From early days as robo-Ramones junk punkers to its current incarnation discussed below, the only constant in the career of Seattle-based weirdos the Spits is that there is no constant. On Haunted Fang Castle, pitched as a “listen-and-read!” story that has listeners follow along with the liner notes illustrated by JJ Rudisill, the band tells the story of a wizard, an elf, a barbarian and an uh, sentient arcade game as members attempt to rescue a princess who has been spirited away by a giant spider and taken to the titular edifice. The Spits seem to be reaching out to the elusive “Gen Xers who get stoned and ironically watch old Space Ghost repeats on the Boomerang Network” demographic. To its credit, the band is wholly committed to the sub-moronic narrative through noisy/proggy/psych-flecked tunes like “The Lonely Unicorn”, “The Grumpy Troll” and “Scary Swamp”, which, sadly, don’t run much deeper than their titles. I won’t spoil the ending here, but suffice it to say it’s appropriately anticlimactic. Of all the goofiness surrounding the truly bizarre Haunted Fang Castle, the best joke is that the Spits got car manufacturer Scion, as part of its A/V Garage Series, to foot the bill for this audio parody/homage of cheesy Hanna-Barbera ‘70s adventure cartoons. As cultural pranksterism, Haunted Fang Castle is a success; by any other yardstick, though…

• Haunted Fang Castle Streaming