Originally released on C/Z Records in 1993 and remixed by
Jack Endino for Broken Rekids,
Enter: The Conquering Chicken is a landmark of gritty and aggressive female-fronted rock & roll. Singer Mia Zapata emerged from a different school of rock than
Kathleen Hanna and
Corin Tucker, one that found contemporaries in
L7,
the Lunachicks, and
Hole and has led to bands like
the Distillers. There's a Pacific Northwestern gloom to guitarist Joe Spleen's music, whether in SST-styled punk numbers like "Bob (Cousin O.)" or the cover of
Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" (where Zapata sounds a lot like
Neko Case), but there's still enough room for a goofy punk singalong like the hilarious "Italian Song." The goofball tracks are filler, of course, but knowing that they were necessitated by Zapata's absence -- due to her brutal murder -- lends them a more profound sense of levity, as Zapata was the soul of
the Gits. You can tell by the charismatic way she carries a song -- her vocals are always impassioned and reach from the rage of
Live Through This-era
Courtney Love to
Pearl Jam-worthy crooning ("Precious Blood"). Like the reissue of the band's debut, Frenching the Bully, this record includes a seven-song live show, and from the sweltering version of "Crab" on, the live material seems to capture an intensity at the heart of
the Gits' identity that was never quite achieved in the studio material. ~ Charles Spano