HR033 - Mental Anguish — Crying Shame — C60 — 1986
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Side A:
Don't Forget About Me Flunky I Don't Care Caught In The Web Of Deceit Old Man Side B: Pray Anger In My Head Kick Love You All Instruments: Chris Phinney Vocals On "I Don't Care": Tawnya Phinney |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Crying Shame is a lyrically angry album. The set opens with ‘Don’t Forget About Me’, with Chris singing in a voice that is sometimes whispery, mostly plaintiff, and eventually bursting into pure ranting anger. The lyrics are speaking to someone who has badly wronged him. Chris is like a punk crooner as he grumbles about feeling blue and don’t forget about me. The music consists of multi-layered melodic keys that alternate between peacefully pleasant to tripped out space crazy intense. This is followed by ‘Flunky’, a short instrumental with more multi-layered keys. It’s melodic and nicely spaced out.
‘I Don’t Care’ features guest vocals from Chris’ wife (at the time) Tawnya Phinney. Dreamily robotic New Wave electronica is peppered by a variety of whooshes, bleeps, and oscillating effects. Chris is getting good at these multi-layered keys. Tawnya delivers a spoken word/singing style, with lyrics that are as angry (at someone) as Chris.
‘Caught In The Web Of Deceit’ is all darkly sardonic space electronica with multiple competing layers of drone symphonics. The atmosphere is intense and disorienting and I like the contrasting playful melody that sounds like a New Wave toy keyboard. ‘Old Man’ is a brief, punked out combination of New Wave, Industrial electronic space rock, and chaotic electro rock ‘n’ roll. And Chris in full blown angry ranting mode. This is one of my favorites of the set.
Side B opens with ‘Pray’, an oddly spaced out Industrial New Wave tune with multiple layers that churn along at a droningly chaotic but steadily moving pace. The vocals have a darkly shamanic chanting quality which fit nicely with a track titled ‘Pray’. The lyrics are indecipherable but fit perfectly with the music.
Things get mightily aggressive on ‘Anger In My Head’, as Chris rants, “I’m SO angry…. Angry… ANGRY in the head!!! Every time I look at you, I see red! Sometimes I wish you were DEAD!” Chris is moan yelling, backed by flowing carpets of wailing and droning space keys. There’s no quarter for the listener as the next song, ‘Kick’, right out of the chute sings… “I feel so mad, does that make you glad?” More anger at having been wronged. This one is backed by nifty gurgling space drones that bob and weave an ominous path as Chris lets go with both barrels. And then, finally, ‘Love You’ does a complete 180, delivering a weirdly surreal and pleasantly melodic ditty love song. “I’ll always love you, love you forever”.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): Was Crying Shame recorded at a particularly difficult time in your life? The whole thing seems to be thematically very pissed off.
Chris Phinney (CP): Yes, a difficult time, yes pissed at Louis Alexander and his wife Debbie. The tape is dedicated to them as Debbie was spreading lies about my wife; Louis pulled a gun on my wife as both him and his wife were confronted with this.
JK: Like the very first song, ‘Don’t Forget About Me’, the lyrics are speaking to someone who has badly wronged you. And yet musically you’ve got all these multi-layered melodic keys that alternate between peacefully pleasant to tripped out space crazy intense.
CP: The music was meant to be the way you described it on that song. The lyrics were added last and for Louis and Debbie.
JK: But then on ‘I Don’t Care’ you’ve got vocals by your (at that time) wife Tawnya Phinney…
CP: Tawnya was singing lyrics I wrote. It was about Louis and Debbie as she was pissed as well. This is the only song Tawnya ever sang on and only did it because she was angry. I see Louis at stores and we get along fine now. Louis and I go way back. It was all just a bunch of drama.
JK: But you’re channeling all this stuff through your creative works.
CP: Right. Most of the vocals are drama.
JK: That really stands out on ‘Anger In My Head’. “I’m SO angry…. Angry… ANGRY in the head!!! Every time I look at you, I see red! Sometimes I wish you were DEAD!” Man, it all came together on that song.
CP: Yup, that was the same thing.
JK: But musically, all the lyrical intensity aside, this is a kick ass album of spaced out electronica.
CP: Yeah, and then I had to add vocals (laughs).
JK: So did the music come first?
CP: Yeah, the music came first and I added vocals later.
JK: Was that typically the way you worked?
CP: On every song I usually added vocals last. Unless it was Viktimized Karcass or something totally different. I’d lay out all the keyboard lines and riffs I wanted, and spacey sounds, and I’d go ahead and record all that. And then came in with the vocals afterwards. I already knew what I wanted to say. And like I said, for most of this album I was mad. The friend I was mad at, Louis Alexander, he had pulled a gun on my old lady, I was mad at his wife, and I had Tawnya singing that one song because she was pissed off as well. And I thought I need some female vocals talking about the situation. So I got Tawnya to add those. I thought that would be a pretty cool idea. That’s the only track Tawnya ever recorded.
JK: Did you feel like you were able to emotionally purge yourself by recording these songs?
CP: I got it all tape recorded and got it all out there and cleansed myself of the anger.
JK: What’s interesting is despite all the anger… is this a flower on the cover of the tape?
CP: It’s a flower.
JK: The cover art kind of offsets the theme of the album.
CP: Yeah, I know (laughs).
JK: Getting back to recording the music first… did you not even have the lyrics when you were recording the music?
CP: No. I kind of knew. I had some names jotted down with the music. And then I had to form the lyrics around the names of the songs. I put the flower on just to be a smart ass.
JK: But you end up with variety too, which is one of the really cool parts about it. One of my favorite songs of the set is ‘Old Man’. It’s a short song that I described as a “Punked out combination of New Wave, Industrial electronic space rock, and chaotic electro rock n roll.” And your vocals are in full blown ranting mode. I liked it and it was very different from the other songs on the album.
CP: That’s about some old man cutting me off driving (laughs).
JK: This is all great insight. You get all kinds of things that happen and they stick with you and end up becoming songs.
CP: Right. If something bugged the shit out of me I would usually write lyrics around whatever happened at that point in time. That’s what I did on this album and the previous one Sick Of This And That (HR028).
JK: Another one that was a little different that I liked a lot was ‘Pray’.
CP: ‘Pray’ was for somebody to pray that they’d stay alive and I didn’t kill ‘em.
JK: Were there really lyrics and I just couldn’t make them out?
CP: Yes, it was just the way I was singing.
Crying Shame is a lyrically angry album. The set opens with ‘Don’t Forget About Me’, with Chris singing in a voice that is sometimes whispery, mostly plaintiff, and eventually bursting into pure ranting anger. The lyrics are speaking to someone who has badly wronged him. Chris is like a punk crooner as he grumbles about feeling blue and don’t forget about me. The music consists of multi-layered melodic keys that alternate between peacefully pleasant to tripped out space crazy intense. This is followed by ‘Flunky’, a short instrumental with more multi-layered keys. It’s melodic and nicely spaced out.
‘I Don’t Care’ features guest vocals from Chris’ wife (at the time) Tawnya Phinney. Dreamily robotic New Wave electronica is peppered by a variety of whooshes, bleeps, and oscillating effects. Chris is getting good at these multi-layered keys. Tawnya delivers a spoken word/singing style, with lyrics that are as angry (at someone) as Chris.
‘Caught In The Web Of Deceit’ is all darkly sardonic space electronica with multiple competing layers of drone symphonics. The atmosphere is intense and disorienting and I like the contrasting playful melody that sounds like a New Wave toy keyboard. ‘Old Man’ is a brief, punked out combination of New Wave, Industrial electronic space rock, and chaotic electro rock ‘n’ roll. And Chris in full blown angry ranting mode. This is one of my favorites of the set.
Side B opens with ‘Pray’, an oddly spaced out Industrial New Wave tune with multiple layers that churn along at a droningly chaotic but steadily moving pace. The vocals have a darkly shamanic chanting quality which fit nicely with a track titled ‘Pray’. The lyrics are indecipherable but fit perfectly with the music.
Things get mightily aggressive on ‘Anger In My Head’, as Chris rants, “I’m SO angry…. Angry… ANGRY in the head!!! Every time I look at you, I see red! Sometimes I wish you were DEAD!” Chris is moan yelling, backed by flowing carpets of wailing and droning space keys. There’s no quarter for the listener as the next song, ‘Kick’, right out of the chute sings… “I feel so mad, does that make you glad?” More anger at having been wronged. This one is backed by nifty gurgling space drones that bob and weave an ominous path as Chris lets go with both barrels. And then, finally, ‘Love You’ does a complete 180, delivering a weirdly surreal and pleasantly melodic ditty love song. “I’ll always love you, love you forever”.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): Was Crying Shame recorded at a particularly difficult time in your life? The whole thing seems to be thematically very pissed off.
Chris Phinney (CP): Yes, a difficult time, yes pissed at Louis Alexander and his wife Debbie. The tape is dedicated to them as Debbie was spreading lies about my wife; Louis pulled a gun on my wife as both him and his wife were confronted with this.
JK: Like the very first song, ‘Don’t Forget About Me’, the lyrics are speaking to someone who has badly wronged you. And yet musically you’ve got all these multi-layered melodic keys that alternate between peacefully pleasant to tripped out space crazy intense.
CP: The music was meant to be the way you described it on that song. The lyrics were added last and for Louis and Debbie.
JK: But then on ‘I Don’t Care’ you’ve got vocals by your (at that time) wife Tawnya Phinney…
CP: Tawnya was singing lyrics I wrote. It was about Louis and Debbie as she was pissed as well. This is the only song Tawnya ever sang on and only did it because she was angry. I see Louis at stores and we get along fine now. Louis and I go way back. It was all just a bunch of drama.
JK: But you’re channeling all this stuff through your creative works.
CP: Right. Most of the vocals are drama.
JK: That really stands out on ‘Anger In My Head’. “I’m SO angry…. Angry… ANGRY in the head!!! Every time I look at you, I see red! Sometimes I wish you were DEAD!” Man, it all came together on that song.
CP: Yup, that was the same thing.
JK: But musically, all the lyrical intensity aside, this is a kick ass album of spaced out electronica.
CP: Yeah, and then I had to add vocals (laughs).
JK: So did the music come first?
CP: Yeah, the music came first and I added vocals later.
JK: Was that typically the way you worked?
CP: On every song I usually added vocals last. Unless it was Viktimized Karcass or something totally different. I’d lay out all the keyboard lines and riffs I wanted, and spacey sounds, and I’d go ahead and record all that. And then came in with the vocals afterwards. I already knew what I wanted to say. And like I said, for most of this album I was mad. The friend I was mad at, Louis Alexander, he had pulled a gun on my old lady, I was mad at his wife, and I had Tawnya singing that one song because she was pissed off as well. And I thought I need some female vocals talking about the situation. So I got Tawnya to add those. I thought that would be a pretty cool idea. That’s the only track Tawnya ever recorded.
JK: Did you feel like you were able to emotionally purge yourself by recording these songs?
CP: I got it all tape recorded and got it all out there and cleansed myself of the anger.
JK: What’s interesting is despite all the anger… is this a flower on the cover of the tape?
CP: It’s a flower.
JK: The cover art kind of offsets the theme of the album.
CP: Yeah, I know (laughs).
JK: Getting back to recording the music first… did you not even have the lyrics when you were recording the music?
CP: No. I kind of knew. I had some names jotted down with the music. And then I had to form the lyrics around the names of the songs. I put the flower on just to be a smart ass.
JK: But you end up with variety too, which is one of the really cool parts about it. One of my favorite songs of the set is ‘Old Man’. It’s a short song that I described as a “Punked out combination of New Wave, Industrial electronic space rock, and chaotic electro rock n roll.” And your vocals are in full blown ranting mode. I liked it and it was very different from the other songs on the album.
CP: That’s about some old man cutting me off driving (laughs).
JK: This is all great insight. You get all kinds of things that happen and they stick with you and end up becoming songs.
CP: Right. If something bugged the shit out of me I would usually write lyrics around whatever happened at that point in time. That’s what I did on this album and the previous one Sick Of This And That (HR028).
JK: Another one that was a little different that I liked a lot was ‘Pray’.
CP: ‘Pray’ was for somebody to pray that they’d stay alive and I didn’t kill ‘em.
JK: Were there really lyrics and I just couldn’t make them out?
CP: Yes, it was just the way I was singing.