Tuesday, August 14, 2007

THE STENCH BAND-PRAY FOR THE FRED, LP, 200? (RECORDED: 1971-1973), USA




Seriously warped and previously lost-to-mankind Mothers/ Beefheart worship from a bent little unit that decided to unleash this sickness upon the universe via Omaha, Nebraska (ya know...that hotbed of radicalism). Needless to say, the locals were less than charmed and this troupe quickly folded, but 30+ years on, the remaining extant members saw fit to bless the world with a compilation of their lo-fi dadaist deluge of the brilliant and juvenile and your world will be a better place for their efforts.


Here

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks once again!

-m

Anonymous said...

any chance to get more Matthew De Gennaro sir?

i really love his stuff & thanks for introducing his music to me.

Anonymous said...

Eric, Thanks a lot for your posts while Jim is on vacation. I know that I and many others here are VERY appreciative of all that you do.

Keep up the *great* work!

Jeff

Anonymous said...

ESSENTIAL LOGIC
Alkaline Loaf in the Area
England 1979
Please ..its gone from http://mysterypampers.blogspot.com/2007/03/logically-essential-baby.html

Anonymous said...

Your blog is excellent. A big part of your records are very and real hard-to-find ones. For me, "Max & Malcolm" are really impossible to find. The same thing to many De Fabriek records, some of Decayes and others. One suggestion: ZGA, the legendary Latvian noisemakers will be a great addition. (The last one, Zero Gravity Anomaly could be a fine gift). Regards and many thanks.

WordsOnSounds said...

You should give Omaha a tad more credit: check out this currently-running Omaha label: http://www.publiceyesore.com

vdoandsound said...

Scott...I wasn't aware that Public Eyesore was operational in the 70's :-)

Seriously though, I doubt Omaha in the 70's was exactly a countercultural hotbed. To wit, the text included with this album details in depth The Stench Band's travails with angry clueless locals and their antipathy toward weirdness.

vdoandsound said...

anonymous #'s 1 & 2-don't have either of those requests, unfortunately. Been wanting to check out Zga for a while. Hope Jim has some to post....

Anonymous said...

zga's 1st (real f-in' good) record is at mended records blog. check it out!
bunch of other good stuff there, though rarely updated...
-e.
http://mendedrecords.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hey, Scott here again--I actually live in Lincoln now, and I was pretty impressed with this recording. I'm trying to track down the musicians, assuming at least a couple of them might still be in the area. Do the liner notes list any musicians' names?

I won't argue that this isn't exactly the mecca of avant-garde/experimental music and art, but we do have a decent scene going nowadays. Small but high-quality, and pretty fulfilling artistically (for me, anyway)!

Anonymous said...

I grew up in Omaha in the 60s & 70s, and while it wasn't San Francisco or New York, it wasn't bugtussle texas either. We gave the world Ogden Edsl, btw!

vdoandsound said...

Anonymous-thanks for the zga link!

Scott-cool to hear that you're attempting to track 'em down! According to the liners, their names are: Chuck St. Lucas, Ken Nanfito, Dave Svoboda and Mark Weisner. Best 'o luck with your sleuthing...

Anonymous said...

This LP is an archival thing, got it when it came out, I do have the details but in vast text file of old email....take a while to find I'm afraid, but the band did a 6 track flexi (8" I think!) back in 73 which was found in a store there years later. Someone tracked the band down and found more tapes which led to the release of the LP. It was official and they turned up some of the original flexi's too. The LP was released in 99 in a run 0f 300.

There was a load more info about the band I have/had(somewhere!)
The guy selling them was Mike Garber, who was in Nebraska as i remember, i bought some other records off him. He'd be the guy to ask if he's still about.

Anonymous said...

Hi, tried to post this, maybe didn't work. Previous comment from memory, Anyway, found old email. The website is no longer up. Presume address etc no longer valid. As far as I know all song from the 8 track single are on the LP, but don't know which ones were on the single..... anyway...

T H E S T E N C H B A N D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.............................

** this outfit from wonderful NEBRASKA had a limited 8-song 7" E.P.
recorded in late 1971 and early 1972
** this is another record that is virtually un-obtainable even if you dig
in every shop and personal collections in NEBRASKA
** there was a mention of this band in an issue of notorious magazine
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL by author MICHAEL KARL GARBER in 1999
** the single "PRAY FOR THE DEAD" was edited in a run of just 300x copies
(three-hundred) only
** a fair portion have had no picture-sleeve nor its insert and its for
sure that many people arent aware of this band (including myself until
i have had read that article in MRR)
** MIKE GARBER compares their music to "FRANK ZAPPA meets THE GIZMOS"
and he isnt that wrong i would say!!
my description would be :
"CAPTAIN BEEFHEART,GIZMOS and DEBRIS ...TOOK SOME ACID AND WERE
LOCKED UP IN A DESERTED GARAGE"
...and eventually cut a single which -i assume- never have received the
attention then and there which is a sheer crime

AND NOW HERE IS THE DEAL:

** Mike Garber and I managed to locate the main member Chuck St.Lucas
and he was kind enough to leave a few unplayed stock-copies of this
exquisite 8-song MONSTER to Mike Garber

** and now i am trying to offer you these beauties,to the deserving public

FACTS:
------

10x copies are on sale,the vinyl as i said is unplayed an can be
considered as MINT -
however,the original picture-cover is missing ,and also the (according to
the band) blasphemous insert isnt included any longer with these remaining
copies
and as i said a fair portion of this record came sleeve-less anyway

i know its a worn out collector-phrase but this might be your only
chance to obtain a copy ever (you can check out eBay whenever you
want ....without success i bet !!!!)

every copy of this record however comes in an excellent reproduction
of the black-on-yellow envelope picture-sleeve (a comic-strip type of
artwork)
....................
and one copy of it costs : ***100 US DOLLARS***
....................

of course most of you havent heard the music but dont worry since the
STENCH BAND have their own and very neat website with bio,photos and
audio-files
i recommend you to check out their web before considering then to buy
a copy of the original vinyl (and photo-copied picture-sleeve)

go to their web at:

*****************************
*****************************
HTTP://STENCHBAND.IUMA.COM
*****************************
•••THE STENCH BAND "1971-1973" LP•••Available Now!

THE STENCH BAND collection LP is out now. The Stench
played and recorded in Lincoln, Nebraska from
1971-1973 and released one 7" EP ("Pray For The Dead"
EP) in 1972. This LP, titled "Pray For The Fred",
compiles all of the 7" tracks plus many great
unreleased songs from that era. Heavily influenced by
Captain Beefheart and Zappa, THE STENCH BAND recorded
numerous sessions of incredibly strange and
experimental underground rock. I "uncovered" the
band's eight song 7" a few years ago in a local thrift
shop and have taped it for numerous traders/collectors
who all responded very positively and asked me to try
and find them copies. Unfortunately no copies or info
surfaced from the local sources, and after some
prodding from fellow collectors, I tried to hunt down
the members. I was able to find one of the "main"
members of the Stench Band, Chuck St. Lucas, who
supplied me with all the info I needed...not to
mention, ten stock copies of the "Pray For The Dead"
7". The 7" was released in an edition of 300 copies
back in 1972 (200 copies had oversized picture sleeves
and a few came with inserts too). A truely rare
record!

Considering the previous interest and after selling
most of the stock copies for handsome sums, we thought
there'd be an interest in issuing an LPs worth of
vintage material.

Since THE STENCH BAND is/were such an obscure/unknown
band, we've issued this LP in an edition of only 300
signed and numbered copies (of which, only 200 are
available for distribution).

The Stench music has been called "proto punk" and
"experimental psych" and has been compared to Captain
Beefheart, Zappa, the Gizmos, and even Nurse With
Wound. This record will appeal to fans of unusual
music. Given the fact that this weird, f#@*d up music
came out of Lincoln, Nebraska (not exactly a cultural
mecca) in 1972(!) is reason alone to buy it, but it's
also really cool stuff worth documenting and hearing.

Copies of the LP can be ordered from me for $15.00
(priority postage paid) to:

Mike Garber
c/o Zero Street Records
120 N 14th
Lincoln, NE
68508 USA

If you are outside North America, please add an
additional $4.80 for air-mail postage.

The "Pray For The Dead" collection LP is 100% legit
and was financed by the original band members. I am
handling distribution and "promotion" for this
release. "Pray For The Fred" is a vinyl LP
reissue--there are no CDs available.

Thanks for any interest.

Feel free to email me at
******************
fratcars@yahoo.com

Corinne Wiesner said...

Hhahahaha... My dad was in this band.
I should get him to put some music up. He works at Duke University now! WOAH RADICAL CHANGES!

Corinne Wiesner said...

There are CD's available, give me your email and I can HOOK YOU UP!

vdoandsound said...

Hi Corrine,
If your father has more Stench Band stuff around, I'd love to be able to share it here on Mutant Sounds. Your offer of CD's is most kind too, though since I have the vinyl reissue,
there's not much need for it, but thanks regardless...

Corinne Wiesner said...

whats your email?

vdoandsound said...

Hi Corrine...I can be reached at: pantheonbar@gmail.com

Looking forward to being able to explore/share more Stench Band stuff!

Thanks,

Eric

Dmitri Karamazov said...

Hi Corrine,

ha ha ha I am the "Dave Svoboda" that played with your Dad and Chuck on the Stench Records! Please tell Mark/Dad I said hi!
He can e-mail me at:
dgsvoboda
--at-- (use the at symbol,duh)
yahoo.com

David S.

Anonymous said...

Please repost this if possible as the RS link is dead. It appears Zero Street Records no longer exists and this LP is about impossible to find. Thanks, Tom