Biography
Originally active only briefly in the early 1990s, the Los Angeles pop-punk trio the Shitbirds nevertheless carries lasting interest for admirers of French pop chanteuse April March, since the group featured Elinor Blake—her given name—as lead vocalist.
Blake had already cut her initial sides in New York during the late 1980s with the girl-group pastiche the Pussywillows, yet the Shitbirds coalesced in 1991 once she relocated to Los Angeles for an animation job at Spumco, the studio behind the cartoon series Ren and Stimpy. Spumco founder John Kricfalusi supplied artwork for most of the band’s 7-inch sleeves, while Blake contributed songwriting and vocals to several tracks across the three Ren and Stimpy albums. During her Spumco tenure she simultaneously launched her April March project and assembled the Shitbirds, whose name derived from Vietnam-era Army slang for newly enlisted personnel assigned the least desirable tasks. Blake handled vocals, frequently credited as April Shitbird, Phil Maynes (billed as Phil Shitbird) played guitar, and Steve Savitsky (Uli Shitbirdsky) manned the drums; Maynes also recorded most of the bass parts, although live performances drew on a rotating cast of substitute players.
The group’s debut was an untitled three-song EP issued by Seattle’s PopLlama Records in September 1992. Its opening track, “Theme From Shitbird,” reappeared on the four-song 7-inch Oh Joy the following December. Expanded by four additional cuts—including a reworking of the jingle for the 1970s Icebird shaved-ice machine retitled “Scheissebird”—Oh Joy resurfaced as a 10-inch EP in February 1993.
After that initial flurry the trio continued but recorded far less frequently. A rendition of the traditional “Christmas Is A-Coming (May God Bless You)” surfaced on the 1993 Sympathy for the Record Industry compilation Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, and the pair “Faster and Shorter” / “Unterschall” appeared on a limited-edition five-inch single in May 1994. One further track, “Kickback 1812,” closed the band’s output on a split 7-inch with Simon & the Bar Sinisters roughly a month later. Although Maynes and Savitsky contributed to the April March albums Chick Habit and Paris in April, the Shitbirds effectively disbanded in 1994. All fifteen of their recordings later appeared on the posthumous collection Famous Recording Artists, issued by Sympathy for the Record Industry in late 1995.
Blake had already cut her initial sides in New York during the late 1980s with the girl-group pastiche the Pussywillows, yet the Shitbirds coalesced in 1991 once she relocated to Los Angeles for an animation job at Spumco, the studio behind the cartoon series Ren and Stimpy. Spumco founder John Kricfalusi supplied artwork for most of the band’s 7-inch sleeves, while Blake contributed songwriting and vocals to several tracks across the three Ren and Stimpy albums. During her Spumco tenure she simultaneously launched her April March project and assembled the Shitbirds, whose name derived from Vietnam-era Army slang for newly enlisted personnel assigned the least desirable tasks. Blake handled vocals, frequently credited as April Shitbird, Phil Maynes (billed as Phil Shitbird) played guitar, and Steve Savitsky (Uli Shitbirdsky) manned the drums; Maynes also recorded most of the bass parts, although live performances drew on a rotating cast of substitute players.
The group’s debut was an untitled three-song EP issued by Seattle’s PopLlama Records in September 1992. Its opening track, “Theme From Shitbird,” reappeared on the four-song 7-inch Oh Joy the following December. Expanded by four additional cuts—including a reworking of the jingle for the 1970s Icebird shaved-ice machine retitled “Scheissebird”—Oh Joy resurfaced as a 10-inch EP in February 1993.
After that initial flurry the trio continued but recorded far less frequently. A rendition of the traditional “Christmas Is A-Coming (May God Bless You)” surfaced on the 1993 Sympathy for the Record Industry compilation Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, and the pair “Faster and Shorter” / “Unterschall” appeared on a limited-edition five-inch single in May 1994. One further track, “Kickback 1812,” closed the band’s output on a split 7-inch with Simon & the Bar Sinisters roughly a month later. Although Maynes and Savitsky contributed to the April March albums Chick Habit and Paris in April, the Shitbirds effectively disbanded in 1994. All fifteen of their recordings later appeared on the posthumous collection Famous Recording Artists, issued by Sympathy for the Record Industry in late 1995.
Albums