Spitboy was an American anarcho-punk band founded in the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

bay area, in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in 1990. The all-female band aggressively criticized patriarchy and

gender roles A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

but did not associate with the contemporaneous riot grrrl movement. They released several records and toured extensively and then disbanded in 1995. Members later played in the bands Instant Girl and Aus Rotten, while drummer

Michelle Cruz Gonzales Michelle Cruz Gonzales (born October 29, 1969, in Los Angeles, California) is a musician, author, and college English instructor. She is a founding member and drummer of the groundbreaking all-female hardcore punk band Spitboy. Gonzales is featur ...

and vocalist Adrienne Droogas have been active as writers.

History

Spitboy was founded by drummer Michelle "Todd" Gonzales, vocalist Adrienne Droogas, bassist Paula Hibbs-Rines, and guitarist Karin Gembus. Paula left the band before the release of the ''Rasana'' 7" EP and was replaced by Dominique Davison. The band toured the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Their records were released on prominent punk rock labels

Lookout Records Lookout Records (stylized as Lookout! Records) was an independent record label, initially based in Laytonville, California and later in Berkeley, California, Berkeley, focusing on punk rock. Established in 1987, the label is best known for having ...

, Allied Recordings, and Ebullition Records, including a split LP with the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

-based hardcore group

Los Crudos Los Crudos is an American hardcore punk band from Chicago, Illinois active from 1991 to 1998 and from 2006 onward. Comprising all Latino members, the band paved the way for later Spanish-speaking punk bands in the United States and helped to ...

. After the breakup of the group, Davison, Gonzales, and Gembus played together in the group Instant Girl, whose sound was less aggressive than that of Spitboy. Instant Girl released an LP on Allied Recordings. Droogas was briefly a member of the group Aus Rotten and then moved to Richmond,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. She also wrote columns for the punk

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...

Heartattack Kent McClard is a record label owner and zine publisher from Goleta, California. Early life McClard grew up in a "broken home" and describes himself as a troublesome child. As a teenager, he discovered hardcore punk and both its freedom and speci ...

and

Profane Existence Profane Existence is a Minneapolis-based anarcho-punk collective. Established in 1989, the collective publishes a nationally known zine (also called ''Profane Existence''), as well as releasing and distributing anarcho-punk, crust, and grindco ...

. Davison is now an architect and owner of Draw in Kansas City. Gonzales teaches English at

Las Positas College Las Positas College (LPC) is a public community college in Livermore, California. History Las Positas College began as an extension program of Chabot College in 1963, offering 24 classes and enrolling 810 students at three sites, including Li ...

Livermore, California Livermore (formerly Livermorès, Livermore Ranch, and Nottingham) is a city in Alameda County, California. With a 2020 population of 87,955, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley. It is located on the eastern edge of Californ ...

, has published zines and memoirs on her time in Spitboy. In April 2021, it was announced that the band would be releasing their complete discography as a new compilation, ''Body of Work (1990-1995)'', released by

Don Giovanni Records Don Giovanni Records is an independent record label originally specializing in punk rock from the New Brunswick, New Jersey music scene but eventually working with a variety of artists from different genres. History Don Giovanni Records was fo ...

on June 25th. The first single, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", was released in May 2021.

Legacy

The band had a large impact and fans included fellow musicians Alice Bag and

Billie Joe Armstrong Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for ...

of Green Day as well as members of Operation Ivy, Fugazi,

Neurosis Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...

, and

Citizen Fish Citizen Fish is an English punk rock band that has been active since 1990 and shares members with Subhumans. Citizen Fish does not emphasize the raw political statements and nihilistic viewpoint of the former, instead focusing on issues of ...

Discography

*''The Threat Sexism Impressed b/w Ultimate Violations'' 7" (

51) - 1991 *''True Self Revealed'' LP (Ebullition Records) - 1993 *''Mi Cuerpo Es Mio'' 7" (Allied Recordings) - 1994 *''The Spitboy CD'' (Allied Recordings) - 1994 - Contains the first two singles and the LP *''Rasana'' 7" - (Ebullition Records) - 1995 *''Split LP with

'' (Ebullition Records) - 1995 *''Body of Work (1990-1995)'' (

) - 2021

References

External links

Spitboy fan page
on Myspace All-female punk bands Anarcho-punk groups Hardcore punk groups from California Don Giovanni Records artists {{US-punk-band-stub