photo credit: Chiara Gambuto
by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
London’s Sniffany & The Nits introduced themselves in 2020 with The Greatest Nits, a ferocious and charismatic debut EP that was equal parts chaotic and catchy. The quartet (which includes former members of Joanna Gruesome and Artefact), blend a mix of vibrant hardcore, rattled post-punk, and a touch of deranged pop, creating songs that are vulnerable beneath their muscular pummel and sarcastic edge. The Unscratchable Itch, the band’s first first length, was released earlier this month via PRAH Recordings, an album that expands the anxiety, animosity, and aggression of their EP with blunt force guitars, rhythms that pound their way into oblivion, and the always acerbic wit of Sister Sniffany. It’s her vocals and lyrics that truly set the band apart, taking situations of heartbreak and sexual exploitation and giving it all a swift kick in the teeth.
The Unscratchable Itch is a cavalcade of character studies and personal exhortations, shouted and yelped over a constant stampede. The noise and fury never relent but the hooks find their way in, and there’s room to interpret the scorn and disdain in Sniffany’s world of cheating spouses, submissive behaviors, and empty promises. “Clam Chowder,” whose video premieres below, is the tale of a wife who knows her husband is cheating and somehow convinces herself it’s her fault for not being more adventurous or inclined to seek comfort elsewhere herself. It’s a backward tale of love gone all wrong and the contorted emotions that result.
The band sat down to offer a track-by-track insight into The Unscratchable Itch, breaking down themes, lyrics, and inspirations behind the songs.
The Unscratchable Itch
"This song is a rollercoastering, runaway train of mania and anxiety, based off of my published comic book The-Will-O'-The-Wisp, which finds a girl awaking one day to find herself tethered to a length of rope in a barren field and wondering and hoping that someone is on the other end watching and protecting her. It's self-sacrificial and knowingly submissive, praying that you can throw your life into another's hands and trust they can look after it better than you can yourself."
Chicken Liver
"In Sniffany & The Nits I like to exorcise and exhibit the deeply shameful parts of myself that I see as the toxic aspects of my own femininity. In ‘Chicken Liver’ I'm deeply jealous and competitive, desperately trying to present myself as vulnerable, served up on a platter like a chicken dinner as if helplessness is all that counts in order to make myself seem appealing, hiding the wrathful, egg-smashing fury of envy and self loathing."
Good Boy
"‘Good Boy’ is about possessive anxiety in a relationship, knowing that inside my brain I can keep him captured with no hope of escape, that although I may be being pushed away or neglected or ignored by them, they will never have the ability to control the suffocating closeness and control I can fantasize about within the walls of my own mind."
Piggy Bank
"This is a funny little song about transactional, empty relationships, and instead of focusing on something real or shameful within myself it's more just influenced by my favorite show Sex and The City. Purposefully singing as a despised, misogynistic caricature concocted by a pick up artist-y, red pilled, incel's perspective."
Clam Chowder
"Here we are inside the suburban home of the neighborhood swingers while a lonely secretary hears her husband getting his rocks off with one of the local housewives. Her feelings are conflicted and confused, she's repulsed, jealous and devoted to him. Her internal monologue is the dismissal of her own pain, exemplifying the ways you can justify neglect with judgement and ridicule and by easing the hurt by placing yourself in the position of a martyr."
1000 Hours
"All throughout my life I've always been obsessively lovelorn and heartbroken, and writing the descriptions for these songs is making me realize how similar all these song themes are... regardless! This song is about feeling heartbroken, feeling as if the other person isn't really there and doesn't fully understand you, if you think that we're similar then you must be as empty as me, something must be wrong with you to want to be with someone so vapid and wholly fixated on obsessive love. The addiction to overwhelming emotional peaks and troughs when you feel like your energy is otherwise bursting at the seams."
Frog's Legs
"‘Frog's Legs’ is sung by the bratty princess from The Princess and The Golden Ball, the fairy tale is Once upon a time... a young princess drops her golden ball into a pond and it is retrieved by a frog, who in return asks to live with her in the castle. She eventually kisses it and he transforms into a handsome prince, however in this song, this frog is just a frog that this girl has captured and is being mean to. She kicks him, boils him and suffocates him within her pocket."
Pearl Rope
"‘Pearl Rope's’ about stumbling out onto a barren, war torn beach destroyed by warfare and natural disasters. Finding yourself for the first time in a long time, completely alone after a surviving a tumultuous and emotionally devastating relationship. Trying to adjust to stillness and silence after navigating ferocious storms, feeling comforted by thunder and fighting tooth and nail for your own survival. Crying big wet salty ocean tears, making your hands too wet to grip onto."
Grandma
"For this song I like to imagine all of the furious grandmother's who are incredibly disappointed in their smelly, punk grandchildren. Moving to London, wearing chains around their necks and shouting All Cops Are Bastards! How dare you say that young man! Would you say that to your poor late P.C Plod Grandfather?, God rest his soul! Grandmothers can be very scary and mean sometimes..."
Dolly
"A ragdoll's song, feeling like you're made of shit, of scraps and straw and whatever was lying around. Being poorly made as a joke and poorly stitched together where a loose hang nail or thorn, or by being loved too hard, could rip all of your seems and cause you to explode and fall apart. And having to use what you've got, fabric mitten hands full of dirt, and a head of rotten straw, to try and stitch yourself back together again."