Spit (album)

Spit is the debut studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, originally released on November 13, 1999, through Ng Records. Kittie were formed in 1996, and signed to Ng in 1999 after Jake Weiner, the record label's second-in-command, witnessed one of the band's shows. Produced by Garth Richardson, Spit was recorded over nine days in May 1999 at EMAC Studios in London, Ontario, and was completed in August 1999. Spit is a nu metal album that incorporates various elements from several heavy metal subgenres, and its lyrical themes include sexism, hatred, ignorance, betrayal, bullying and life experiences. The album is Kittie's only release with their original line-up, featuring bassist Tanya Candler and guitarist Fallon Bowman; Candler was replaced by Talena Atfield, who appears on the cover of all subsequent reissues of the album.

Shortly after Spit's initial release, Ng was absorbed into Artemis Records, who gave the album a wide re-release on January 11, 2000. Kittie promoted the album with the release of two singles, "Brackish" and "Charlotte", which became radio and MTV hits, and extensive international touring which saw the band perform at the Ozzfest and SnoCore festivals in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The album reached number 79 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in October 2000.

Spit initially received mixed-to-positive responses from critics, who generally praised the album's aggression but criticized its song titles, lyrics and attitude; Kittie faced media attention and criticism at the time of its release for their age and anomalous status as an all-female band playing heavy metal. The band subsequently distanced themselves from the album in the years following its release due to the stigma it brought them. Spit was later reassessed by critics and media outlets as one of the best works within the nu metal genre, and its success has been considered important regarding the representation of women in heavy metal. It remains Kittie's best-selling album, having sold 660,000 copies in the United States as of April 2003.

Background

In September 1996, after moving with her family from Brampton to London, Ontario, drummer Mercedes Lander decided that she wanted to form a band. She began jamming with guitarist Fallon Bowman, whom she met in gym class, after they bonded over their shared interest in grunge artists such as Nirvana and Silverchair. Mercedes soon brought in her sister, Morgan Lander, to jam with them as their singer and second guitarist. Together, they would write an early version of "Brackish", the first Kittie song.

In late 1997, Mercedes, Morgan and Bowman decided on naming themselves Kittie in order to sign up for an upcoming Battle of the Bands competition at Call the Office in London. They chose the band name because it "seemed contradictory". Morgan said: "Usually females are perceived as being cute, fragile and feminine, like the name Kittie. The contradiction comes in, when the listener hears what our music really is about: women playing metal". At Bowman's suggestion, Kittie recruited Tanya Candler as their bass player to complete the band's lineup, in spite of the fact she had not played bass beforehand. After making their live debut performing at Call the Office on February 28, 1998, Kittie would play "over 200 some odd shows [...] [from] Toronto, to Detroit" before attracting record label interest, according to Mercedes. After performing at Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto, Kittie approached Jake Weiner, second-in-command at Ng Records. After watching them play live, Weiner signed Kittie into a four-album record deal with Ng.

According to Morgan Lander, the songs featured on Spit were all written when the members of Kittie "were 14 years old". Kittie wrote and reworked its songs over the span of three years, from the moment the band formed until they went into record the album. The band wrote the music first, as a "backdrop" to Morgan's vocals. Originally based in grunge music, the band's sound would transition towards heavy metal on the back of recent releases from Korn, Deftones and Sepultura. When asked about their influences in an interview with Metal Maidens in 1999, the members of Kittie cited Nile, Today Is the Day, Placebo, Far, Weezer, Orgy, Fear Factory, Hole, Tura Satana, Human Waste Project, Babes in Toyland, Misfits, Blondie, and Nasum as influences.

Recording and production

After signing with Ng, Kittie recorded Spit with producer Garth Richardson at EMAC Studios in May 1999, in the space of nine days. Richardson was introduced to Kittie after Robert Nation, EMAC's owner, gave him a copy of Kittie's self-titled demo EP (1998), and he had agreed to work with the band for a minimum fee before they had been signed to Ng. The members of Kittie were still attending high school at the time, and recording sessions would take place in the evenings after they had dinner and finished their homework at the studio. According to Candler, they would finish recording at no later than 10pm per day.

Prior to recording, Kittie told Richardson that they wanted Spit to sound "live and raw, yet still [possess] the quality of a professional, studio-produced recording", and the band spent an entire day choosing which equipment and amps from Richardson's array they wanted to play through. Bowman said that the album's guitar sounds are simple, alternating between a "straightforward clean and dirty" sound; she would only use one guitar pedal on the entire album, an Ibanez Classic Phase. The album's guitar tracks were recorded using one of the Richardson's custom guitars, which Kittie used because they felt that it was "really great, [and] really chunky sounding", according to Bowman. "Brackish" was nearly left off of Spit due to problems surrounding its arrangements. The song would come into its own when the band recruited DJ Dave, a friend of Nation's, to add "some cool jungle" beats under the track. Morgan wrote the song's chorus a week later. "I remember sitting on the floor in the vocal booth writing the lyrics down, it was right at the very tail-end, like, 'I have no idea what I'm going to say here. I'll just think of something.' " The album's total recording costs were US$57,000, and it was completed in August 1999.

Music and lyrics

Music

Spit is a nu metal album with elements of heavy metal, speed metal, groove metal, alternative metal, alternative rock, death metal, and in the lead single "Brackish", techno and rap. According to Exclaim!, Spit "plays like an inconsistent collection of stale 1991-era Pantera and Sepultura B-sides, overdubbed with the occasional 1995 techno sprinkle for a somewhat modern measure". The album contains heavy riffs, rapping (in the song "Brackish"), screaming and clean singing. According to an AllMusic review by Roxanne Blanford, the album has a "meatier, heavier sound than contemporaries Limp Bizkit and Korn". According to Michael Tedder of The Pitch, "Spit echoes Helmet's precision, Slayer's power and (with some songs dealing with body image and self-esteem issues) even Nirvana's confessional songwriting". Author Tommy Udo compared Kittie's sound and attitude to heavy metal bands such as Pantera and Machine Head.

Lyrics

The album's lyrical themes explore "hate, ignorance and sexism", and AllMusic noted its feminist lyrics. Nonetheless, Morgan Lander said Kittie are not a feminist band. According to George Lang of The Oklahoman, "Kittie's lyrics are full of spit and venom, directed at preppy cheerleaders, rich kids, rude boys and women who trade on their sexuality". According to Morgan Lander, Spit is "a dark album, but it's about every day life which isn't always peachy". Spit was controversial because of its song titles, which made many people think that the album's songs are about sex. In an interview with NY Rock, Atfield said that none of the album's songs are about sex.

Mercedes Lander explained the meaning of Spit's title track: "People expect us to suck, then we get on stage and blow them away." The song "Spit" was inspired by the attitude of local bands towards Kittie. "Charlotte" was inspired by a serial killer from the book Rites of Burial by Tom Jackman and Troy Cole. "Brackish" "is a commentary on a friend of" Kittie "and the relationship that she was in at the time". "Jonny" is reportedly a reaction to male domination of women, whilst "Raven", according to the Sun-Sentinel, "was inspired by a death threat received from a male band against whom" Kittie "competed in an Ontario talent contest." In an interview with Bleeding Metal, Mercedes and Bowman said the song title "Get Off (You Can Eat a Dick)" came from an incident at a school talent show when, after playing one song, a teacher didn't like what they were playing, telling them to "get off". Bowman said that "Choke" is "about someone telling you that they love you so much, and they put you up on a pedestal and make you feel great, then they turn around and say 'screw you'". According to Morgan Lander, "Do You Think I'm a Whore" is about "how some people automatically think you're a slut because you wear a short skirt", and "not judging a book by its cover". The song's title was given "basically to prove people wrong". The album's penultimate track, "Paperdoll", is about the degradation of women as objects. Candler wrote the song's lyrics and was its lead vocalist.

Release and promotion

Radio specialty shows and early press supported Spit before its release, and Kittie's profile increased following coverage of the band in Rolling Stone magazine and in an MTV News 1515 report. The album was initially released on November 13, 1999, by Ng, but its production was short-lived as Ng was absorbed into Artemis Records shortly after. In September 1999, following the band's performance at the Big Day Off in Hartford, Connecticut, Candler abruptly left Kittie for personal reasons. The band quickly recruited Talena Atfield to replace Candler, with Atfield being made to learn Kittie's entire setlist two weeks before a scheduled performance at the CMJ Music Festival in New York City, where a music video was filmed for the album's lead single, "Brackish". Spit was then reissued by Artemis on January 11, 2000, with different artwork and photographs, featuring pictures of Atfield in place of Candler.

Spit was supported by two major singles, "Brackish" and "Charlotte". "Brackish", which had been receiving airplay from radio outlets since late 1999, was released as a single on the same day that Spit was re-released. The song's music video premiered on MuchMusic the day of the single's release, and then premiered on MTV by first appearing on MTV's 120 Minutes on January 30, 2000. "Brackish" continued to be played on MTV and was rotated on WAAF. Kittie also made a few appearances on TV; the group performed "Brackish" live on Late Night With Conan O'Brien on February 23, 2000, and were interviewed and performed on the talk show Later on May 31, 2000. The single reached number 31 on Billboard's Active Rock chart. On June 5, 2000, Kittie released "Charlotte" as the album's second single, which reached number 35 on the Active Rock chart. The music video for "Charlotte", directed by Lisa Rubish, was played constantly on MTV, being one of the most played music videos on MTV during July 2000. Artemis also released two EPs in support of Spit; a four-track promotional EP featuring live versions (and respective radio edits) of the album's title track and "Suck" was serviced to radio stations on April 24, 2000, and the Paperdoll EP, featuring a remix of Spit's song "Paperdoll" and some live tracks, was released on December 12, 2000. The Paperdoll EP had sold 100,000 copies in the United States by December 2003.

After Spit's release, Kittie toured with Slipknot and, on July 11, 2000, released the home video, Spit in Your Eye. Kittie began an American tour on April 27, 2000, with Chevelle, Shuvel and the Step Kings. Kittie then toured Europe with Suicidal Tendencies and performed at Ozzfest 2000, headlining the second stage. They were the youngest, and only female act, on that year's bill. Morgan and Mercedes said when they were having dinner with their parents back home in Canada, they received a phone call from the representative of Ozzfest, being asked if they were interested in performing at the tour, requesting a press kit to review. When touring in England, Kittie received a phone call being told the band is officially involved in the tour. Kittie planned to tour with Pantera, but the tour fell through when Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo fell and broke two ribs. After the Pantera tour fell through, Kittie created a headlining tour and performed at the 2001 SnoCore festival.

In spite of the success of Spit, the members of Kittie never received any of its royalties from Artemis, and the band's relationship with the label began to decline during their tours in support of the album. In May 2000, Artemis allegedly tried to pressure Morgan to begin recording a new Kittie album following the Ozzfest, in September 2000; the band did not want to, as they didn't feel that they were finished touring. In June 2000, Artemis pulled Kittie's touring support following a change in representation at the label, prompting the band to start self-financing and self-managing their own tours. Kittie would later accuse Artemis of trying to get their talent agent to not book any more shows for them, in an attempt to starve the band financially so that they would return to the studio.

Reception

Critical

Spit received mixed-to-positive reviews. Rolling Stone gave Spit a three out of five, calling the album "fairly good-natured for an exercise in repetitive maximum aggro". Roxanne Blanford of AllMusic wrote, "these young women learned well the lessons of predecessors Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and the current reigning queen of angst-rock, Courtney Love". Teen Ink gave Spit a positive review: "Kittie is a Canadian band made up of four girls who can rock, yell and keep up with any hardcore band out there". Phil McNamara of The Worcester Phoenix wrote that Kittie "can throw down heavy head-banging riffs with the best of them, and oh yeah -- they're girls". Also, Canadian journalist Martin Popoff is quite happy of a girl band which can rock "heavily and smartly", "sounding like vicious hardcore sirens" avoiding "electronic gunk" with only a slight nod to rap metal.

The Oklahoman gave Spit a positive review: "Throw in the fact that they range in age from 15 to 18, and Kittie seems like the perfect weapon to smite Mandy Moore, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera, forever ridding the music industry of teen-pop". CMJ New Music Report gave Spit a positive review: "the teenage babes in Ontario, Canada's Kittie will scratch and claw their way into the dark recesses of your hearts thanks to their debut, the smashing 'n' stomping Spit". The Washington Post criticized the album: "All four members of this Canadian metal-punk band are women, which is still a novel (though certainly not unique) lineup for a headbanging ensemble. Too bad that's virtually the quartet's only distinguishing feature". The review concluded, "After four or five of these pounding rockers, Kittie becomes a bore." Exclaim! also criticized the album: "Guidance Counsellor's advice: pull the plug and stay in school". NME gave the album a four-out-of-ten rating: "Like kindred spirits System of a Down, Kittie want to give you the impression that they're just too tasty to fuk wit, too unhinged to view as normal folk, too pierced for the mainstream." Robert Christgau, who gave the album a C+ in his Consumer Guide for The Village Voice, said that he approved of what the band did but felt that they "[didn't] do it well", and expressed concern that they would provide "an excuse [for guys] to say, 'Ah bullshit, girls suck and they can't play rock & roll.' ".

The Pitch gave Spit an "honourable mention" on their "American Top 40: Best Albums of 2000" list. Kittie also received a nomination for "Best New Group" at the 2001 Juno Awards, ultimately losing out to Nickelback.

Commercial

Ng had initially pressed 8,000 copies of Spit. According to Morgan Lander, "Those 8,000 copies were gone in like the first fucking week". On January 29, 2000, Spit debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at number 147, and two weeks later, reached number one on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart on February 19, 2000. The album later reached its peak position of number 79 on April 15, 2000. By the time the album had peaked, Spit had already sold over 100,000 copies, and by May 2000 it had sold 236,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album remained on the Billboard 200 chart for 37 weeks. Spit also reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart, and remained on the chart for 64 weeks. On October 17, 2000, Spit was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); the album remains Kittie's only release to go Gold, and is one of only two Artemis Records albums (the other being Thug Misses by Khia) to have achieved this feat. As of April 1, 2003, Spit has sold more than 660,000 copies in the United States. Spit also achieved some success outside of the United States. Although Spit did not chart in the United Kingdom, "Brackish" peaked at number 46 on the UK Singles Chart on March 25, 2000, and "Charlotte" peaked at number 60 on the UK Singles Chart on July 22, 2000. The album has sold an additional 100,000 copies outside of the US, 40,000 of which were sold in Canada.

Aftermath

Much of the press attention surrounding and following the release of Spit focused on the ages of Kittie's members as well as their anomalous status as an all-female band playing heavy metal (which was generally a male-dominated genre), much to the band's chagrin. The members of Kittie said that they did not want to be described as a "girl metal" band, but as a heavy metal band instead. Mercedes said: "You don't call Machine Head a 'boy metal band'. You call them a metal band. Why should they make an exception [for us] just because of the gender? It's almost the exact same kind of music, except we don't have penises". Several media outlets presented the band as an antithesis to pop music and particularly to that of Britney Spears, leading them to be dubbed "anti-Britney", despite the fact they had never said anything negative about Spears themselves. In an interview with The Washington Post, Morgan said: "I'm not up there singing, 'Hit me baby, one more time!' We're a lot more mature than that ... We didn't slag her, and we respect her... We just don't want to be her!". Mercedes felt that most of the press attention surrounding Kittie around the release of Spit was "the wrong kind of press" because journalists had not properly researched the band before writing about them; she additionally claimed that Artemis had revealed the ages of Kittie's members to the press against their wishes. Morgan also criticized journalists for constantly making puns about Kittie's name—dubbing it "Feline Association Disease"—which she saw as an attempt to reduce the band to novelty status.

In the years following its release, Kittie attempted to distance themselves from Spit, with both Morgan and Mercedes claiming that album had led to the band becoming stigmatized for being a nu metal act and an all-female band. The band's next two albums, Oracle (2001) and Until the End (2004), moved away from the nu metal stylings of Spit towards an more aggressive sound that was generally categorized as death metal, and they also began gradually omitting songs from the album from their setlists, as the band "wanted people to see who we are now and what we have accomplished since then", according to Morgan Lander. None of the band's subsequent albums would match the critical or popular acclaim of Spit. By 2024, Morgan had become more accepting of Kittie's association with nu metal. In an interview with Revolver, Morgan said:

Our debut [Spit] came out at a time when nu-metal was huge and we were sort of put in that category, but as we evolved as musicians and as players and as a band, we gravitated away from that sound. I think for me, for a really long time, nu-metal was sort of like a bad word. It's tough when you're associated with a genre that you don't necessarily identify with. But I have learned over time to be proud of having an album that is part of that seminal nu-metal movement. I'm proud of our contribution.

Spit made Kittie into one of a few all-female, and/or female-fronted, nu metal bands to achieve notable success, and the album has retrospectively been noted for its significance in representing, and subverting gender expectations for, women in heavy metal. In 2013, Westword credited the album for "[inspiring] a whole new generation of women" in metal. Serena Cherry of Svalbard and Noctule cited Spit as the reason she became a metal musician. The album's title track was covered by Poppy in 2023, which Kittie approved of. Later assessments of album have also been more positive, and it has since appeared on several best-of lists for the nu metal genre. "Brackish" appeared on Fuse's "19 Best Nu-Metal Hits of All Time" list in 2015, and was ranked number 23 on Spin's "30 Best Nu Metal Songs" list in 2017. In March 2023, Rolling Stone ranked the album's title track at number 82 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time", calling the song "a murderously heavy proto-feminist anthem that takes aim at misogynists and lands a kill shot in under three minutes."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Morgan Lander, Mercedes Lander, Tanya Candler, and Fallon Bowman.

Personnel

Adapted from Spit's liner notes.

Charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading

• "Hear Them Roar: An Interview With Kittie". DrDrew.com. Archived from the original on December 16, 2000.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• "Hear Them Roar". Los Angeles Times. August 31, 2000.