SPiT LiKE THiS is one of those bands you just can’t help but respect for their efforts and determination to make good music and offensive clothing. Starting as just a tiny, two-person band working/recording in an even smaller cottage LORD ZiON (vocals) and Vikki Spit (bass) wanted to make music, but you can’t make music without money, right? And so Smell Your Mum clothing was launched. If you fancy having someone threaten to punch you or gaining a large number of disapproving glances as you walk through the City of London, this is the place to go.
Over time, demos were made while they played some local gigs and SLT’s fanbase slowly grew until they made it to Amazon No.1 with Sleaze Sells… But Who’s Buying? and toured with the big bands including former Murderdolls singer Wednesday 13 and LA Guns.
This year, however, was a biggie for the band with their release of Normalityville Horror, Zion writing his first screenplay of the same name (but of no relation) and a planned tour with Adler which was sadly cancelled.
The first thing I thought as the album opened with “Sick” was, simply, ‘Motley Crüe!’ who, incidentally, I’d been listening to the night before. The whole song is filled with the sounds of Crüe with its cool drum beats, chugging guitars and Lord Zion’s glam-rock voice that sounds like a mix between Vince Neil and Blackie Lawless. A well-chosen opener.
Would you want to live in a Normalityville? Judging from the next track, LORD ZiON wouldn’t and he makes it extremely obvious with this song and his automobillic escape in “Zero to Sixty”, a very English-voiced (notably in the chorus) piece which, I’m sure, will make any driver want to push the accelerator down just that little bit more.
Then in comes a perfect cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday.” No, wait, that was just one of Spotify’s ads butting in. I can see (or should that be hear?) the irony in the next track, “Very Very Good at Being Bad” seeing as it’s a pretty cool track with its rising guitar intro joined by some funky drums.
Saying that, the song might not be related to music, it could just be an admission of why Z received that speeding ticket the other day. I guess we may never know. That’s until he writes his autobiography/memoirs after being “Dragged Kicking and Screaming” through the local prison gates before being released and “coming back for more.”
The next three songs are very, to put it simply, teenage-themed, so to speak: “Teen Angel,” “The Life and Times of the Suicide Kid” (of which a video has been made, viewable on YouTube and the band’s official site) and “Oh No! Here we Go!” though I must say the latter song has some interesting lyrics like “Don’t fuck with me,” simple but effective, I’m sure and “Get down on your knees / Do as I please.” I’m also sure we all know what this means or is related to. If you are not, get yourself onto Google and search “oral sex” and you’ll understand soon enough.
This next song’s a bit stupid really and it knows this (it isn’t really; I’m just going by the title here.) “The Dumb Song” seems to be about, simply, doing “dumb” things like talking about others and (I think) using Facebook. Or maybe it’s about relationships and their attention-seeking drama which is always made public on the aforementioned Facebook. I’m not too sure. Maybe ZiON can tell you.
To close the album we have “Dead to me Now,” a fast, crunchy and even slightly funky tune which sings of hitting a person/people (gender is unspecified here) before stating that they are “dead to me now.” Nice and friendly it even has a somewhat “happy” sounding guitar solo 2/3 of the way in.
Overall, Normalityville Horror is likely to be a love/hate album. If not that, then it’s certainly a tasteful one, by which I mean fans of 80s glam rock and crazy hair (although in this case I’d say the closest to crazy hair you’ll get is Vile Giles’s impaling mohawk) will love this album whereas those who are hypnotised by today’s music and only follow what the radio tells them to will hate it.
But SPiT LiKE THiS don’t care, they’re not exactly a band who wish to follow or take part in today’s conventional society.
Overall rating: 4/5
Pete Kent Official 