The Spits have unleashed a new record, VI. It's their first LP in nearly a decade, but don't go looking for signs of maturity or development. The basics say a bunch: VI comprises ten songs in 17 minutes, with titles like "Up All Night," "Broken Glass" and "Lose My Mind." It's still the Spits, playing loud and fast. Sort of louche, sort of disaffected, sort of dangerous, the band writes and plays punk songs that fuse the sounds of the Ruts, the Heartbreakers and the Buzzcocks. Does that mean punk's not dead? Who knows. Like the rest of Western culture, it may be on life support. On some of the tunes on VI, like "They" and "Creep," the Spits sound like they're barely holding it together; they bash and crash along, overturning the furniture, spilling drinks, their amps overheating, burping and warbling with weird distortion. On the other hand, the Spits have been doing this sort of thing for a long time, and the music's consistency is part of its charm. The mid-1970s loom large in the band's sound: the Ramones' gift for coupling bubblegum pop with abrasive tonality and cranked-up (literally) speed has always been an obvious inspiration. Jonathan Shaw / Dusted Magazine
