When I opened my mail to find this album, I groaned. I'd seen Kind of Like Spitting
 twice -- once with vocalist Ben Barnett playing solo and once with a band backing 
 him up. When Barnett played solo, he annoyed the hell out of me. "Another 
 squeaky-voiced, whiny, indie-rock kid," were my initial impressions. I even coined 
 a very unoriginal play on the band's name -- Kind of Like Sucking, or Kind of Like 
 Shitting, or something equally stupid. About a year later I saw Kind of Like Spitting 
 play as an entire band, and I was still unimpressed. In between the two times I saw 
 Kind of Like Spitting, I heard a song by the band called "Birds of a Feather." It was 
 from some 7" that I didn't have, but I liked the song quite a bit. So, when I opened 
 my mail and found this album, I checked the track listing -- "Birds of a Feather" was 
 track 4. So, rather than following my first instinct of taking this album directly to 
 the store to sell it, I broke the shrinkwrap and popped it in.



And honestly, I was met with a surprise. While Barnett's voice probably hasn't changed 
since I last saw him play live, for some reason I found it quite bearable. The music 
his band provides is somewhat minimal and quiet, but also allowing plenty of room for 
hooks to stick in your head, and for requisite rock-out parts. The more I listen to the 
album, the more it reminds me of the Promise Ring side project, Vermont. The main 
difference between the two bands, I suppose, is that the Vermont record was a bit 
disappointing -- they had a great track on a split 7" with Ida, and the full-length 
just didn't hold up to those high expectations. Maybe it's because my expectations for 
Kind of Like Spitting were low, but "Nothing Makes Sense Without It" is a really great album.