Hollywood Kill

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Hollywood Kill is a two person band consisting of Greg Tamura and Karen Gutierrez, a couple of Irish, Nicaraguan and Japanese heritage who’ve known each other since High School. They most recently caught the eyes and ears of their eclectic crowd performing at Les Deux in LA, beginning their dark and gritty, Electro psychobilly music set with firing sparklers as they moved on to perform atop the separating ledge of the outdoor area, instantly establishing an intimate connection with “Leave Your Troubles Behind.”

The lyrics are perfect nightlife ambiance:
“We’re standing in line, to leave our troubles behind.”
The night is calling…
I got no curfew kiss my lips…
I’m looking for answers, just wanna escape
Let’s get higher, come my way

Their song “Leave your Troubles Behind” is now available on their newest album The Other Side of Midnight

Hollywood Kill has also performed at venues such as Kress, Viper Room, The Conga Room, The Roxy and Boardners.

You can catch Hollywood Kill tonight in LA at the Dragonfly! - imusicdaily.com

LA Buzz Blog favorite band, Hollywood Kill recently played the afterparty for the Black Eyed Peas concert at the Staples Center this past Tuesday night. The afterparty at the Conga Room promised to be an electro-clash dream, featuring Dip Dive, Letron, The Cataracs, Little Red Radio, Black Eyed Peas crowd favorite, LMFAO, and of course, Hollywood Kill.

Dip Dive first took the stage, and proved to be fairly uncharismatic and unoriginal rappers, although their graphics on the side of the stage were great and actually upstaged Dip Dive as far as I’m concerned. Dip Dive’s songs tended to run together, so I zoned out until the next act.

Letron can only be described as lip-synched bad karaoke (because it was really hard to believe a voice can be that girly and nasal coming from a grown woman?). The lovechild of Ke$ha and Mickey Avalon train-wrecked through her set and was also upstaged by Dip Dive’s graphics that were still up there.

Thankfully Hollywood Kill took the stage next. Hollywood Kill’s always got this energy about them that projects “coolest cocktail party ever” onstage, and Tuesday night’s performance did not disappoint. The duo debuted some new tunes and frontman Greg Tamura had a touch of an Ian Curtis influence for the new songs off their upcoming album Crimes of Passion. The Joy Division-meets-retro electro sound projected Hollywood Kill’s into impossibly cool territory, and definitely left the audience wanting more.

The next two bands seemed to be crowd favorites, The Cataracs and Little Red Radio, both of which I really just didn’t get the attraction. The Cataracs did make it all the way down from Berkeley, but they were your garden-variety techno-rave-rap live band without a whole heck of a lot of stage presence, and they relied a little too much on mash-ups for the base of their songs. I was looking forward to Little Red Radio because they had their own drum set (live drums with electro tends to work across the board).

But once they started, it was a little hard to keep up the enthusiasm. Something about them just didn’t hang together – not the music, not the stage show, nothing about it was really cohesive. The guy presented a homeless chic aesthetic (painfully constructed by the neck tie worn as a headband and a cardigan that would make Kurt Cobain cringe), and the frontgirl had a Linsday Lohan caught in an American Apparel factory explosion thing going on. It didn’t just stop at the stage look – the music was all kinds of bizarre. Little Red Radio’s music was a little like the band Master Shake listens to in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, with Lady Gaga guesting.

I didn’t stick around for LMFAO – the ears just couldn’t take the clash part of electro clash. Overall, Hollywood Kill definitely brought enough talent and charisma for all the bands, and they’re the only ones I’d pay to see again. For the rest, let’s just hope this music trend dies quietly. - LABuzzBlog.com

By now it should be abundantly clear that we over here in LA Buzz Blog land absolutely love Hollywood Kill. They really pack a punch, just a 2-piece band who manage to create a dangerously sultry vibe from note one, and connect with the audience on a gut level, yet float somehow above the room on their cooler-than-cool cloud.

So they played the Standard Rooftop Pool Party this past weekend in downtown, and we were there. We were even early because we heard the first 100 people got in for free, and money spent at the door is less money spent on drinks. Through an odd, mixed-up walk through the wrong parts of the hotel, we managed to time our elevator ride up to the rooftop to coincide with the party’s major promoter guy and all his buddies’ ride to the roof.

As the doors opened and sunlight poured in, a hotel security guy asked, “Are you guests of the hotel?” to the general group and no one responded. Naturally! Downtown hipsters would never respond to such an obvious question. Downtown hipsters are always guests of everywhere they go. The party promoter also happened to be the tallest guy in the group, so he commanded the attention of security who asked him again, “Are all these people with you?” Thankfully, he said “Yes, everybody here.”

Party crashers=1, Hotel security=0

We walked over to the pool. There were maybe 10 people total on the roof, so being the 11th and 12th people there, we assumed we got in for free, as per information mined from various websites beforehand. Footloose and fancy free, we gawked at the sights from the roof and enjoyed a dip in the pool. Checking out the other pool party peoples’ wrists, most weren’t wearing wristbands. We remained confident in our win.

We stayed in our spots for a long, long while, just looking at the tall buildings. Us Westsiders don’t get out much to that neck of the woods, so when we’re there and on top of a building, it’s a little like an urban Outward Bound. It was nice, and we would go to all the rooftop pools we could this summer.

More people poured in. When the party of 15 asked if the fancy curvy pool chairs were ours, I noticed his wristband, so I inquired. “How did you get in?!?!?!” was his response, followed by “Be careful, they’ll throw you out.” Our win was in danger. We took a walk to surveil the roof. An hour or so later, Hollywood Kill showed up, our only chance to stay in the party. And man, we HAD to see them play.

“How did you get in!!?!??!” they asked. We instinctively covered our wrists. They’d take care of us, they said. Just stick with them. Hours of sticking with them, and endless card games later, the pool was calling, and we were confident they had our backs. The roving security at the pool seemed to hover around us, and we tried our best not to look guilty, or up to no good. All we had to do was survive the party for another two hours.

To make a long story short, a trip to the bar proved our demise, and we got shut down swiftly and justly. But! At that moment, Hollywood Kill had to go down a get a mixer or something. If we came with them, they’d get us a wristband. We went. We were wristbanded. We rejoined the party with a new lease on life.

Then crappy cover band after crappy DJ after crappy electro band after crappy DJ later, we had to go to a going-away dinner, so we never even saw Hollywood Kill play. - LABuzzBlog.com

Band friends are sometimes hard to come by here in Hollywood. Egos, member stealing, similar sounds, polar opposite sounds... it's harder to find than you'd think. One of those exceptions is Hollywood Kill. They played Bardot (above The Avalon) last Friday night, premiering their new music video for "Electric Love," as well as adding a drummer and guitarist for the show. The other bands were good, but HK was the spotlight.


The venue is cool! If you've never been, you'll need to bring your piggy bank for a drink. But the atmosphere is very chill and comfortable, lots of seating and tables. You can reserve a table as well with bottle service, but again - don't forget your piggy.
It's a smaller venue, the music room being a rectangle with the stage in the middle. Feels a little cramped at times, but it does allow for lots of good viewing points. And being a stickler for sound, the room is surprisingly pleasant. A little piercing by the end of the night, but much better than most venues around town at this size.


As for HK, their sound is very interesting. It's a duo; guy and girl attack.

They produce everything, and as far as the new video, they did all that too! Their music is dancey, but it's also very hiply minimalist and gritty, and has an element of ... 60s psycho in there. They label it as electro/rockabilly, which shouldn't make sense. But check out their music and it turns out - yup, spot on.


They added drums and guitar to this live show and it took them to another level. The 6-string was helmed by my own bandmate Tanner Horn, and there's no one cooler to watch with a band like this. As a unit, the 4-piece and tracks was a great sound, and visually it filled out their set in a way not previously achieved. Their music was never a problem, but if they maintain a stage show at this level, very good things are in store. As I said, the other bands were good, and at some points interesting. But for the entire HK set, the whole place was tuned in - something the other bands didn't quite accomplish. Not a knock, just a testament to the energy and presence of the band when they add a couple key pieces on stage.


- Murphy's Log