HR004
Pungent Odor — Why Should We Play Their Game?
C90
Pungent Odor — Why Should We Play Their Game?
C90
listen and download at Bandcamp
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Pungent Odor is the first of the Harsh Reality ‘bands’, with Chris Phinney on vocals, keyboards, and synthesizer; Kim Kruger on electric guitar on ‘Sex Is Great?’ and ‘Voodoo Samba’; Dave Grave on acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and vocals; and Mick Cock on bass on ‘Sex Is Great?’, and bass and electric guitar on ‘Homosexual’.
‘Sex Is Great?’ is a lo-fi free-wheeling jam. Staccato percussion and a simple rhythmic bass riff lay the foundation for guitar weaving a warbling, fuzzed, serpentine path, accompanied by bleepy blurpy electronics and toy instrument keys. It’s a sparse, noodling jam, but the acidic quivering guitar keeps things psychedelically dirty and totally tripped out. The parade of sounds, percussive electronics, and mumble/chant speak-in-tongues vocals gives the music an experimental edge, which sounds pretty cool as the music maintains a robotically stoned and free-wheeling fuzz-punk and lo-fi spaced out jamming groove. As the jam progresses the guitar gets increasingly manic, the electronics get more spaced out, and there are moments of roaring intensity, at one point sounding like an experimental audio-art and space-noise-rock blend. Later the vocals launch into a street poet rant-rap, and the music tightens up and finds itself for what is absolutely the best part the entire piece. The music goes on for the better part of Side A’s 45 minutes, though inexplicably cuts out well before the end. Regardless, you can just hear these young musicians cutting their improvisational teeth as they keep playing around with their core theme.
‘Voodoo Samba’ is next and this sucker ROCKS and GROOVES! It’s playful and lo-fi funky, but also has the searing psychedelic-industrial guitar that characterized ‘Sex Is Great?’. We’ve got lots of cool and freakily cohesive keyboard action. The vocals are similar to the street rant-rapper, and the whole thing sounds like a high intensity industrial space-noise-rock mariachi rumba soul-poet revue. Or maybe The Last Poets backed by James Blood Ulmer and Devo gone hyper steroidal cool grooving acid-punk.
‘Homosexual’ continues in the same spirit as ‘Voodoo Samba’ and is easily the best track on the tape. The most accomplished guitars of the set get into some awesomely twisted country-punk infused and quirkily funky Captain Beefheart territory. The vocals are a hoot, alternately cooing, howling, whining and street poet ranting. As the piece progresses it gradually develops a harsher, tribally noisy vibe, while never losing its sense of scampering dancefloor, punk ‘n’ funk, free-jazz damaged, spaced out groove mania.
Jerry Kranitz interviews Chris Phinney
JK:
So with HR004, Pungent Odor, was that the first ‘band’? You’ve described it as pre-Skoptzies.
CP:
That’s what it was. We didn’t have a name at the time. That’s just a name we pulled out of the air.
JK:
Did you perform live as Pungent Odor?
CP:
No. We did none as Pungent Odor.
JK:
Was Skoptzies the first band you were in that ever played live?
CP:
Yes. But it took a while. Mick Cock… Mike Cupp was his real name. He played on that one and we threw his ass out of Pungent Odor and kept the 3-piece. He didn’t give a damn one way or another. He had another punk rock band, The Eraserheads and I ended up being the manager for that band. Took his photos, sent out press kits, and got them some small mini tours around the South, and booked them some shows here in Memphis. It lasted about two years, they were a rock n roll punk band. So then we changed our name to the Skoptzies. We did get more reviews with Pungent Odor. I can’t remember the names of these magazines. I know we got one with Factsheet. I was networking the tapes like crazy, going everywhere. And then Alain Neffe had pulled an excerpt from ‘Homosexual’ for his Insane Music Noisy But Chic compilation.
JK:
You had mentioned Insane Music used a piece of that track. But yeah, it’s definitely got a band sound. But Pungent Odor evolved into Skoptzies.
CP:
It evolved into Skoptzies and was gonna evolve into something else, but me and Dave Grave and Kim Kruger, who was his girlfriend at the time who we had to teach how to play bass. We wanted a chick in the band. She was a big tall lanky redhead.
JK:
Was Skoptzies hot on the heels or Pungent Odor? We’re struggling with dates as far as the exact years of these tapes.
CP:
Skoptzies was recorded right after that. It was in Kim’s house using an Akai open 4-track reel-to-reel. Jim Duckworth, I don’t know if you’re familiar with him, he played with Trigger & the Thrill Kings. He’s a damn good guitarist. But he didn’t fit in with what we were doing. He did a decent job but it just wasn’t what we wanted.
Pungent Odor is the first of the Harsh Reality ‘bands’, with Chris Phinney on vocals, keyboards, and synthesizer; Kim Kruger on electric guitar on ‘Sex Is Great?’ and ‘Voodoo Samba’; Dave Grave on acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and vocals; and Mick Cock on bass on ‘Sex Is Great?’, and bass and electric guitar on ‘Homosexual’.
‘Sex Is Great?’ is a lo-fi free-wheeling jam. Staccato percussion and a simple rhythmic bass riff lay the foundation for guitar weaving a warbling, fuzzed, serpentine path, accompanied by bleepy blurpy electronics and toy instrument keys. It’s a sparse, noodling jam, but the acidic quivering guitar keeps things psychedelically dirty and totally tripped out. The parade of sounds, percussive electronics, and mumble/chant speak-in-tongues vocals gives the music an experimental edge, which sounds pretty cool as the music maintains a robotically stoned and free-wheeling fuzz-punk and lo-fi spaced out jamming groove. As the jam progresses the guitar gets increasingly manic, the electronics get more spaced out, and there are moments of roaring intensity, at one point sounding like an experimental audio-art and space-noise-rock blend. Later the vocals launch into a street poet rant-rap, and the music tightens up and finds itself for what is absolutely the best part the entire piece. The music goes on for the better part of Side A’s 45 minutes, though inexplicably cuts out well before the end. Regardless, you can just hear these young musicians cutting their improvisational teeth as they keep playing around with their core theme.
‘Voodoo Samba’ is next and this sucker ROCKS and GROOVES! It’s playful and lo-fi funky, but also has the searing psychedelic-industrial guitar that characterized ‘Sex Is Great?’. We’ve got lots of cool and freakily cohesive keyboard action. The vocals are similar to the street rant-rapper, and the whole thing sounds like a high intensity industrial space-noise-rock mariachi rumba soul-poet revue. Or maybe The Last Poets backed by James Blood Ulmer and Devo gone hyper steroidal cool grooving acid-punk.
‘Homosexual’ continues in the same spirit as ‘Voodoo Samba’ and is easily the best track on the tape. The most accomplished guitars of the set get into some awesomely twisted country-punk infused and quirkily funky Captain Beefheart territory. The vocals are a hoot, alternately cooing, howling, whining and street poet ranting. As the piece progresses it gradually develops a harsher, tribally noisy vibe, while never losing its sense of scampering dancefloor, punk ‘n’ funk, free-jazz damaged, spaced out groove mania.
Jerry Kranitz interviews Chris Phinney
JK:
So with HR004, Pungent Odor, was that the first ‘band’? You’ve described it as pre-Skoptzies.
CP:
That’s what it was. We didn’t have a name at the time. That’s just a name we pulled out of the air.
JK:
Did you perform live as Pungent Odor?
CP:
No. We did none as Pungent Odor.
JK:
Was Skoptzies the first band you were in that ever played live?
CP:
Yes. But it took a while. Mick Cock… Mike Cupp was his real name. He played on that one and we threw his ass out of Pungent Odor and kept the 3-piece. He didn’t give a damn one way or another. He had another punk rock band, The Eraserheads and I ended up being the manager for that band. Took his photos, sent out press kits, and got them some small mini tours around the South, and booked them some shows here in Memphis. It lasted about two years, they were a rock n roll punk band. So then we changed our name to the Skoptzies. We did get more reviews with Pungent Odor. I can’t remember the names of these magazines. I know we got one with Factsheet. I was networking the tapes like crazy, going everywhere. And then Alain Neffe had pulled an excerpt from ‘Homosexual’ for his Insane Music Noisy But Chic compilation.
JK:
You had mentioned Insane Music used a piece of that track. But yeah, it’s definitely got a band sound. But Pungent Odor evolved into Skoptzies.
CP:
It evolved into Skoptzies and was gonna evolve into something else, but me and Dave Grave and Kim Kruger, who was his girlfriend at the time who we had to teach how to play bass. We wanted a chick in the band. She was a big tall lanky redhead.
JK:
Was Skoptzies hot on the heels or Pungent Odor? We’re struggling with dates as far as the exact years of these tapes.
CP:
Skoptzies was recorded right after that. It was in Kim’s house using an Akai open 4-track reel-to-reel. Jim Duckworth, I don’t know if you’re familiar with him, he played with Trigger & the Thrill Kings. He’s a damn good guitarist. But he didn’t fit in with what we were doing. He did a decent job but it just wasn’t what we wanted.
cover rotated so that we can easily read the information on the j-card
detail from the dust jacket of Chris Phinney's personal copy of "the History of The Devil and the Idea of Evil"
Home-Made Music For Home-Made People Vol. 1: "Noisy But Chic" compilation
issued by Alain Neffe's Insane Music label in 1985
included an excerpt from "Homosexual" by Pungent Odor
This was the first time that Chris Phinney's music
appeared on someone else's label.
issued by Alain Neffe's Insane Music label in 1985
included an excerpt from "Homosexual" by Pungent Odor
This was the first time that Chris Phinney's music
appeared on someone else's label.
