Over the course of their career, the band has released five studio albums - "Love is Hell" (1989), "Strange Free World" (1991), "The Death of Cool" (1992), "Cowboys and Aliens" (1994), and "Folly" (2013).
Dan Goodwin (drums) met Julian Swales (guitar) at college in 1980, and Swales met Patrick Fitzgerald (vocals/bass guitar) at a party in 1985.The trio began rehearsing together that same year, taking their name from a company of the same name that specialised in home decor and kitchen and plumbing fixtures after Swales spotted one of their advertisements on the side of a bus while riding his bike. The Kitchens' first single, "The Last Gasp Death Shuffle" (which featured Swales on lead vocals and bass, as well as guitar) was recorded in just one day on an eight-track in a Kennington basement, and was released in December 1987 on the band's own Gold Rush Records. It was named a single of the week in the NME, and led to the band signing with the British indie label One Little Indian Records; it was around this time that Fitzgerald, a medical doctor, put his career on hold to devote himself fully to the band. Their first singles for One Little Indian, 1988's "Prize" and 1989's "The 3rd Time We Opened the Capsule", made it onto the "NME Writers' 100 Best Indie Singles Ever" list, published 25 July 1992.
Their first full-length album, Love Is Hell, was released in April 1989. Fitzgerald's impassioned, wordy, often bluntly personal vocals careened over what sounded like a mass of swirling guitars, though the band only had one guitarist. Swales' chiming, effects-laden style of playing drew him comparisons to the guitarists of The Chameleons, Cocteau Twins, and A.R. Kane. KOD's melodic yet abstract sound was a precursor to the shoegazing scene of the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Despite the promising start, the band faced a subdued reception from the mainstream music industry, generally due to their lyrical content. For instance, "Margaret's Injection", on the 1989 Elephantine EP, was a fantasy about killing then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Also, Fitzgerald was openly gay, and his lyrics were unapologetic, especially on tracks like "Prize" and "Within the Daze of Passion". Even the more indie-focused television programs like Snub TV and Rapido failed to give them much coverage, although Snub TV played the video for their 1991 single "Drive That Fast". Likewise, they were not offered a John Peel radio session, although they eventually did get one after asking Peel personally, following a Glastonbury performance which he appreciated.
Kitchens of Distinction sometimes performed "secret" gigs under the alter ego Toilets of Destruction.[2][6] An example was at The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town on 6 August 1990, where the band appeared in drag and played ABBA, David Bowie, and Bauhaus covers.
In 1990, they signed with A&M Records in the US, and went into the studio with producer Hugh Jones (Simple Minds, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Undertones). Their second album, Strange Free World, was released in February 1991, and spawned some moderately successful singles in "Drive That Fast" and "Quick as Rainbows", both of which were very well received by college radio in the US. The band went back into the studio in 1992, again with Jones at the helm, and their third album The Death of Cool came out in August that year; it was named in honour of the passing of Miles Davis, who had released an influential album titled The Birth of the Cool in 1950. A&M balked at the band's choice of "Breathing Fear" for the first single, due to its touchy subject matter (gay bashing), so "Smiling" became the album's initial single in the US. The band toured extensively, including a high-profile slot opening for their US labelmate Suzanne Vega, whose album 99.9F° came out within a few weeks of theirs.
Later in 1993, KOD began work on their fourth album, co-producing it themselves with engineer Pete Bartlett. One Little Indian rejected the album twice, and eventually, both label and band agreed to bring in up-and-coming producer Pascal Gabriel to work on a couple of tracks. One of the label's complaints about the album as the band originally submitted it was that they felt it lacked a potential hit single, so Gabriel produced a new song ("Come on Now") that the band had written after the rest of the album had already been recorded; Gabriel also remixed two of the album's other tracks (the opener "Sand on Fire" and first single "Now It's Time to Say Goodbye"). The resulting album, Cowboys and Aliens, was released in the UK in October 1994, and although the band admitted that they enjoyed working with Gabriel, the changes did nothing to help the album's dismal sales. When the album saw its US release in early 1995, it was largely ignored by the same alternative rock radio and media that had championed them just a few years before. By the end of 1995, both A&M and OLI had dropped the band.
Shortening their name to Kitchens O.D. and signing to the London-based indie label Fierce Panda Records, they issued a single, "Feel My Genie" in May 1996, which was named "Single of the Week" by Melody Maker, but they officially disbanded that summer after a farewell gig at London's Kings Cross.
In September 2012, Fitzgerald announced that he and Swales had recorded and were in the process of editing ten new songs. The reunited trio of Fitzgerald, Swales, and Goodwin released their fifth studio album Folly, their first new album in 19 years, on 30 September 2013
Get Over Yourself
Kitchens of Distinction Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
For the shining eyes of wisdom
To take the reins of our lives
But no-one who's clever ever wants to take control
They'd rather join the gasp
Of the witnesses below
Tightrope walkers
High-wire actors
There is no glade full of all the laughing people
Don't think you are over of life's ugly failure
We are all lost in deep dark dark woods
2000 years not too late
We spend all our live
Getting over ourselves
So please as you're waiting
For the bloodhound of wisdom
Open your eyes to the other lives
That creak by
For no-one's ever right, not even me.
Still we are waiting
For something with wisdom
The opening lines of Kitchens of Distinction's Get Over Yourself express a sense of longing for clarity and direction in life, with the imagery of shining eyes of wisdom taking control of our lives. The subsequent lines, however, reveal a recognition that such a figure does not exist, or at least not one who is willing to take the lead. It seems that those who possess the intelligence or knowledge to guide us are not willing to bear the responsibility that such guidance entails. Instead, they are content to simply observe the tumult of the world from a safe, detached position. Meanwhile, those of us who are less informed, less sure of ourselves, wait with bated breath for the inevitable mistakes of those who walk the tightrope of life. The suggestion here is that there is a kind of perverse pleasure in watching others stumble - whether it's politicians, celebrities, or just ordinary people trying to make their way in the world.
The second verse shifts the focus to the idea of a utopia - a glade full of laughing people - but immediately undercuts this image by insisting that it doesn't exist. Life's ugly failure is always present, and it's impossible to escape it. The image of being lost in dark woods is a powerful one, conveying a sense of confusion and disorientation in the face of an unknowable future. The final line, "getting over ourselves," suggests that this confusion is largely self-imposed - that our egos get in the way of our ability to see clearly and make wise decisions. It is only when we can set aside our own desires and ambitions that we can hope to see the world as it truly is.
Overall, the song is a powerful meditation on the human condition - our desire for guidance and certainty, our tendency to enjoy the failures of others, and the ways in which our own self-importance can lead us astray. It's a reminder that, despite our many flaws, we're all in this together, stumbling blindly through the same dark woods.
Line by Line Meaning
Still we are waiting
We are still waiting for something to come along and provide us with wisdom
For the shining eyes of wisdom
We hope to see a wise leader or sage who can guide us towards the right path
To take the reins of our lives
We wish for someone knowledgeable to take charge of our lives and steer us in the right direction
But no-one who's clever ever wants to take control
There are no wise people who are willing to take up the mantle of leadership
They'd rather join the gasp
Those who possess wisdom would rather choose to blend in with the crowd than stand out
Of the witnesses below
They prefer to be observers and not active participants in life
Tightrope walkers
People are walking a tightrope, trying to balance the different aspects of their lives
High-wire actors
We are like actors performing on a high wire, trying to maintain the balance in our lives.
We wait for them to fall
We are only waiting for those clever individuals to lose their balance and make a mistake so that we can take their place.
There is no glade full of all the laughing people
There is no place where everyone is happy and content
Don't think you are over of life's ugly failure
Don't assume that you have overcome all the struggles and problems in life
We are all lost in deep dark dark woods
We are all wandering aimlessly in our lives; we lack direction
2000 years not too late
It is not too late to change our ways; we still have time to make amends
We spend all our live
We waste most of our lives
Getting over ourselves
We are constantly trying to overcome our egos and selfishness by being a better version of ourselves
So please as you're waiting
Therefore, while you are waiting for someone wise to take control,
For the bloodhound of wisdom
Someone who has the ability to detect wisdom
Open your eyes to the other lives
You should look around you and pay attention to the lives of other people who are also struggling.
That creak by
They are barely surviving and trying to make ends meet.
For no-one's ever right, not even me.
No one has all the answers or is always correct, and that includes the singer themselves.
Contributed by Jason O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.