If you think that rock and pop are in some way opposing camps, the former all about the art of the heavy, low-strung groove, the latter more concerned with infectiousness and easy accessibility, then you need a bit of St Divine in your life.
For those of you new to the band (shame on you, but at least you are here now), “Spit” tells you everything you need to know about the band and how they pull off this sonic juggling act. Right from the word go, the song comes at you without bothering with anything so formal and time-wasting as gentle introductions, without allowing the listener time to dip their toe in the water… bam, you’re in, you’re under, you’re fully immersed.
Raw and raucous guitars spiral and squall away, drums pound and grooves are fired off in razor-edged salvos, slaying and seducing in equal measure. But their real hallmark is the use of twin harmonies, a blend of the dark and delicious, here advocating substance-based oblivion as a distraction from the real world. (A word of advice, looking at the current state of the world, I don’t think now is quite the right time to ditch your vices!)
Imagine if punk was invented in a garage in mid-60s Detroit, (people like Iggy Pop might argue that it was) rather than a decade later in various forms in London and the Lower East Side, this blend of pop accessibility and rock and roll excess is precisely what it would have sounded like. Dontcha think?
