Kilkenny Cats - Hammer + Echo [Expanded]
In 1988, Athens, Georgia’s Kilkenny Cats released Hammer, a fierce and atmospheric Southern Gothic EP that captured the moody heart of the late-’80s Southern underground. More than three decades later, this cult classic returns in expanded form as Hammer + Echo. Remastered and featuring unreleased recordings, unseen photos, and liner notes that reframe the story of a band that never quite fit the mold.
Out September 26th, Hammer + Echo includes the original six-track Hammer EP on one side, remastered from the original tapes, and a newly assembled “Echo” side of unreleased recordings. This collection- raw, powerful, and deeply evocative- charts the band’s evolution through outtakes, demos, and deep cuts spanning from 1983 to the early ’90s. A bonus track, “Heaven,” appears exclusively on the CD and digital editions.
Kilkenny Cats recorded Hammer at John Keane’s storied studio on Hill Street in Athens, with Keane co-producing alongside the band. Tracks like “Sight on Sight” and “To Speak To” show the Cats moving beyond Athens’ jangle into something darker, heavier, and more expansive. “Mount Steel,” recorded in the band’s final session as a five-piece, “was unbridled,” says guitarist Keith Landers. “It rips—and it was mostly captured live in the studio.”
Cindy Laufenberg of The Ledge zine captured the record’s unfiltered urgency in her original 1988 review: “To Speak To” is a masterpiece of a tune; driving backbeat, powerful—LOUD, LOUD guitars, and an unbelievably catchy melody… I can’t help but jerk myself about the house… stomping around and getting completely out of hand.” She called Hammer “rock-and-roll, folks—no ifs, ands, or buts. It’s loud, it’s infectious, and nothing makes you feel quite so good.”
Additional praise followed from UGA’s The Red and Black, which highlighted the band’s bold departure from the Athens’ sound: “The Kilkenny Cats now make it hip to admit you keep a few Emerson, Lake and Palmer records hidden behind the obligatory New Order 12”.
The newly curated Echo side, a retrospective of unreleased recordings, traces the band’s earliest and latest incarnations. The driving, jazz-tinged “Walk the Streets” dates back to a 1983 lineup. The surreal “Maldoror” and “Mapplethorpe” reflect a darker, more transgressive period in the ’90s, steeped in art and existential doubt. “In those Athens days,” writes singer Tom Cheek in the reissue’s liner notes, “the songs sometimes just poured out of us; guttural, unpolished, and strangely inevitable. They weren’t labored over so much as discovered.”
Closing out Echo are two rockers, “Never Make a Saint” and “Heaven,” the latter featuring Keith Landers’ former Fashion Battery bandmate McCall on bass. Cheek reflects “Allen’s drumming amazes on ‘Never Make a Saint“…a song about just hanging on, as we barely do sometimes.”