SPITS "dropout" CD Great '77-style power pop with tons o' tude.A cool record with an old-style and very garagey sound. Any fan of The BRIEFS, G.G.ALLIN, The ADVERTS, or the type of music that this magazine stands for will really dig this CD. (BAM) Hit List April/May 2002 The Spits (Nickel and Dime Records) The production on this disc is muddy and the music falls into the standard three-chord punk riff category complete with rudimentary keyboard splashings and sardonic deadpan lyrics. - The Spits - a Seattle based middle-aged trio who sport mohawks and a love for skateboarding - claim to be the new leaders of contemporary juvenile punk/new wave. What exactly does this mean? I don't know. But if the idea of the Ramones meets the Screamers appeals to you than by all means become a Spits minion.-NIN bitemezine.net The Lurkers with keyboards. Although their press sheet hypes them as a new wave/punk rock hybrid, this is more for fans of killed by death/Ramones/'77 style stuff than for fans of Duran Duran. There are keyboards, but mostly they submit to the infectious guitar drone of 70's style punk. Towards the end, I was beginning to really get into this. Now Wave Zine Oct. 01 (review by Jimmy Reject) The Spits (S/T) CD Pretty cool punk rock that sort of reminds me of the RAMONES, DICKIES, SOCIAL DISTORTION, REBEL REBEL with a few songs that are pretty funny. Just st8 up punk rock n roll. (VG++) PUNK (BW) Toxic Flyer Fanzine Fall 01 The Spits "Dropout (oh yeah)" CD Im not that upset over news of a Le Shok brake up anymore. Sure, I mean, FUCK... Le Shok were a great band but what I realize now, after randomly getting this CD to review (Heh, one I didn't buy! Go fucking figure!), things are getting better or hell, maybe I am just opening my fucking eyes. I cant remember when I have been so excited about modern music than this year; 2001. Here I am in November; the November-Ember-- ON FIRE, with The Blank Generation yearly recaps just around the bend and Im still getting blown away by shit filtering its way to me. Im finding them, and they are finding me; you know who you are. Sure, The Spits are a Ramones and Screamers hybrid. Sure, thats easy to see. The thing I'm really trying to convey though is that even though this CD is lack-luster in its appearance and simplistic in its approach, its right up there with Kill the Hippies to me. Seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds long. Its ironic that as the cold war kid who worried over things like nuclear holocaust and radioactive satellites, would love such a release. I read in a book, when I was twelve non-the-less, that it would take just a little bit longer than the time needed to listen to this CD before atomic warheads plastered with 'CCCP' on their side would begin to hit targets in the continental states. I knew that when I was twelve. thank Ronald Regan for my Nuke-hysteria.... So, with that said, that means when I first opened this CD in the mail that I could have sat through more than five continuous waves of Russian Warheads before I stopped listening to this CD. I opened it and listened to it all the way though in one sitting.... Then I hit 'play' again and listened to it all the way through. Then I hit 'play' again and listened to it all the way through. Then I hit 'play'again and listened to it all the way through. Then I hit 'play'again and listened to it all the way through. Then I hit 'play'again and listened to it all the way through. Then I hit 'play'again and listened to it all the way through. Then I hit 'play'again and listened to it all the way through. Eight fucking times. Then Seventh Heaven came on.... Man, what a fucked up family. The next day my buddy Andy The Assault Rifle calls and I tell him about the CD. The day after that him and a guy known as Microbe find a copy of the CD for sale at Shake It Records. He buys it and two days after that Microbe secretly surprises me by cranking up his stereo as "Black Kar" begins to play. I scream and say "Fuck yeah" as I hold my left hand up for a high-five and bring the right hand, full of a can of Steel Reserve to my lips. SLAP! Microbe hits my hand. SLAP! The Assault Rifle hits it next. SLAP! Microbe and the Assault Rifle High-Five. "Black Kar" has given way to "Saturday Nite" and even though its a Friday nite, we repeat the act all over. Were drunk-- Well, I am anyway; drinking Steel Reserve, listening to The Spits and giving each other high-five's in a apartment in a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. Things are getting better, if nothing else, because of this very fact! Honest: When I got that Briefs/Spits split, The Briefs were good BUT The Spits were GREAT! They did more with their two songs than most bands could do with a LP's worth. Even now, with a full-length worth of Spits songs, The Spits do more with NINE songs than other bands do in their entire lifetime. I mean, FUCK! The Spits are saviors! This CD is blast after blast of Neoteric Punk/Wave balls to the walls lunacy. Every song is a fucking Nu-Classic! "Dropout"; If I dont feel like quitting my job and being a good agoraphobic after listening to a song like this, well, I aint worth a fuck!......"Sk8"; I cant even ride a bike but I wanna grab a board!.... "Die Die Die"; Answer to my prayers....."Black Kar"; I never thought a song about nazi War Criminals would be so damn entertaining! Should have been on the soundtrack to Apt Pupil... "Saturday Nite"... "Remote Kontrol"; the song I just told Joe Domino I would use to play over and over in the headphones of pop-punk kids that I abduct and subdue until they swear to stop playing bad music.... "Tired and Lonely": Leave me at the bottom! If I dont feel like killing myself after listening to a song like this, well, I aint worth a fuck!..."I H8 Pussies"; A song I can respect.... "Suzy's Face": I feel like theres a sequel in there somewhere...Im waiting for "Suzy's Hands" on the next CD, ... What it all boils down to is that theres a time and a place for everything. Sometimes its not what extremely complicated things you play that makes you rock, theres validity in saying that silence and simplicity is a weapon. The Spits fulfill. The Spits complete. The Spits deliver. The Spits are better than you. You bastard. You panty-waste. I can do that now because rock-bottom never felt better.... Blank Generation Fall 01 Every once in a while, you'll hear something as fresh, and simply wonderful as Seattle's SPITS. Although, this release may not be easy to find, it's so fucking brilliantly retarded, that it's gotta be heard to be appreciated. Take Joey Ramone's half-mouthed vocals on the first RAMONES Lp, mix it up with Jonny's guitar sound on "I Don't Wanna Be Learned" and throw in the evil keyboards and Bass-lines from the most wretched SREAMERS Tracks, and you'll get what I'm stressin'. The Recording sounds like most of the better killed By death songs, and their retarded new wave Keyboard element sends these guys into home Plate with two chicks on each arm. And, if you Were ever into it, these guys are the new Definition of raw "skate rock" and can out-rock Any bay-area baggy pantsers any day. The Lyrics Are perfectly monotonous and sardonic, and with Lines like "Can't get high on my alcohol no more," You know were really dealing with Bowery-level Brilliance here, Jack. (Rod) Horizontal action #7 SPITS-CD - I've heard the praises of the SPITS sung in both likely and unlikely places (the hollowed halls of Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, as well as the cubicle next to mine at my 9-to-5 job). The band don't disappoint, though culturally impaired indie rock types would consider them primitive, childish, willfully retarded and lacking in technical proficiency. Fuck 'em, I sez. The SPITS are right up there will the lowest-brow of Killed by Death acts, never reguarded as a bunch of even-tempered geniuses from the outset. All two-note groove and junior- high humor, sort of like the non-band I formed with my lunch buddies at Roosevelt Jr. High (home of the Roosevelt Rough Riders). Dig the keyboards, admire the rediculous get-ups (jock-hawks and moustaches), thrill to the sudtle poetry of "Die Die Die", "Black Kar" and "Dropout". Turn your head and spit. Maximum Rock 'n' Roll Dec.2001(JH) The Spits (CD) Nickel and Dime Records Fuck yeah! I've been dying to hear more stuff from The Spits ever since I heard their fabulous split with The Briefs on Dirtnap a while back. The thing that really rocks about this band is how they have completely reverted back to the most minimalistic punk rock sound you can possibly have. Heavily influenced by the simple and monotone sounds of the Ramones, and the strange keyboard leads of The Screamers, this ends up sounding incredibly raw and brilliantly stupid. This could easily be passed off as some long-forgotten snotty-punk band that never made it out of some shithole town that nobody ever heard of...and the band members have all since died, but these tapes were just discovered in a leaky old basement. Yeah! Extra points go to this band for actually giving me shivers the first time I put this on! 9 songs, 17 minutes of mind-numbing fun. Reviewed by Vic World Wide Punk Dec. 2001 The Spits S/T CD (Nickel and Dime) Wow! I'm having some kind of flashback. These guys sound exactly like some nowheresville hardcore band from way back in the early '80s, the kind you'd find stuck towards the end of a Flipside compilation. So many questions. Did they record this on a boombox? Is that an organ? Is this a re-release? And their look! You have to see the cover. What's up with those moustaches? Are they cops? Are they nazis? Are they dweebs? Are they capable of creating bombs and drugs in a lab? Do they really skate? I'm completely hypnotized by this. They seem to be inspired by both DEVO and GG Allin. Very weird in its uncoolness. I like it! (Margaret Griffis) Scram #15 Feb.2002 Over the summer, I saw the SPITS at a live show at People's Park in Berkeley along with the STITCHES, the BRIEFS and the EDDIE HASKELLS. At first I didn't know what to make of them. Their songs were moronically simple, but undeniably catchy, totally addictive. By the end of the set I was a Spits convert. Dirt Nap Records recently graced the world with another outing by the Spits titled 19 Million (you may remember they did a split with the Briefs on Dirt Nap a while ago). Like the music contained within, the packaging is beyond simple-a photocopied sleeve, made with little more than white-out and a black marker, with a photo of the band on the back. The four songs are every bit as great as the Ramones, but more, uh, blunt. To get a better taste, I picked up the Spits CD (Nickel and Dime/PO Box 12171/Seattle, WA 98122) that came out a while ago. This came to my attention by the madman raving of MRR shitworker Tim Brooks. "Just look at the pictures!" he said, showing me the insert photo. The three Spits are standing near a fire hydrant. All are holding skateboards. They all have short mohawks and bad mustaches. Two of them are wear cop sunglasses. One of them is pulling a boneless off the fire hydrant. I knew then I'd love the CD. The Spits have a beautifully moronic quality to them that really has to be heard to fully comprehend. The Spits also appear on a recent compilation single, I Was A Teenage Plasmatic (Johnny Cat) that is, as the name suggests, a tribute to Wendy O. Williams. Never being a big PLASMATICS fan and generally finding tribute records to be 90% crap, I didn't pay much attention to this single first time around. I still don't dig tributes; this is no exception, but it does have some good songs on it. Features LOUDMOUTHS, NEARLY DEADS, DAYGLO ABORTIONS, TRIGGERS, BLACK REBELS and the BB SLAGS. From "If You Die and Go To Hell, Who Cares?" MRR Column, Nov 2001M.