The Spits-S/T (Album IV aka Schools Out) CD

THE SPITS - #4

1. Tonight
2. Rip up the Streets
3. Live in a Van
4. Police
5. Eyesore
6. Schools Out
7. Life Of Crime
8. Wouldnt wanna be Ya
9.Alienize
10.Flags

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” —Raoul Duke

A quote that proves to be eerily prescient with the long awaited return of professional weirdos, The SPITS. Fresh from the studio with their fourth self-titled LP on Thriftstore/Recess Records, The SPITS show no sign of slowing down with their latest effort, mixing equal parts Devo and Misfits into an aurally addictive, synth-inflected stew. Describing the music they play as “Punk for the People” these prophets of the proletariat have a message for the masses: The SPITS are the soundtrack to the Apocalypse.

The SPITS have never shied away from esoteric subject matter musically. Previous records have contained themes of escaped Nazi war criminals, nuclear winters, commie spies, and terrorist attacks, coupled with back alley booze-fests, brain-bruising bong rips, skateboards, and fisticuffs. With songs about constable evasion (“Police”), Huxley-esque visions of metropolitan horror (“Eyesore City”), and alien abduction (“Alienize”), SPITS #4 should prove to be just as desperately disparate and sonically sordid as previous salvos. In short: Unlike a lot of the bands in the staid punk scene, The SPITS are fun.

For the uninitiated, The SPITS are a punk rock band hailing from, well, all over the place, by way of Michigan, and then Seattle. The brothers Wood, Sean and Erin, play guitar and bass respectively, with Lance Phelps on drums and Ernie Quintero banging on the ever present keyboards. While the drums and synth have seen live line-up changes in the past, a constant with the band has been the studio collaboration between the two brothers, and Phelps.

From the fuzzed out, over-driven, guitar and vox intro of “Tonight”, and the percussive, submachine gun attack of “Police”, to the cool bottom heaviness of “Life of Crime”, and the lo-fi genius outro of “Flags”, The SPITS fourth offering is the strongest to date; showcasing a band that is only beginning to approach the zenith of its power, as the world dips entropically past its own, toward obliteration. Indeed. Buy the record, take the ride. -Shawn Durant