Kicking Spit – Psychrockbullshit

First off, kudos to Tankcrimes for releasing something so far away from what I have come to expect from the label; Kicking Spit may be a lot of things, but thrash ain’t one of em, and for the label that brought you Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Cannibas Corpse records, this one comes as a surprise.

The biggest comparisons that Kicking Spit bring to mind here are Radon, Hüsker Dü, and Dinosaur Jr. The Psychrockbullshit EP seems like it’s definitely mining the, uh, musical oeuvre of indie/college rock bands of the 80s and 90s – those with guitars at least – and then “modernizing” it. And by that I mean the musical texturing in Kicking Spit songs are eerily similar to the latter two bands, if only sped up greatly, and vocalist, at times, is a dead ringer for Radon’s Dave Rohm. That said, the real drag about Psychrockbullshit is that there’s very little of the sense of playfulness here that makes Radon so good, and somehow Kicking Spit’s speed has sacrificed the sense of somberness that I always liked about Hüsker Dü. So what you’re left with is faster and more ferocious but, to me at least, just doesn’t have any of the same resonance. Most likely a very fun band to watch live, but their recordings go in one ear and out the other.

Ultimately, after nearly a dozen listens, the only thing I find myself connecting with are “Sea Of Swirls” and “Truth Or Consequences”, songs placed in the middle of the EP. And in all honestly, the reason they seem the most effective songs is that the band sounds most like Radon here, in both structure and sounds, except when they nearly strangle the ending of “Sea Of Swirls” with guitar solos.

So that’s it – a five song EP by a band that sounds like a revved up and dirtied Hüsker Dü. A lot of people will most likely go apeshit for this stuff, and the band’s definitely capable of capturing a particular sound. But it’s a sound that did little for me.