Week 48: 3 Kisses - Lethal Love Addiction

(This is week 48 of my 52 Austin CD Reviews in 52 Weeks Project) 

“Stop playing it safe.
Back down your guard.
Turn your labor of love
into a work of art.”
- Work of Art

3 Kisses

Lethal Love Addiction

Rat Pak Records

The tunes that Austin area band 3 Kisses produces has been billed as “Texas Party Punk.” That’s fairly accurate. The music has got the punk chugga-chugga beat, lead vocalist Tish Meeks has a sweet raspy-but-feminine rocker voice, and lyrics are simple and easy for everyman (or everywoman) to relate.

Those who are fans of ABC’s “Wife Swap” (where wives trade families who have polar-opposite lifestyles for an interesting experiment and television fun) may know the band and/or husband and wife Tish and Tony Meeks from being on the show in 2007.  After “Wife Swap” they released American Breakdown in 2009 (a great listen by the way). It included a great cover of Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself For Loving You.”  Meeks has the perfect “Joan Jettesque” voice to pull it off too.

Lethal Love Addiction is the first release since Tony left the band and Tish became single again and many of the songs seem to reflect the emotional roller coaster she’s gone through in this time. I’ve got to say, a pissed-off emotional Meeks makes for some really good music.

The material-things-don’t-matter song “All That Matters Is Love” kicks the album off. The title track says it all when she belts out “I hate to love you just as much as you love to hate me.” She brings the slap down with a “POW POW” in “Feel The Hammer.” Anyone who’s experienced someone who just won’t leave them alone will appreciate “Psycho Stalker.” She strips all the anger away and shakes her hips a little in the fun feminanthem “Girls Night.” She slows things up with the hopeful “The Last Time.”

My personal favorite track is “Fly Away.” It’s one of the fed up with relationships songs. She belts out “I thought I loved you but I don’t need you. And I can’t stand you. I’m gonna leave you and fly away.”

The album ends on a somber note with “Work Of Art,” a keys-driven track that makes the case for the possibility of love becoming a reality again.

3 Kisses pounds through 16 tracks in an hour of music for Lethal Love Addiction and it’s a really fun listen. It really takes you full-circle on the relationship train.  I could see slamming a few beverages while watching their live show. Hopefully soon we’ll all get that chance. Meeks recently relocated to San Antonio and is putting life and the band back together and will be back on stage soon.

Until then, check 3 Kisses out on their label’s page or hit them up on Facebook or MySpace.