Kill Laura >> If you could be somewhere, where would it be?

Kill Laura - "Unheeled"

(Klee Records, 1994)

I downloaded this EP, Unloverlike, last year after seeing it on an mp3 blog that I used to follow, despite my vehemently hatred of Kill [Female Name] band names.  The EP itself, released only on 12" vinyl, is long out of print.   It took me forever to decide whether to post this song or the passionate "False Dawn".  Singer Jane Weaver obviously has one of the most astoundingly awesome and versatile voices on the planet.  The best showcase for her voice on this EP is the delicate and almost hallucinogenic dream-pop ballad "Cinnamon Brow," in which she does some stunningly nuanced vocal gymnastics that only someone with operatic training should be able to pull off.  And the EP's title is a lyric in that song.  So just check out the whole EP, which is truly one of the lost classics of the '90s.  If it had been released on Creation, 4AD, or Too Pure, it would have the large cult following that it deserves.  The most simplistic overall way I could describe the EP's sound would be Lush and/or Bleach (U.K.) meets Sonic Youth and/or Poem Rocket, with a PJ Harvey lyrical style.

Info about the band is hard to come by; they were from Liverpool and released three EPs.  It's hard enough to know anything about these kinds of bands while they're still active, and almost impossible two decades later.  You can see a copyrighted promo photos of Kill Laura here, plus a live pic here.  On the live pic page, the photographer refers to Jane as "One of the tallest, most talented and nicest musicians I have ever met."

Promo pic by Tony Smith, "Taken in the Winnington Rec Snooker Room"

When I first heard this song, I immediately thought of PJ Harvey's classic "Rid Of Me", due to the abrupt soft-to-loud dynamic shift.  I think the word "unheeled" in this song means both untamed (as in, teaching a dog to heel), and its homonym, unhealed (as in, the singer's wounds).  And it could also mean poor, as in the opposite of "well-heeled."  So she could be saying that at that bad point in her life, she was reckless, injured, and poor, which led her to getting into some situation that she regrets.  "If you could be somewhere, where would it be?" is a chilling thought, in terms of it being something that an abused person probably spends a lot of time thinking about.  But the way she sings it is so gorgeous that it should be aired continually in Travelocity or Orbitz commercials around the globe, bringing vast royalties to the members of KL.  Just snip out that sentence and play it atop some slo-mo clips of parents walking behind their kids on a beach and you have instant advertising gold.  Or better yet, picture William Shatner fucking hang-gliding off of the edge of an erupting volcano to this song and watch the money roll right in.
Speaking of wounds, here's the cover art:

I buss'id my lip open playing basketball while wearing one of my Paul Pierce jerseys, on June 6th at the Annunciation Street court.  Also broke my glasses, jammed my thumb, and slit my palm up, but that's streetball, America's best pure invention aside from jazz.  Unfortunately, the Celtics lost to the cHeat in game 6 that night, and they lost in game 7 a few nights later, probably ending the Big Three's tenure in Boston, though Rajon Rondo has now eclipsed all three of them, so they can get to rebuilding.  This pic of my buss'id lip that I took the next day didn't show the injury too well, since the light reflection covered up the yellow pus, and since only my neck was in focus:

Wearing my terrific Macha shirt; will finally get around to posting a song by them soon

So, if I could be somewhere, where would it be?  A few off the top of my head:

The Faroe Islands in the summer
Anywhere in New Zealand
Nong Nooch Botanical Garden in Thailand (1100 different species of palms)
The famed palm groves of Elche, Spain
The famed coffee-growing mountains in Jamaica
Anywhere in Belize
Dakar, Senegal
Cozumel, Mexico (again)
The Canary Islands
Kew Gardens in London

Jane Weaver on ITV's This Is Music show in 2002; from her MySpace

75 awesome "Looking into the past" pictures

Driving like a jerk may cost you an extra $100 per month in gas

Planets with similar climates: PJ Harvey - "Rid Of Me" (1992), Juned - "Leeches" & "Pretty New Song" (1994), Bleach - "Hit On Me" (1992), Band Of Susans - "Mood Swing" (1993)