Kind of Like Spitting

When it rains, it pours, and for Portland-based Kind of Like Spitting, it’s been a never-ending drizzle of singer-songwriter wishy-wash. Ben Barnett spat out the first incarnation of Kind of Like Spitting nearly a decade ago and has kept the dream alive with rotating members both on and off the road. But Barnett is clearly the heart and soul of the band; his vocal and guitar abilities provide the framework for the layering of flutes, drums and violins played by his friends and cohorts. Regarded in the same honest-is-as-honest-does style of Elliott Smith or even Rivers Cuomo, Barnett has that zine-like penchant for overwrought monologues and silly rhyme schemes. And coming from the soggy Northwest, it’s not surprising that Kind of Like Spitting conjures overcast afternoons with its acoustic-soaked melodies. In simple rock form, the band crafts un-commercial sentimental pop that fits somewhere between the Weakerthans and the Promise Ring. Slap ’em on a mixtape and pass it along.