HR028 - Mental Anguish — Sick Of This & That — C60 — 1986
Side A:
Jump
New Dawn
Get Back
Say You Will
Side B:
See You In Purgatory
Skin You Alive
The Pusher
Die Bitch
C. Phinney — All Instruments
Jump
New Dawn
Get Back
Say You Will
Side B:
See You In Purgatory
Skin You Alive
The Pusher
Die Bitch
C. Phinney — All Instruments
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Side A of the Sick Of This & That cassette album opens with ‘Jump’, and right away the vocals jump out at me as a kind of high pitched style that’s like Chris doing Frankie Valli. He alternates between this style and his more typical ranting style. The music is a deliriously tripped out multi-layered blend of soothing keyboard melodies and staccato rhythms. File it in the Dreamland Pop Electronic Psychedelia for Punks section. The keys are just as dreamily melodic and soothing on the following track, ‘New Dawn’. The vibe is more church-funereal laid back on this one, though it all soon melts into a similar mind-melting style as on ‘Jump’. Chris is definitely in more soothing trip-us-out mode on this set.
Chris shifts gears a little on ‘Get Back’ as he eases his way onto the dance floor for some electro beat driven fun with a spaced out vibe and effects, plus fun crazy vocals that are his classic ranting style but efx’d in a way that they have a cool warbling sound like he’s ranting from within a metal box. ‘Say You Will’ has yet more different vocals. Chris plays the punk crooner on this noisily melodic ditty. Oddly rhythmic rattling and droning effects propel the music, along with wigged out space effects that soon overpower the melody and Chris crooning, “Say You Will!!”.
Side B kicks off with the appropriately titled ‘See You In Purgatory’, a keyboard dominated piece which starts off sounding like a Sunday mass in space. But as it progresses the music begins to melt into hallucinatory and somewhat dissonant brain scrambled realms. Very cool. ‘Skin You Alive’ features playful keys that sound like spaced out toy instruments that dance, bubble, and play little melodies to a staggered rhythmic pulse and efx’d robot vocals. I really like the contrast between the varied rhythms, melodies and vocals, which all come together nicely, though in a friendly competitive way.
‘The Pusher’ is one of my favorites of the set, being a totally cut-up, folded in, mash-up of twiddly keys and effects, drones, atmospherics, melodic ditties, and voice samples from radio or television. Chaos is FUN! The chaos continues on ‘Die Bitch’, though the lyrically angry vocals and industrial rushing-gushing effects are offset by swirling and wind tunnel space keys, hair-raising oscillations, and drone-drifting soundscapes. I love the contrasts.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): This is the first Mental Anguishalbum after Hellhole (HR020), and Hellhole is the one where you said you really started to liking your own music. What was your opinion of Sick Of This & That?
Chris Phinney (CP): It was ok.
JK: Did the Sick Of This & That title have any particular meaning?
CP: Sick Of This & That was about being sick of a lot of people, government, everything. Sick of everything. The cover had a factory building on it.
JK: It’s got two tall tower factory stacks. Was that something in Memphis?
CP: Yeah, it’s here in Memphis.
JK: ‘See You In Purgatory’ kicks off Side B….
CP: ‘See You In Purgatory’ was dedicated to whoever pissed me off. I just said I’ll see them in Purgatory.
JK: So you’re talking to somebody. It’s interesting that it’s a pissed off song because, I’ll read my description, “it starts off sounding like a Sunday mass in space, but as it progresses begins to melt into hallucinatory and somewhat dissonant brain scrambled realms.” I thought it was a pretty cool track.
CP: There’s a lot of churchy sounding stuff on this tape.
JK: Yeah, like the song ‘Skin You Alive’ I described as “Playful keys that sound like spaced out toy instruments that dance, bubble, and play little melodies to a staggered rhythmic pulse and efx’d robot vocals.”
CP: ‘Skin You Alive’ was dedicated to a neighbor of mine who when I was a child, his son smacked my ass… and ran over with his bicycle… so I took some metal darts and threw them in the kid’s knee. His dad had just got home from hunting and he was skinning a squirrel or a rabbit or something and he told me he was gonna skin me alive.
JK: Damn! You’ve got some interesting themes! And then it’s followed by ‘The Pusher’. I love this track. I described it as ‘A totally cut-up, folded in, mash-up of twiddly keys and effects, drones, atmospherics, melodic ditties, and voice samples from radio or television.’ It’s really chaotic but in a cool cut-up way.
CP: That was dedicated to all the punk pushers out there, and Steppenwolf as well. Steppenwolf’s song ‘The Pusher’ (laughs).
JK: And then finally, you talked about being angry… on ‘Die Bitch’ those are some pretty angry lyrics. Were you talking to anyone in particular?
CP: I was talking about Louis Alexander’s wife Debbie.
JK: But you’ve got all these cool contrasts in it. Like I described, “the lyrically angry vocals and industrial rushing-gushing effects are offset by swirling and wind tunnel space keys, hair-raising oscillations, and drone-drifting soundscapes.” So it’s not all just anger. It’s tempered by some pretty spacey stuff.
CP: It’s a cool electronic piece. But then again it’s got the vocals on it about dyin’ bitch. I can’t remember if it was about her or about somebody else that pissed me off.
JK: Were Mental Anguish albums being released on other labels yet?
CP: No, I hadn’t gotten there yet.
JK: Ok, so every tape I’ve heard so far is all the Mental Anguish albums so far was only released on Harsh Reality.
CP: Right.
JK: You were so prolific in this period. Did you typically record a set of songs with an album in mind? Or were there lots of recordings in the pot that you picked and chose from?
CP: I’d have an album in mind.
Side A of the Sick Of This & That cassette album opens with ‘Jump’, and right away the vocals jump out at me as a kind of high pitched style that’s like Chris doing Frankie Valli. He alternates between this style and his more typical ranting style. The music is a deliriously tripped out multi-layered blend of soothing keyboard melodies and staccato rhythms. File it in the Dreamland Pop Electronic Psychedelia for Punks section. The keys are just as dreamily melodic and soothing on the following track, ‘New Dawn’. The vibe is more church-funereal laid back on this one, though it all soon melts into a similar mind-melting style as on ‘Jump’. Chris is definitely in more soothing trip-us-out mode on this set.
Chris shifts gears a little on ‘Get Back’ as he eases his way onto the dance floor for some electro beat driven fun with a spaced out vibe and effects, plus fun crazy vocals that are his classic ranting style but efx’d in a way that they have a cool warbling sound like he’s ranting from within a metal box. ‘Say You Will’ has yet more different vocals. Chris plays the punk crooner on this noisily melodic ditty. Oddly rhythmic rattling and droning effects propel the music, along with wigged out space effects that soon overpower the melody and Chris crooning, “Say You Will!!”.
Side B kicks off with the appropriately titled ‘See You In Purgatory’, a keyboard dominated piece which starts off sounding like a Sunday mass in space. But as it progresses the music begins to melt into hallucinatory and somewhat dissonant brain scrambled realms. Very cool. ‘Skin You Alive’ features playful keys that sound like spaced out toy instruments that dance, bubble, and play little melodies to a staggered rhythmic pulse and efx’d robot vocals. I really like the contrast between the varied rhythms, melodies and vocals, which all come together nicely, though in a friendly competitive way.
‘The Pusher’ is one of my favorites of the set, being a totally cut-up, folded in, mash-up of twiddly keys and effects, drones, atmospherics, melodic ditties, and voice samples from radio or television. Chaos is FUN! The chaos continues on ‘Die Bitch’, though the lyrically angry vocals and industrial rushing-gushing effects are offset by swirling and wind tunnel space keys, hair-raising oscillations, and drone-drifting soundscapes. I love the contrasts.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): This is the first Mental Anguishalbum after Hellhole (HR020), and Hellhole is the one where you said you really started to liking your own music. What was your opinion of Sick Of This & That?
Chris Phinney (CP): It was ok.
JK: Did the Sick Of This & That title have any particular meaning?
CP: Sick Of This & That was about being sick of a lot of people, government, everything. Sick of everything. The cover had a factory building on it.
JK: It’s got two tall tower factory stacks. Was that something in Memphis?
CP: Yeah, it’s here in Memphis.
JK: ‘See You In Purgatory’ kicks off Side B….
CP: ‘See You In Purgatory’ was dedicated to whoever pissed me off. I just said I’ll see them in Purgatory.
JK: So you’re talking to somebody. It’s interesting that it’s a pissed off song because, I’ll read my description, “it starts off sounding like a Sunday mass in space, but as it progresses begins to melt into hallucinatory and somewhat dissonant brain scrambled realms.” I thought it was a pretty cool track.
CP: There’s a lot of churchy sounding stuff on this tape.
JK: Yeah, like the song ‘Skin You Alive’ I described as “Playful keys that sound like spaced out toy instruments that dance, bubble, and play little melodies to a staggered rhythmic pulse and efx’d robot vocals.”
CP: ‘Skin You Alive’ was dedicated to a neighbor of mine who when I was a child, his son smacked my ass… and ran over with his bicycle… so I took some metal darts and threw them in the kid’s knee. His dad had just got home from hunting and he was skinning a squirrel or a rabbit or something and he told me he was gonna skin me alive.
JK: Damn! You’ve got some interesting themes! And then it’s followed by ‘The Pusher’. I love this track. I described it as ‘A totally cut-up, folded in, mash-up of twiddly keys and effects, drones, atmospherics, melodic ditties, and voice samples from radio or television.’ It’s really chaotic but in a cool cut-up way.
CP: That was dedicated to all the punk pushers out there, and Steppenwolf as well. Steppenwolf’s song ‘The Pusher’ (laughs).
JK: And then finally, you talked about being angry… on ‘Die Bitch’ those are some pretty angry lyrics. Were you talking to anyone in particular?
CP: I was talking about Louis Alexander’s wife Debbie.
JK: But you’ve got all these cool contrasts in it. Like I described, “the lyrically angry vocals and industrial rushing-gushing effects are offset by swirling and wind tunnel space keys, hair-raising oscillations, and drone-drifting soundscapes.” So it’s not all just anger. It’s tempered by some pretty spacey stuff.
CP: It’s a cool electronic piece. But then again it’s got the vocals on it about dyin’ bitch. I can’t remember if it was about her or about somebody else that pissed me off.
JK: Were Mental Anguish albums being released on other labels yet?
CP: No, I hadn’t gotten there yet.
JK: Ok, so every tape I’ve heard so far is all the Mental Anguish albums so far was only released on Harsh Reality.
CP: Right.
JK: You were so prolific in this period. Did you typically record a set of songs with an album in mind? Or were there lots of recordings in the pot that you picked and chose from?
CP: I’d have an album in mind.