“Our mission is to put the fear back into hardcore,” says stern Kiss It Goodbye guitarist Keith. Rarely does a band actually scare me, but given these guys’ varied backgrounds — believe me, no one is safe.
“Two of us were in Deadguy, three from Rorscach, one from Die 116, one from No Escape, and one from a German band called Ambush,” Keith says of this four-piece. He added it all up for me, but I couldn’t explain it to someone else even if I wanted to.
“Very, very few things come before any band I’m in,” lead vocalist Tim begins explaining Kiss it Goodbye’s genesis. “But on occasion some things do come before the band, and certain things led to Seattle, and me having to live here. So that basically broke up Deadguy.”
“From there me and Tim decided to stick together,” Keith jumps back in explaining how the above math added up to rounding up drummer Andrew and bassist Tom to solidify and relocate Kiss It Goodbye to Seattle. “The whole thing is based around the fact that Tim was moving to Seattle.”
“Jaws always drop when I tell people that I had some band and they followed me out here,” Tim says laughing.
“Like the stupid pet dogs that we are!” adds Keith.
Kiss It Goodbye run their grooves deep into your skull, whether you’re listening or not. Their songs pay no mind to your ears and bore directly into your brain. Live these four guys act as starving caged animals, prowling around the much explored territory between hardcore and metal (Keith is metal. Tim is decidedly not metal). They painstakingly seek out the heaviest and most piercing aspects of both and weild them with deadly precision. It’s more than enough to scare the shit out of you.
Kiss It Goodbye is currently negotiating a deal with Revelation records, with a tentative time line that puts them in the studio with Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Mr. Bungle, Melvins, etc.) in November, the record out in February, and them on the road in April. But back to the debate at hand…
“What do you think would get a bigger reaction: a Minor Threat cover or a Slayer cover?” Tim queries pondering the roots of today’s hardcore fans. “Isn’t it weird that it’s debatable?”
[SLAP Magazine, 1997]
[photos by Roy Christopher]