NOISEY 139: KILL FOR TOTAL PEACE

Bands get labeled “psychedelic” for a bunch of different reasons. Sometimes it’s because they wear bandannas. Sometimes it’s because they smoke weed. For Parisian quintet Kill For Total Peace, it’s probably got something to do with their label, Pan European Recording. Check out a few Francophonic stone-outs from the label’s roster like Aqua Nebula Oscillator or Koudlam if you need a zonky soundtrack for your next nuit verte.

The band took shape after KFTP’s singer (who calls himself D. Gage) started working in a record shop. He met a shaggy slacker named Intra Moros, and the two became fast friends. They brought in a few high school buddies and formed a garage band. Pretty standard for bored clerks, but these guys aren’t just pumping out mindless garbage—they affiliated themselves with the French psych-garage scene, probably the best thing going in the old gay hexagon.

On Kill For,, their 2009 debut for Pan European, the band transcends the blacklit stylings of its labelmates, drawing upon prog, dub, kraut, and garage in equal measure. Guage was listening to the Velvets’ eighties brethren from a young age, and it shows in his checked-out, snotty sneer. Listen to these guys the next time you get sick of your old Sonic Youth or Sebadoh records.