Kittie

Kittie is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in London, Ontario in 1996. A quartet of four females, the group rose to success in 1999 when the track "Brackish" from their debut album Spit became a hit single. The band has toured with multiple famous acts, including Slipknot during the early 2000s on their UK tour.
1996–2004

Kittie was formed in 1996, when drummer Mercedes Lander and guitarist Fallon Bowman met in an extracurricular gymnastics class. Mercedes's sister Morgan Lander became lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. Their original bassist was Tanya Candler, who eventually left the band in the winter of 1999 to finish high school. Talena Atfield was selected as the new bassist. This lineup released the album Spit in 1999.

In 2001, Fallon Bowman left Kittie without citing her reasons and eventually started a new project called Amphibious Assault. The album Oracle was recorded with Morgan Lander as the sole guitarist. Fallon's position as guitarist was later filled by Jeff Phillips who worked as Kittie's guitar technician. In 2002, Talena Atfield left and was replaced on bass by Jennifer Arroyo. In 2004, the group added guitarist Lisa Marx, and Jeff Phillips went to work full-time on his side project, Thine Eyes Bleed. In 2004, Kittie released the album Until the End.
[edit] 2005–2007

Until March 2005, Kittie were signed to Artemis Records but parted ways due to "a proposed amendment to the recording budget for the pending fourth Kittie album." Problems between the group and record label had been rumoured for a long time. In March 2004, Artemis and Kittie came to an out of court settlement over unpaid royalties and eleven breaches of contract by Artemis.

On March 23, 2005, Morgan Lander reported that both Lisa Marx and Jennifer Arroyo had left the band.[1] Jennifer Arroyo's split was amicable while Lisa Marx's came as a surprise. As with Talena Atfield's departure from the band, financial reasons were cited;[citation needed] and in the case of Jennifer Arroyo, the desire to work outside of Kittie full-time was an additional factor. Jennifer Arroyo would go on to join Billy Graziadei of Biohazard to form Suicide City.

In 2005 Kittie added two new members: Tara McLeod on guitar and Trish Doan on bass, who were described as the first "official" band members other than the Lander sisters and early members Atfield and Bowman. 2005 also brought the debut of Morgan and Mercedes Lander’s clothing line, Poisoned Black clothing. Morgan and Mercedes also appeared briefly in the documentaries Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and Heavy Metal - Louder than Life. On February 7, 2006, Kittie released the Never Again EP through Rock Ridge Music. Also in 2006, vocalist Morgan Lander provided vocals on the song "It Turns to Rust", from the album In the Arms of Devastation, by the Canadian death metal band Kataklysm.

In May 2006 Kittie announced a joint venture to create their own record label, Kiss of Infamy Records, which will include major label distribution by EMI. The label name was later changed to X of Infamy after a cease-and-desist letter from attorneys representing Kiss Catalog Ltd. (the owner of the intellectual property rights pertaining to the musical group Kiss) alleging that the Kiss of Infamy trademark was "confusingly similar" to their client's trademark. The band's fourth studio album Funeral for Yesterday was released on February 20, 2007 through their new label. Along with the release of Funeral for Yesterday, Morgan Lander announced that Kittie would release a 45 minute-DVD along with the CD.[2]

Kittie kicked off 2007 with the Funeral for Yesterday Tour running from the beginning of February until the end of March. Other bands on the bill included Walls of Jericho, 36 Crazyfists, Dead To Fall, and In This Moment. The positive feedback and success of the tour encouraged Kittie to extend their tour into May 2007 with Walls of Jericho and In This Moment. In November 2007 Kittie headed south to play shows in Central and South America, including dates in Santiago, Chile and São Paulo, Brazil. For these shows in Central/South America, Ivy Vujic of the Canadian band In The Wake filled in for Trish Doan on bass.