Leslie Spit Treeo

First off, there's no one named Leslie Spit (the Leslie Spit is a topographical landmark on the harbor front of the group's hometown of Toronto, Ontario) and no, it's not spelled as in a three-person group. It's just possible that the "tree" spelling is a mildly scatological pun based on the fact that the core of the group was singer Laura Hubert, guitarist Pat Langer, and their dog, Tag (who appeared on stage with the group and was also listed as their manager and president of their record company). The Leslie Spit Treeo formed in Toronto in 1988 when Hubert, Langer, Tag, acoustic guitarist Jack Nicholsen, bassist Frank Randazzo, and drummer Graeme Kirkland coalesced from the remnants of several local rock, folk, and jazz groups. After a period spent busking on the streets, local indie filmmaker Bruce McDonald discovered the group and offered them a pivotal scene and prominent soundtrack placement in his first feature, Road Kill. The added exposure got the group an offer from EMI Music Canada, which released their first album, Don't Cry Too Hard, in 1990. 1992's Book of Rejection was a difficult album to make, thanks to record company interference, and the group spent a fair amount of time in legal limbo trying to get extricated from its EMI contract. In the meantime, Nicholsen and the rest of the band left, leaving Hubert, Langer, and Tag. The group shortened its name to the Spits (which was what most fans had called them in the first place) and spent six months on a remote Native American reservation in northern Ontario, working with McDonald on his third film, 1993's Dance Me Outside. Following that filmic sojourn, Hubert and Langer scraped together enough money to record and press their third album, Hell's Kitchen, named after their favorite restaurant in Toronto's...