Live: Kind Of Like Spitting @ Knitting Factory 7.25.12

Depending on my level of crazy at any given time, Ben Barnett and/or Kind Of Like Spitting can be sublime or facilitate a hole lot of personal spiraling. Life has been as decent as could be expected of late, so it was more of a a pleasure than usual to ride over the bridge and see Barnett play a solo KOLS show at The Knit.

Ben is a lot like Mark Eitzel in that he can spend a lot of time meandering through nervous banter and indulging his neuroses when the average punter would prefer him to be singing, especially when he's playing solo. Springsteen and Phil Ochs were covered, as were many of the high points of the now almost-twenty year deep Kind Of Like Spitting canon. A fair amount of asides came into play, facilitated by a broken b string and a friend on her phone, as well as a far-too-extended exchange with some drunk guy, but the hour plus that we did get was pretty aces.  I've got a pretty decent recording, should any one of you be interested. Hit me up on the JS-NYC corporate e-mail and I'll send you a link.

R

Blunt Mechanic - World Record

I was (and still am) a big Kind Of Like Spitting fan. I can't remember how I first came to hear Ben Barnett, but I fell for him pretty hard. He's prolific, as much to a fault as the next guy, but his high points are top fucking notch. Recent times have found Barnett as the musical director of the Seattle arm of the Paul Green School Of Rock, I'm pretty sure around the same time that he formally shuttered the KOLS franchise. I would have never seen that coming, but I've only met the guy a couple times and he seems to be getting high marks.

On the subject of highness, I guess the kids won't be too scarred in the wake of their MD helming a band called Blunt Mechanic. Barnett recorded all the instruments on World Record and went on to assemble a live band. Two of the BP live fold do double duty in Globes, a to the best of my knowledge formed out of said School Of Rock and were two of the larger proponents of Barnett and his mentorism. The recorded tracks will be familiar to the long time Barnett fan, touching equally on his KOLS roots, his past tenure in The Thermals and his continued obsession with Phil Ochs. It's no surprise that it's on Barsuk. You can get World Record as well as the promising looking tour EP over there via this handy link. Keep track of Blunt Mechanic's tour planning here. I don't envy getting pulled over in the middle of the night with that name.

R

Ben Barnett - Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues

Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues is Ben Barnett's first true solo release, although there's a pretty strong argument to be made that all of the material he recorded as Kind Of Like Spitting was solo material. Either way, this is the first material that Barnett has released under his own name. Released may be too strong of  a word. I snagged it off a message board, but there was artwork and stuff that would presuppose this was either a tour-only kind of party or perhaps some sort of romantic overture that has found it's way into the cyberworld.

Whatever it's origins, Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues is pretty decent. Barnett has been saying he's recording for Barsuk, although I'm on pretty good authority that Barsuk doesn't know that. Wherever these songs end up, there are two or three great ones here, and I can see a couple of the others coming together nicely in the studio. 

Ben has been teaching at the School Of Rock in Seattle for a year or so. It seems to have been good for him personally and professionally, plus he's playing his ass off on tracks like Why Can't This Be Canada. School obligations are keeping Barnett on the West Coast, but there were some tour dates with the Andrew Jackson Jihad kids recently, so perhaps there will be an East Coast jaunt in the Summer. In the meantime, check out Ben's Myspace and poke around on his blog posts. Songs About Zombies and Trust Issues is pretty easy to find if you look a bit, along with some pretty great live stuff.

R