Stiff Kittens

From Lee Street, Carlton, to New York’s CBGBs, the Stiff Kittens took their surf-infused rock and twisting roll on one hyper-propelled, swaggering, booze-filled ride. It lasted just a few years but in that time they delivered four classic EPs of edgy, inspired rock and roll – there wasn’t a band on the planet that sounded anything like them.

The Kittens were signed directly to a London label Psychic Records in the early 1990s following a wild performance at a barge party in Amsterdam. First release As You Walk is the stuff of one-day recording legend. “Rock and roll doesn’t get much better than this,” said Jeff Jenkins in Inpress when the four-tracker hit the shelves. But it did.

Second EP Eat the Peanuts was the sound of the Melbourne summer 1993, and then came the Tony Cohen produced Fat Boy, ‘Single of the Week’ in Britain’s influential Melody Maker. Tours to the US and UK followed, including legendary dates in Boston, New York, and the UK, including London’s Forum and Glasgow’s Barrowlands.

Final EP Face came hot on its heels but by then the rubber was burning. Just as quickly as it had started, the Kittens exploded like a string of Chinese firecrackers. The madness of those few years meant little had been preserved and it is only recently after much searching that the original mastertapes were located again in London.

All Killer Music is pleased to bring you the compilation that puts it all together – it’s called Greatest Trips and it includes 10 of the finest Kittens tracks, all remastered.  It’s already perked considerable interest, with SBS comedy show Housos including three Stiff Kittens gems as part of their show – I Want You, Eight Wheels and Surf’s Down – and the same production team is using I Want You in their new TV show Bogan Hunter on 7Mate. Tracks have featured on the television show Getaway and on all British Airways flights.

You can buy a physical copy of the Stiff Kittens collection Greatest Trips from us directly from this website. The album is also available on all the major digital download and streaming channels.