The Gits and what they mean to me....

July 1993 I was living in New York City working at a club sort of like CBGB's but smaller and cooler. That club was called The Continental and it is and was located at St marks and 3rd avenue. I use to video tape bands a lot there and worked on an amazing public access show as the camera person and (mostly off camera) side kick. Mostly I would tape bands for the show but sometimes on my own I would tape my friends bands, which were really good in which I was a big fan of.


One night I was taping a band called The Maul Girls, who were a cross between the go-gos, the bangles and Patti Smith. I was using a really nice 8 MM camera that a friend of my best friend was letting me use. As I was taping the show an older bearded gentleman who looked out of place came up to me and asked me if I taped bands a lot around town and I said why yes I did!

He told me he was in town from Hollywood and he was doing research on underground bands mostly featuring girls for a movie with Drew Barrymore. I preceded to tell him about who I was and what I did etc and he hired me on the spot to be his camera person and asst while he was in town interviewing bands. He also had really good weed and he interviewed me at some point which I would love to see BTW.

Anyway two of the bands we were going to interview were 7 Year Bitch and The Gits, but Mia the singer of The Gits was murdered 3 weeks earlier so only 7 year Bitch would be coming to NYC to play some shows and be interviewed. During that interview 7 Year Bitch pretty much only talked about Mia and the Gits and her influence on them and how she was the reason they were even a band. I got to know the girls pretty good for only hanging out with them for a weekend and I felt VERY moved and connected with Mia and The Gits. The girls really seemed to take to me and opened up to me about a lot of deep stuff and as it was I kind of looked like a shorter Mia Zapata with my long blondish brown dreadlocks, my style of dress and looks. I could tell that I would of really loved Mia and her band The Gits.

7 Year Bitch got the job in the movie which was called Mad Love and came out around 1995. In 1994 I finally picked up a Gits record, an LP they had just finished recording came out in 1994 and I found it on vinyl in CT at an awesome club called The Tune Inn. I spent many a night there when I left NYC and moved to new haven for many years on and off in the 90s and 2000's.

Needless the say that record CHANGED my life in so many ways. It was like I was finally meeting Mia and with the cover being an amazing portrait painting of her done by a good friend in Seattle she literally talked to me and communicated to me in spirit through that record cover and I am for real on this. I formed a DEEP connection to her in spirit and went on to learn many of the past lives that I shared not only with her but with her band mates. We both spent our last lifetime together in the 1960's in New York City and we both died of a heroin over-dose in the late 60's, she died a few years before me and reincarnated pretty quick after dying. She was also a singer in a really good underground NYC band in the late 60's called The Guffs, for real that is how deep everything goes in life, in all of our lives. This could be verified by NYC underground music historians that a band called The Guffs existed.

Through out my life Mia was literally an angel for me through my many adventures through Europe, India, NYC, New Haven and CT, and finally Seattle, where I currently live. When I got to Seattle in 2004 I instantly felt a DEEP connection with the city and Mia. I even saw graffiti that she did one night that is still there on Broadway and Pike St. I noticed that one night and you have to be looking down to notice it but I did one night and continued to share it with other Gits fans.

In 2005 A movie was premiering about Mia and the band and I was an invited guest and even did the outdoor postering for the event and still have a stack of those posters and TWO of the giant movie posters they put out for it! It was that night that I finally met most of the band, I mentioned to them at the after party about the Interview in NYC and they remembered it. We all had a very deep time and hung out the whole weekend, it was awesome. I ended up seeing the movie twice for free and bought a coveted Gits hoodie and some CD's to go with the vinyl I have, which is 2 original LP pressings of Enter the Conquering Chicken and Kings and Queens and all 4 7 inches including the Evil Stig one. I also have Seafish Louisville and Frenching the Bully on LP but are all newer 180 gram pressings. Both of my original LP pressings are in color--purple and a red and yellow and black splatter pattern. I also have to give thanks to Steve the Drummer for all of the LP comps they were on and put out as part of the Rat House collective ( I was born in Year of the Rat BTW) and all of the CD comps they were on AND an import of a live show from Spain on LP which is or was for sale on The Gits website.

Anyway Mia will always be an angel and a friend. She is greatly missed and I cant wait to see her again in a future life.

thanks for reading

kimpunkrock


"Wars May Come and Wars May Go But Art Is Forever."