Take It Away – R.I.P. Mikey Dees of Fitz Of Depression

Terrible fucking news.  Word on the street is that Mikey Dees from Olympia hardcore outfit, Fitz Of Depression just passed away.  Mikey co-founded Da Fitz at the tail end of the 1980s and remained the sole consistent member of the trio throughout its various incarnations and ups-and-downs.  In his final days, he was also providing bass and backing vocals for another Oly punk trio called The Stuntmen.  I wasn’t really familiar with them, as I’d moved from the city over a decade ago.  As for Fitz and Dees, I know they still had it right up until the very end.  The world at large might be as familiar — or rather, as unfamiliar — with them as I am with his other project, but those of us who knew, know.  Mikey was a remarkable talent.

I didn’t go to church growing up, but the first time that I ever heard the name Fitz Of Depression, I was at a New Years Eve function for one.  I believe that I was in 7th grade at the time, which means that I clearly didn’t have shit else to do.  So, when a kid I knew invited me to go to some event where they let us hang out at some 24hr Fitness style joint over night, it sounded good enough to me.  However, rather than hang out with the person that I came there with, I actually met someone there that night who would go on to become one of my oldest friends.  As Roger and I kicked it together away from most of the others in attendance, who were swinging rackets and throwing basketballs, he told me about how he’d just seen his very first concert. With nobody else to go with, his dad had to take him, reluctantly.  The band was Nirvana.  Their main support on the bill was Helmet.  Pretty solid first concert.  In contrast, the true openers, were a band that I’d never heard of before.  They were a much smaller act, than the other two, yet they seemed to leave just as much of an impression on this kid that I just met.  Roger Sr, on the other hand, referred to them as “Shits Of Depression.”

Olympia, Wa is internationally known for influential game-changing acts like Nirvana; the original riot grrrls, Bikini Kill; and indie lo-fi pioneers, Beat Happening.  Mikey and Da Fitz were friends with, and performed alongside, all of them.  There’s even footage in the grunge documentary, Hype!, of when Bikini Kill and Nirvana took part in a benefit to help keep Dees out of jail by paying off traffic tickets.  Not only did FoD share bills with Kathleen Hanna and Cobain, but they also released a pair of studio albums and a 45 single for Calvin Johnson‘s iconic indie label, K Records.  All three of them — Calvin, Kurdt, and Kathleen — were thanked in the liner notes of the band’s 1993 untitled 7-inch for Negative Feedback, which would be expanded into the 5-song EP, Pigs Are People Too, and featured a truly inspired cover of Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny.”  On the A-side of the 45 was “Take It Away,” a monstrous lurching number that was equal parts SLEEP and Minor Threat.  The following year, K put out the full length, Let’s Give It A Twist.  It’s definitely a high octane affair, with some really strong moments on it, but the one track that really stands out from the pack is “Heavy Doody,” with it’s drawn-out lumbering sludge and impending doom.  They were doing something different than pretty much everything else that I was hearing at the time and I loved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpFayXPFfWA

It made sense that the band would be part of a scene that included both Nirvana and Melvins, but while you could hear similarities, they didn’t consistently sound too much like either.  They really just sounded like Fitz.  When Black Flag switched things up and slowed it down with the B-side of their 1984 effort, My War, a number of people from Mark Arm (Green River, Mudhoney) to Melvin‘s King Buzzo were said to have been in attendance at one particular Northwest show they played supporting it.  That night has been partially credited with influencing an entire pseudo genre (Grunge) and, if any band can be credited with embodying that spirit of the punk sludge hybrid, Fitz definitely deserves to be in the running.

I’d been a slightly more casual listener of their music until I was in high school.  At the time, I used my time in marketing class to reach out to companies and ask them to send me free shit “for projects,” explaining that it was tax deductible.  K‘s intern used to hook me the fuck up and 1996 was a great time to be asking for stuff from that label.  I got a Karp cassette, a Built To Spill Normal Years poster, and plenty of promotional photos and other music.  Among this haul was the latest Fitz Of Depression album, SWING.  I’d passed out and listened to SWING for the first time in it’s entirety while I was in a deep [most likely weed-induced] coma.  It felt as if the entire album had seeped into my subconscious.  The first time I listened to it straight through, while I was wide awake, I immediately connected to it as if I’d been listening to it for years.  This album was more consistent throughout; their sound more focused than ever.  Brian Sparhawk‘s bass work, with its growling Mike Watt-esque low-end, was perfect, and Mikey had the exceptional gift of writing songs with the ability to hit you square in the solar plexus.  It got to the point where I would listen to that CD just about every single day.  In fact, I listened to it multiple times, every single day.  There’s a lot that doesn’t hold up from back then, but the energy pressed into that album hasn’t deteriorated — it still sounds amazing to me.  Maybe part of that has to do with the fact that it infiltrated my being while in a faded slumber.  Another reason is because, even today, The Fitz don’t quite sound like anybody else.

Back in April, I posted a photo on my Instagram account that featured my 7-year-old holding my vinyl copy of SWING over his face.  He loves it.  After I heard of Mikey‘s passing, I went and found an old video of my son at about one-and-a-half years, stomping around our living room losing his goddam mind to that album.  I still remember it clearly when he went to our shelves and reached at the illustrated magpie on the cover art.  I told him, “Ok.  I’m not sure if you’re going to like this one, but we can try it out.”  After so many years of seeing contrived, self-aware moshing to this sort of music, it was amazing to see someone so young and unaware of how they were “supposed to” react simply feeling it inside of themselves enough to do just that: react.  Da Fitz got up into his tiny toddler bones; the hardcore holy ghost possessing him to begin stomping his feet and… swingin’.

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I believe that Fitz was slated to be coming back through Seattle this month, and it saddens me that I won’t have an opportunity to catch them one last time.  I definitely had been thinking about it.  I was, however, fortunate to catch them several other times throughout the years/decades, including at small spots and now-defunct all-ages clubs like The Pioneer Square Theater, which used to pepper the city back in the 90s.  These days, there aren’t as many of those, which is a goddam shame.  It would have been amazing to be able to take the kid to one of Mikey‘s concerts, someday.  In my later years, while living in Oly, it was always exciting to be able to catch the random Fitz show.  I’m not one who can speak with any authority on any personal setbacks or obstacles that Mikey may or may not have endured or overcome, but I can definitely attest to the fact that, the last time that I saw him hit the stage, he did it with enough intensity and ability to make you believe that he could go on forever.  Seeing him around town, you might not ever know the level of power that he had within him.

I’ll admit that I was no punk historian at the time that I first heard Fiz Of Depression, but they truly did leave an authentic impression on me during that period, and I could really use it.  While it’s true that many did embrace the commercialism of the pop punk nineties, it was a depressing time, in relation to the genre, for a lot of others.  Although they achieved very little commercial success, what this long underrated and overlooked Olympia trio did accomplish was a sound that not only avoided being derivative of the candy coated MTV schlock that would go on to dominate the airwaves, but also never fell into sounding like they were simply biting from and rehashing the past.  This was new, aggressive, and a definite step forward, but most of all, they were genuine.  When a group is able to find a sound that is so identifiably their own, that’s when when you’re sitting on the formula for timelessness.  It’s unfortunate that they never grew to be much more beyond a local secret.

The last I heard was that Mikey was working on a brand new Fitz Of Depression studio album.  It would actually be their first since SWING came out 23 years ago.  I still don’t know how far along in the process they were, but I’ll be keeping my ear to the street for that one in the event that anything ever comes of it.  It’s a sad fucking day, but it makes me happy knowing that he was ready to put himself back into it that way.  If I’m remembering correctly, they were actually being signed by some major label like Warner, back in the day, but due to one thing or another, it all kind of went bust on them quick.  Things, most likely, unraveled from there.  Maybe that’s why Sparhawk left the project to pursue other things, and I’d wind up catching him around town at the Oly Westside Co-Op, or at some cider farm with his family, while his kids looked at bunnies.  I don’t know the details or if this had any affect, whatsoever, on how Mikey‘s musical career did or did not materialize, but I do know that, when those deals and opportunities were being presented, Dees had already witnessed one of his good friends rise to success on a major, only to see the whole thing come crashing down as badly and publicly as anyone could possibly imagine.  But again, I really do love knowing that Mikey was giving it another push there at the end.  I like to believe that he caught a glimpse of how much he affected people, while he was still with us; to know that he created some great art that continues to bring something of value to those that love and appreciate it.  To me, that’s a success well beyond any graphic band tee from Target could ever indicate.

Some like myself might wax poetic about how Fitz Of Depression were underrated and overlooked — they definitely are — or even speak about how they “could have” been truly great.  But while that’s all nice and fine, the truth is that Mikey and his band already were/are truly great.  The real tragedy, aside from his untimely passing, is that more people weren’t aware of it.  Hopefully, more will get wise now, after the fact. Mike and the Fitz are Oly legends.  For many of us, they always will be.

Rest in peace, Mikey.  Thank you.

Here.  Now, watch this stufffff!!!  Get wise to Da Fitz.