Kind of Like Spitting - The Thrill of The Hunt

Kind of Like Spitting is not a band I try to push on people. It's whiny and weird. The songs are desperate and ugly at points. But, I just picked up the new Kind of Like Spitting album, "The Thrill of The Hunt," and there are so many things to like about it.

First, this is the third KOLS release in almost as many months. Hush Records from Portland put out two releases: one of all Phil Ochs covers and one of all originals titled "In The Red." My good friends at Redder picked up the, well... leftovers, and put out this one. Although both Hush releases are great, the Redder one accidentally is the most interesting.

First, it's the most casual. The songs are some Ben Barnett originals, but a few were by David J (of another one man band Novi Split). In fact, the first song on this, the title track, is a David J number.

Also, there are numeroous covers interspersed with the originals. The covers are interesting and earnest, not unlike my favorite batch of covers ever, Bob Nanna's 2001 covers. Bad Religion's song "You" is done wonderfully and will appeal to any fans of Tony Hawk. Redder had posted three Kind of Like Spitting Bad Religion covers on their website, and this is one of them. Mr. Barnett also plays "Lay Some Happiness on Me" by Jean Chapel and Bob Jennings, and "A Song For You" by Leon Russell and Willie Nelson. Those are songs I am unfamiliar with, but I love the casualness of the covers. Because of this, the disc could sound like a 'party album.'

Furthermore, Kind of Like Spitting covers a Kind of Like Spitting song. "The Thing About Distance" is taken from the old Hush Records self-titled release, and was one of my favorites. It features the timeless lyric "It doesn't mean I can't wish her the best / I hope she gets that job in Ireland." It's a memorable track that will stick in your head, and it's a great example of Barnett as a great songwriter.

But the best tracks on here are some new ones. "Share The Road," which is available for free download on www.redderrecords.com, is a brilliant bike-riding-as-relationship metaphor. It's well done and brief, cutting the proverbial fat right when it counts.

There is another take of "You Got Served" which was one of the high points on Redder's "Metaphysics for Beginners." In fact, that song is one of the few complaints of the album. It is such a good song it should have been the album closer. Instead, the album closes with a cover of Big Star's "Thirteen."

I have a large problem with the track "Thirteen" on this record. First, "Thirteen" is covered more famously by Elliott Smith. It was recently used in the movie Thumbsucker and appeared on it's soundtrack. Smith covered it for almost his entire career, and it also appeared in another short film. Kind of Like Spitting covers this song in the same style as Smith, adding nothing.

This is what is wrong. Kind of Like Spitting and Elliott Smith are not the same thing. They are both emoish boys from Portland, yes. Their methods are the same, but their results are not. The cover of "Thirteen" would have been much better replaced with Kind of Like Spitting's Yo La Tengo cover "Tom Courteney," which is excellent!

For me, the last track almost negates the greatness of the rest of it. The track says "I was just kidding - this is what I wanted to sound like" and it doesn't compliment the talent of Barnett at all. Luckily, the rest of this is killer I still love it.

Lastly, yellow is a great color for this. Kudos to Aaron from Kalpana, who I assume picked it out.

www.redderrecords.com