"They were one of those bands that were a prequel to what the future was becoming. Feminism, human rights, animal rights, environmental protection, gender issues... Spitboy was singing about these issues 30 fucking years ago. I’m so grateful to have witnessed it."
- Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day
“A lot of people don’t want to go to a punk show and get a lecture, but we didn’t care. We want to be a band for women in the scene and while we’re at it, we’d like to tell the young men a thing or two and maybe prevent harassment, prevent rape, or get people thinking about these issues. We knew that we were alienating some people, but the music was loud and fast and angry, so it was as combative, and we just thought, we’re never going to break into a major label. That wasn’t our aim, so we didn’t really spend a lot of time worrying about that.”
- Drummer / lyricist Michelle Cruz Gonzales to LA Review of Books, 2018
Spitboy blazed trails for feminist musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond during their brief but impactful life, touring the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Releasing records on labels such as Ebullition, Allied Recordings, and Bay Area punk institution Lookout Records, they stood solitarily against what, at the time, was an almost entirely male-dominated sub culture of punk and hardcore. Formed in response to the homogenized masculinity of the late 1980's and early 1990s scene, their brash and abrasive style of music was paired equally with their confrontational live shows, and unwillingness to tolerate preconceived gender roles and social norms within the punk scene, and American society at large.
The release of the discography Body Of Work (1990-1995) marks the first time the entirety of Spitboy's recorded output is being made available on digital streaming platforms, and will be packaged in a limited edition double LP on red marble vinyl, the layout of which features extensive liner notes written by Vique Simba, and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (who often played shows with Spitboy), and includes graphic design by Martin Sorrondeguy (of Los Crudos and Limp Wrist).
Spitboy's legacy is just as powerful today as it was thirty years ago, and their lyrics - unfortunately - still as poignant. Though today, we now have words and names for the concepts they were writing about then: toxic masculinity, gender non-conforming. Concepts that are now mainstream in western culture. As Vique Simba writes in her liner notes for the discography, "I valued their lyrics, their politics, their sense of community, their ethics, their commitment to punk, and their art. I felt like they could change the world. I also felt like I could change the world. We need this. We will always need this."
Body Of Work (1990-1995) will be released June 25th, 2021 and the collection is available for pre-order now.
100% of the proceeds from the release will be given to the National Women's Law Center.