Killer Instinct was formed in 1981 in the Lower East Side of NYC. Carolyn joined the band soon after moving to New York from Kansas by way of Marburg, Germany. She answered an ad. Their first gig was at the A7 Club on the corner of Avenue A and 7th St. in the East Village. A7 was ground zero for the NY hardcore bands that evolved from the 70s punk scene. It was an illegal club with no liquor license, kept open through regular payoffs to local cops. It was run by a genial ex-con named Dave; music began around midnight and went on until seven or eight in the morning, sometimes with a large audience and often without. Dave's wife worked behind the neon-lit bar in front; bands played in the back in a space about the size of a suburban living room, on a platform raised only inches above the floor.
Local acts included Kraut, Reagan Youth, The Stimulators, Agnostic Front, False Prophets, Bobby Steele and the Undead, The Mob, Even Worse, Butch Lust and the Hypocrites, ISM (who recorded a tribute to the club on the flip of their "I Think I Love You" single), and an early 4-piece punk version of The Beastie Boys, who played their first gig at the club. Touring West Coast bands like DOA and Black Flag would play at A7, then camp out on some fan's floor. DOA's bassist punched a hole in the drop-down accoustic tile ceiling, left unrepaired as a tribute to the band for years afterward. Henry Rollins did his first gig with Black Flag at A7. For several months during 1981-82 Killer Instinct played A7 almost every weekend. A long line of local punks lined up on the sidewalk by midnight, cadging cash and hustling bands to get on the guest list. If they got inside they begged more cash for drinks; more often than not, they never made it past Andre or Victor at the door and ended up on the benches of Tompkins Square Park across the street, passing around a 40-ounce. Carolyn's X.K.I songs "Guest List" and "Stromboli" document the scene.
Early in 1982 A7 acts were asked to submit tapes for an independently-produced LP on S.I.N. Records (run by the two songwriters from ISM) called Big Apple Rotten to the Core: High Energy Rock from NYC. Bands that made the cut were Butch Lust and the Hypocrites, Squirm, The Mob, The Headlickers, Killer Instinct, and of course ISM. The Killer Instinct cuts were "Torture You First", lyrics by Carolyn and music by Jet, and "Killer Instinct" written by Bobby Skull. Both songs were recorded in one session at Rock Bite Studios, a small rehearsal hall and recording studio in midtown. The band produced the session; the engineer is listed as "Danny." The LP got mixed notices in a few fanzines, Maximum RockNRoll in particular. No one involved made any money and no interest was shown by major labels. That is perhaps the single biggest difference between the first wave of NYC punk and the second hardcore wave that followed it — in the first wave, everybody got signed, in the second, no one did.
By the time of the Big Apple release Killer Instinct had already broken up, a victim of ego run rampant and romance gone sour. Most of the band reformed as X.K.I. Jet Suicide came up with the name Killer Instinct; he kept it when the band split up. The remaining members found a new guitarist and new name that described their status as eX-KIs. They rapidly returned to the stage at A7 and also managed to get in a couple of gigs at 2+2, a new club Dave opened on Second Avenue and 2nd Street. (It remained open for less than two months, thereby cementing its reputation). They also played a couple of gigs at CBGB's before the hardcore ban went into effect, and at a new club called 8BC at its original location on the south side of 8th St. (above a garage in a guy named Bob's apartment).
Guitarist Meryl was a friend of Carolyn's pal Donna Argentina (of No Thanks), so Donna introduced her to the band. Meryl had a distinctly different sound than Jet and not all the fans liked it. In late '82 the band was asked to submit tapes for a new 7" EP that was being put together by John Souvadji (who ran the Big City fanzine). The EP was called Big City Ain't Too Pretty and included cuts by X.K.I., Betrayed, U.V., Savage Circle, No Thanks, Armed Citizens, and Fathead Suburbia. 1000 copies were pressed. X.K.I. paid for a one-day recording session in January 1983 at Monkey Hill Studio in Queens, NY; the band acted as its own producer. All the X.K.I. cuts included here were recorded that day, though only "I Hate Everything" made it onto the EP. When the band finally heard it they were appalled at the way the tune had been mastered for vinyl; lots of reverb had been added and the whole sound was murky. (The engineer who mastered the session died in a car crash shortly afterward). As with Killer Instinct, by the time of the record's release the band had broken up. Once again, no one involved made any money and no major label came calling.
