screamin' sounds: THE GITS

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

THE GITS

The great lost band of the 90's, The Gits never made a great album and were gone, due to tragic circumstances, long before they had a chance. But their music was strong, deeper-rooted than any other punkoid cause celebre of their time, and at its best excellent.

They came out of Seattle by way of Ohio in the early 90's. It would be easy enough to lump them with the grunge movement, but also unfair. Their sound was a lot closer to the post-hardcore thrashing of many early 80's underground outfits - Black Flag, The Descendents, countless others. Propulsive, power chord-driven rock (there were few flash licks and no guitar solos) with a lead singer screaming over the top. Later they incorporated the Nirvana like "spare bass-and-drum grooves and shrill bursts of screaming guitar and vocals" approach as well.

This would not make them special, in and of itself. In fact, by `91-92 when these records were coming out, it made them something of a throwback. But, like the early Husker Du and Soul Asylum and Social Distortion albums, there was something else going on here. Something more interesting.

The secret weapons was front-woman Mia Zapata, a gal from Louisville, Kentucky who"learned how to play the guitar and the piano by age nine, and influenced by punk rock as well as jazz, blues and R&B singers such as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Hank Williams and Sam Cooke" (wiki).

Those are surprising influences for a Seattle grunge-ster. More importantly, they prove she was no such thing. Zapata wrote poetic lyrics about men, women, sex, and the lives and experiences of young people living on a certain edge. She was not babe-a-licious, and her voice, while strong, was not overpowering. But her songwriting voice was one of the strongest of her generation, and she was a remarkable stage presence.

Had she lived, would she have become one of the great women rockers? Or another letdown like Maria McKee? None can say. But the legacy they left was a promising one.

Essential Listening