Die Spitz’s Debut Album ‘Something to Consume’ Invites Listeners to Flip the Table
Die Spitz’s visceral album Something to Consume tempts you to take a bite — and then choke on it. The debut 11-track album, out via Third Man Records, follows their 2023 breakout EP Teeth. The four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, is made up of Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Eleanor Livingston, and Kate Halter. The 22-year-old Austin natives are all friends who formed Die Spitz in 2022 as an excuse to hang out more. Like Kim Gordon, Halter learned to play bass to form the band, but the four don’t stick to their prescribed roles — they take turns at the mic, swap out instruments, and each contribute to songwriting.
Photo by Kylie Bly
Die Spitz’s collaborative spirit is a testament to the unique vulnerability and playfulness that can only be achieved by working with lifelong friends, and their passion project has attracted attention beyond its homegrown origins. Die Spitz has opened for acts including Amyl and the Sniffers, Viagra Boys, OFF!, and Sleater-Kinney.
The band’s punk-metal-alt influences include the likes of Black Sabbath, Pixies, Mudhoney, PJ Harvey, and Nirvana. The resulting fluid sound is feral, unapologetic, and brittle like dry leaves. It captures the euphoria of destroying artificiality like flipping a carefully arranged dining table. The insightful songwriting on Something to Consume speaks to the toxic eat-until-you’re-sick overconsumption culture. Themes of freedom and confinement clash, and Die Spitz’s riotous music videos pose the question of what it would look like to break away. Even their name is a clever middle finger to what’s expected. The band’s name Die Spitz is inspired by the German word “spitz” (which translates to “pointed”) with the twist of juxtaposing the word’s masculine grammatical gender with German’s feminine article “die” because subversive linguistic incongruency is punk rock.
In the album’s opening track “Pop Punk Anthem (Sorry for the Delay)” desire isn’t romantic but obsessive: “Don’t judge me, I need her to survive.” The hoarse vocals and feedback-heavy shredding are anything but reserved and self-contained. Messy, loud emotions sound exactly like they feel.
“Voir Dire” means “to speak the truth,” and that’s what this song is — an honest and urgent evaluation of the anxieties of our generation: “This life is a tragedy / You can get what you want, but you'll beg for what you need / Underneath every thumb / Is a man with a plan, 'cause he's selling you what you love.” The empowerment anthem “Throw Yourself to the Sword” opens with a relentless heavy metal riff, conjuring mental images of fantasy warfare to accompany the song’s battle cry: “Throw yourself to the sword / Take what's mine, then I take two times more.” You’ve got dragons to slay, and there’s no time to worry about what others think.
“American Porn” explores the objectification of performance and being consumed—“Your struggle is beauty, your beauty is mine.” “Sound to No One” is an armor-clad, sharp-tongued siren song over tempestuous waves of rhythm that flows into the melancholic “Go Get Dressed.” Craving and addiction take the stage in the thrashing “Red40” that feels like frantically searching through your pantry for that sweet, sweet artificial chemical hit.
The rowdiest track on the album, “RIDING WITH MY GIRLS” is made for releasing your feral femininity and will feel at home in a playlist alongside Mannequin Pussy and Amyl and the Sniffers. If Sucker Punch were made today, the grungy “Punishers” would definitely be on the soundtrack. The song’s floating vocals and heavy-handed guitar break create a lived-in sense of nostalgia for Y2K alternative rock.
If you feel unhinged by the repressive state of the world and older generations’ advice to just try harder when you’re already worked to the bone, this next song is for you. Disillusionment and disappointment are a drag in the dense and bitter “Down on It.” ‘Something to Consume’ closes with the atmospheric “a strange moon/selenophilia.” When the sky is out of reach and all hope feels lost, comfort can be found by burrowing deep, deep down: “The sun is far behind us / as we dig into the dirt / It’ll be so warm when I’m with you / at the center of the Earth.”
Listen to ‘Something to Consume’ here, and follow Die Spitz for tour updates to find out when they’re roaring into your city.
