My Current Exercise Music Playlist Includes A Mostly Unknown Punk Band From Small Town Ohio

Below is my current exercise music playlist, which I change periodically:

Excercise Music Playlist

• Indigo Girls: “Galileo“¹I recently referenced the Indigo Girls and Amy Ray in a post from last month titled “The 1991 Version of Amy Ray and the Indigo Girls Would Be Considered Moderate Right by 2025 Perceptions.”
• Indigo Girls: “Closer to Fine”
• Indigo Girls: “Nashville“
• The Gits: Frenching the Bully – full album 1992
• Alice in Chains: live at The Moore Theater, Seattle 1990
• Nirvana: “D-7”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Tell Me Baby” – live in Berlin 2016
• Metallica: “Am I Evil“
• Metallica: “The Day That Never Comes” – live Quebec Magnetic, 2009

All the bands on the playlist were at or near their peak in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s, including the punk band you probably never heard of from small-town Ohio, and with deep Kentucky roots.

So, did you identify the punk band without looking further?

The Gits

If you said The Gits (1986–1993), then you are correct.

The band formed in 1986 at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which is about 20 miles east of Dayton, Ohio.

Band members

• Bassist: Matt Dresdner
• Guitarist: Andy Kessler (aka Joe Spleen)
• Drummer: Steve Moriarty
• Lyricist and lead singer: Mia Zapata

They named their band after a Monty Python skit titled, “Mr. and Mrs. Git.”

Mia Zapata

The band is probably best known because of the vocal style and songwriting abilities of Mia Zapata (August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993), and of the brutal and tragic nature of her death.

The wikipedia link provided earlier has a decent overview of her background:

• Raised in Louisville, Kentucky in an affluent family
• Attended a private, college-prep all-girls school
• Started college in 1984 at Antioch College in Ohio
• Moved with bandmates to Seattle in 1989
• Murdered in Seattle in 1993 at age 27

Also, more recently in 2024, the band’s drummer, Steve Moriarty, wrote a book about Mia and the band, Mia Zapata and The Gits: A Story of Art, Rock, and Revolution.²Image credit: Mia Zapata Returns.

A Representative Song

Although I like a lot of the band’s songs, here’s one that’s representative of the band’s main style of music, which is mostly described as punk:

Second Skin

This is a remastered version from the band’s YouTube channel, @TheGitsOfficial, which includes a lot of links to the bands Internet presence. An older version of the video and song is available here, as it was posted ten years ago and has a lot more comments to read.

Also, Sub Pop Records just released in January 2025 a remastered version of The Gits’ first album from 1992 and some other compilation material.

Discography

The Gits only released two official albums:

Some of my favorite songs have asterisks after them.

Compilations of material from live shows and unreleased songs—like Mia and the Gits’ covering Bessie Smith’s “Graveyard Blues“—from the band’s college days in Ohio may be found on Discogs and YouTube.

Lyrics Sample

To get a sense of Mia’s writing style and lyrics, which incorporate word play and multiple meanings, the song “Precious Blood” is a good example:

"Precious Blood" by The Gits

There are these things I want the most
But they are usually one step furthest from my reach
Oh, but they always stand close enough
To take me to the next fuckin drink

Cause when it cuts, it really does
My soul spills the blood
Don't know how long it's gonna take
But I'm gonna need a little more one day

Sometimes, I just want to know
Faster than my precious blood will let me roll
Is it real or, tell me, is it wrong
To keep these dreams strongest in my mind?

Cause when it cuts, it just gets deeper baby
Like when I go to touch you,
You're the furthest from me
Don't know how long it's gonna take
But I'm gonna get me get me get a little more one day

Oh, it's laying tired in me, it does
And when I see it there it makes me wanna...
It's laying tired in me, it does, when I see it there
It's all I can do to stare it in the face

Even the hours hold heavy on me
Even the hours just hold the pain
And even the times get heavy, little weak
Even the hours just hold the pain, there is no gain
All in all it comes back to me

With every sip of poison that I taste
It's only hurting me and nobody else
When it lies to me, it's the strongest in my mind

Cause when it cuts, it just gets deeper baby
Like when I go to touch you,
You're the furthest from me
Don't know how long it's gonna take
But I 'm gonna get me
Get me
A little more one day

The lyrics are provided by SongMeanings.com, and only one person, asortofdream, provided an opinion about the lyrics:

I take this song to be about someone who is upset with himself/herself because of his/her inability to pursue goals based on a fear of failure and/or rejection. The narrator is perpetually depressed and turns to drinking in order to escape regretting the fundamentally undesirable consequences of his/her inaction. Throughout it all the narrator remains hopeful and continues to dream of a better life. However, the narrator begins questioning “should I resign all hope?”

By asortofdream on SongMeanings

The poster, asortofdream, goes on to elaborate on the rationale of this opinion.

The ‘things I want the most’ that are ‘one step from my reach’ are those goals which are unattainable for her fear or inability to reach out and connect physical and emotionally with someone else. Instead of trying to connect or achieve her goals she turns ‘to the next fuckin’ drink’ for liquid courage because when loneliness [or failure] ‘cuts, it really does’ cut deep – the pain goes all the way to her heart/soul. She doesn’t “know how long it will take” before the last vestiges of her passion for life will be bled dry. She admits that she’ll need ‘a little more real (not liquid) ‘ courage one day’ in order to change herself and keep from being bled dry of her will to live.

You may read the rest of the rationale at the link I shared. In case the original post on SongMeanings disappears, then you may access an archived version.

Murder Mystery

Although I won’t write about the gory details here, Mia was murdered in 1993 by an illegal immigrant from Cuba. After her death, and because the degenerate perpetrator wasn’t found, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana organized the raising of $70,000 to pay for a private investigator. Band members from Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, among others, contributed. Cobain died the following year, sadly.

There are many documentaries that can be found on YouTube and the Internet. Also, the murder mystery was profiled in many television episodes including Forensic Files – Season 12, Episode 7 – “The Day the Music Died.” There was also a movie documentary released in 2005 titled The Gits, directed by Kerri O’Kane.

Long story short: The murderer was ultimately identified and sentenced to 36 years in prison 10 years after Mia’s death. In January 2021, the unhinged perpetrator died at the age of 66 while still serving his prison sentence.

Remembering Mia and The Gits

In remembrance of Mia’s singing and songwriting abilities, some have lightheartedly referred to Kurt Cobain as the Mia Zapata of Grunge music.

There’s certainly some truth to that, given The Gits had a unique style that didn’t fit with the grunge genre of the 1990’s. Also, the formative years of The Gits from 1986-1989 were based in small-town Ohio and predated Nirvana, which formed in 1989, the year The Gits moved to Seattle.

Less than one year after moving to Seattle, The Gits played with Nirvana at The University of Washington: Four Bands for Four Bucks.

Moreover, it seems that both bands influenced each other from 1989-1993, but I’d say The Gits were more of an influence on Nirvana than the reverse, especially because Nirvana was notorious for covering songs and styles of other bands and then making those songs even better. The Gits were primarily an original content band.

Regardless, they were both talented and apparently friends.

RIP Mia. And, Viva Zapata!³Note that ¡Viva Zapata! is also the debut 1994 studio album by American rock band 7 Year Bitch and the title’s name and artwork refer to Mia, a tribute of sorts.

Footnotes

• 1
  I recently referenced the Indigo Girls and Amy Ray in a post from last month titled “The 1991 Version of Amy Ray and the Indigo Girls Would Be Considered Moderate Right by 2025 Perceptions.”
• 2
  Image credit: Mia Zapata Returns.
• 3
  Note that ¡Viva Zapata! is also the debut 1994 studio album by American rock band 7 Year Bitch and the title’s name and artwork refer to Mia, a tribute of sorts.