In the early ‘90s, I was too young to be too cool for grunge. Nirvana are still one of my favorites, so I like hearing current DIY bands that merge punk and hard rock. Enter Kicking Spit. They sound like the earliest Dinosaur Jr. records, when J Mascis was still getting the thrash riffs out of his system. The catch is that Kicking Spit’s guitar shredding is studied and precise, as opposed to the intuitive noodling that Mascis is known for, so the guitar leads on this tape sound like Steve Vai ripping a solo over “Little Fury Things.” The two don’t mesh. Then they mess with the time signature, and it sounds like the limp prog from the first All records. Kicking Spit’s off to a good start, but they need to have a band meeting and tell their guitarist to settle down.
–CT Terry (tankcrimes.com)