consider myself very fortunate to have been in the audience that night. If we stopped for felafel later it was probably perfect.

I actually hadn't listened to the band in a while, but I had their greatest hits in my ipod. At some random point one of their alternate stripped down versions of one of their songs played, and I was blown away. I had to check to see who it was. But I was like... oh, yeah, these guys were great!

Though all of their albums are pretty damned wonderful, I decided to go with my first impressions of the band. In A Cave is the first song and it is superb start to the album. The beautifully textured guitar and heartfelt vocals on this one are all you need to know. Another winning song is Margaret's Injection a necessary inclusion on any "I hate Margaret Thatcher" mix tape.

In an album filled with gems, probably the highlight is the euphoric Prize, a song filled with simultaneous joy, worldly cynicism and melancholy. In the song he gets asked about his first time and reacts with indignation. However, the truth of the matter is, he can't even remember his name.



Other great ones are the tuneful pop of Elephantine and Courage, Mother, the Irish balladeering of Her Last Day in Bed, the upbeat Mainly Mornings, and the dreamy 1001st Fault. Hammer is a towering, powerful, sing-a-long tune, definitely a live favorite and another one of the highlights of this album. I would be negligent not to mention the spectacular atmospheric The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule which is probably me second favorite song on this album. Killer.



So sometimes I wonder what people think when they hearken back nostalgically to the 80's and early 90's and think of crappy MTV new wave bands and one hit wonders and think about how bad music was then.
But there were great bands then as there are today, and it would be pretty awful if bands like Kitchen of Distinction were forgotten, and new generations of music fans went about their business blissfully unaware of bands of this calibre. It's one of the reasons I decided to start this site.

KOD is God

Incidentally, Patrick Fitzgerald is still in the business, fronting a band with the moniker Stephenhero. I don't have any of their records, but he has two albums available at CD Baby at reasonable prices, Apparition in the Woods and 57 Stars of the Air Almanac (which has been very favorably reviewed). Or check out their UK website if you are interested in learning more.