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30-580: Pungent Stench began in late 1987 when Martin Schirenc and Alex Wank, drummer from Carnage, got together to form a new band. They recruited Jacek Perkowski for the bass player position after months of searching, and by February 1988 the trio started rehearsing together. Barely a month in existence the band had already composed 10 songs, and by April 1988 the band recorded their first demo tape , Mucous Secretion . Recorded live in their rehearsal room, Mucous Secretion featured 5 tracks plus an intro taken out of

60-422: A recording contract . These demos are usually sent to record labels in hopes that the artist will be signed onto the label's roster and allowed to record a full-length album in a professional recording studio . However, large record labels usually ignore unsolicited demos that are sent to them by mail; artists generally must be more creative about getting the demos into the hands of the people who make decisions for

90-407: A fixed format, such as cassette tape , compact disc , or digital audio files , and to thereby pass along those ideas to record labels , producers , or other artists. Musicians often use demos as quick sketches to share with bandmates or arrangers , or simply for personal reference during the songwriting process; in other cases, a songwriter might make a demo to send to artists in hopes of having

120-443: A full-length album. With the evolution of the access to software allowing musicians to produce high quality music on their own, the amount of music released every day has skyrocketed. With over 100,000 new songs released on Spotify every day, the level of quality required for demos to convince record labels has also increased, and the limits between demos and actual finished recordings have become blurrier. Demos are seldom heard by

150-405: A professional manner, with a printed cover and manufactured tapes, but before the manufacturing process began Pungent Stench got an offer by Nuclear Blast . Pungent Stench happened to play close by Nuclear Blast's hometown, Donzdorf . The label's staff had already heard about the band and sent someone to watch their show and express the record company's interest in the group. Pungent Stench signed

180-556: A reading of some of its lyrics on the Congressional floor. Broy was briefly replaced by bassists Wayne Daddio ("Ripper"), Ed Danky ("Poppa Sneaky Spermshooter"), Lucinda Rezabek ("Scum Bitch"), and Keith McAdam ("Zippy"), but later returned to the group. In 1989, the Mentors released their third album, Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll , a faux-live record. This album caught the attention of the band Revolting Cocks , who invited

210-431: A solo career, while Carlson formed the band Jesters of Destiny. In 1997, while being interviewed for the documentary film Kurt and Courtney , Hoke claimed that Courtney Love had offered him $ 50,000 to kill her husband Kurt Cobain , whose death was ruled a suicide. Two days after being interviewed, Hoke died after being struck by a freight train while intoxicated. His death was alternately described as an accident and

240-502: A strong public presence, making a controversial appearance alongside fellow metal band GWAR on The Jerry Springer Show , where Hoke's band, beliefs, and public image were criticized. The Mentors did not achieve true notoriety until the 1985 Congressional hearings orchestrated by Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The relatively obscure Mentors caught the attention of the PMRC with their song, "Golden Shower", prompting

270-554: A suicide, however, some conspiracy theorists have claimed there is evidence suggesting foul play. Carlson, Broy and Savage continued the band and were joined by guitarist Jeff Solberg ("Sickie J") and vocalist Jake Huber ("El Rapo"), releasing Over the Top in 2005. In 2006, singer and drummer Marc DeLeon ("Mad Dog"), of the Mentors tribute band the Mantors, replaced Huber and, later, Savage. Ducefixion , their eighth full-length record,

300-478: A very low price. Amateur (and some professional) musicians may choose to make demos available to interested listeners through websites such as SoundCloud or Bandcamp in order to share new ideas, receive feedback and/or provide fans with "behind the scenes" access to the songwriting process. In 1977, punk band the Sex Pistols released an album of demos called Spunk , which has been comparared favourably to

330-673: Is a death metal band, its musical style has also been influenced by rock and blues . Such non-metal influences can be heard on songs such as "Viva la muerte", "Madcatmachopsychoromantik", "Family Man" and "Got MILF?". Schirenc's choice of guitar (he often plays a Fender Telecaster , a rarity among metal guitarists) probably signals these influences. The lyrical content of the songs is more sexually orientated than that of other death metal bands; themes covered include coprophagia , rape , and deviance . The album covers reflect this as well: many of their album covers are transgressive and sometimes shocking photos by Joel-Peter Witkin . This, combining

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360-634: The Machine (" What the Water Gave Me ", among others) and Cults on the EP Sunday Jams . The event of a demo tape appearing on eBay has happened in the past, with the recordings being leaked onto the internet. In rare instances, a demo may end up as the final released recording of a song, as was the case with Foster the People 's " Pumped Up Kicks ". The version of "Pumped Up Kicks" that

390-608: The Mentors began to tour the Northwest, playing shows with their trademark executioner hoods (it was the idea of El Duce, who adored a horror movie called Mark of the Devil ) and bawdy lyrics. In the early days of the band, El Duce would contact venues saying they were a Kiss cover band and send them a dubbed cassette with Kiss songs on it and say it was them, on one occasion he sent a copy of Deep Purple Live in Japan to what they thought

420-531: The Mentors on tour with them. They released Rock Bible in 1990, with Rick Lomas ("Insect On Acid") sitting in on drums. To the Max followed the next year. Clark Savage ("Moosedick") often filled in for Hoke on drums at live shows, as Hoke's alcoholism had made it difficult for him to play drums and sing simultaneously, eventually taking the position as drummer while Hoke became vocalist exclusively. The Mentors remained sporadically active thereafter. Hoke began

450-470: The Mentors released their first EP, The Trash Bag , in 1983. Their first live album, Live at the Whiskey/Cathey de Grande , came out the following year; both records were produced by Phillip (Philco) Raves. In 1985, they signed to Death Records, a subsidiary of Metal Blade , and released their debut studio LP, You Axed for It! , with Broy returning on the bass. During this time, Hoke maintained

480-610: The contract in April 1989 and their first release for Nuclear Blast, a split album with fellow Austrian death metallers Disharmonic Orchestra , came out in June. The record was reasonably successful, moving more than 4,000 units in less than a year. The Extreme Deformity 7-inch vinyl EP, featuring three tracks from their unreleased demo, came out in September to rave reviews. Pungent Stench's debut For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh

510-609: The death of drummer and lead singer Eldon Hoke ("El Duce") in 1997 brought them unprecedented attention. The band remains active today with a different line-up: Sickie Wifebeater ( Eric Carlson ) on lead guitar, Dr Heathen Scum ( Steve Broy ) on bass guitar, Mad Dog on Vocals and drums. Founding members Eldon Hoke ("El Duce"), Eric Carlson ("Sickie Wifebeater") and Steve Broy ("Dr. Heathen Scum") attended Roosevelt High School together in Seattle, and began experimenting together with crude punk and primitive heavy metal. Upon formation,

540-420: The end of the year they organized their first, six-week European tour (named the "Fleisch Tour"), with Master headlining and Paul Speckmann 's thrash metal side project Abomination as the opening act. Pungent Stench were initially inspired by early grindcore ( Repulsion , Terrorizer ), death metal ( Master , Slaughter , Deceased ) and doom metal bands such as Saint Vitus and Witchfinder General . By

570-574: The first The Evil Dead movie. The tape got very positive reactions from the tapetrading community. In July 1988, the band travelled to England to record their second demo. Wank was present as a guest during the mixing of Napalm Death 's sophomore album, From Enslavement to Obliteration , at the Birdsong Studios in Worcester . After that he booked 2 days for Pungent Stench in the same studio. The band had plans to release this demo in

600-402: The musical styles of death metal and grindcore, may have influenced the sexually-oriented themes of pornogrind , a subgenre of grindcore. Demo (music) A demo (shortened from " demonstration ") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in

630-713: The production of their only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols . Mentors (band) The Mentors are an American heavy metal band formed in Seattle, Washington in May 1976, they relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979. The band garnered attention both from noted hard rock acts and pro-censorship movements such as the Parents Music Resource Center , but

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660-581: The public, although some artists do eventually release rough demos in compilation albums or box sets , such as the album Demolicious by Green Day . Other demo versions have been unofficially released as bootleg recordings , such as the Beatles ' bootleg demos and the Beach Boys ' Sea of Tunes series. Several artists have eventually made official releases of demo versions of their songs as albums or companion pieces to albums, such as Florence and

690-412: The record company. Many signed bands and artists record demos of new songs before recording an album. The demos may allow the artist to provide sketches for sharing ideas with bandmates, or to explore several alternate versions of a song, or to quickly record many proto-songs before deciding which ones merit further development. Demos may include as few as one or two songs or as many as would be contained on

720-436: The song professionally recorded, or a publisher may need a simple recording for publishing or copyright purposes. Demos are typically recorded on relatively crude equipment such as "boom box" cassette recorders , small four- or eight-track machines , or on personal computers with audio recording software. Songwriters' and publishers' demos are recorded with minimal instrumentation, usually just an acoustic guitar or piano and

750-482: The time of For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh' s release their listening habits widened considerably. In an interview to Michigan -based fanzine Rot , drummer Alex Wank declared that he was currently into hardcore punk ( Sheer Terror , Agnostic Front ), industrial music ( Swans , Laibach , Coil , Foetus ), black metal ( Mayhem , Darkthrone , Beherit ), alternative metal pioneers Faith No More and "rape rock" group The Mentors . Though Pungent Stench

780-460: The vocals. Both Elton John and Donovan gained studio experience early in their careers by recording publishers' demos for other artists since their managers also handled music publishing, as did Garth Brooks , who was so impressed when recording the demo of " Friends in Low Places " that he asked to release the song himself. Many unsigned bands and artists record demos in order to obtain

810-436: Was a club. It was later revealed to be a pizza place and they ended up playing a kid's birthday party, they were forced to stop after one song and were eventually given $ 50. Broy was in and out of the band during its early career due to his preoccupation with pursuing a degree in engineering. Other bassists from this era include Jeff Dahl, Chris Jacobsen (Jack Shit), and Mike Dewey (Heathen Scum Wezda). Through Mystic Records,

840-545: Was released as a single and subsequently became a hit was a demo recorded by frontman Mark Foster alone, before he had formed the group. In 1982, Bruce Springsteen recorded ten demo songs in his bedroom that he intended to later record with his E Street Band , but he subsequently decided that he preferred the acoustic demos and released them as the 1982 album Nebraska . In more underground forms of music, such as noise music , black metal or punk rock , demos are often distributed by bands to fans as self-releases or sold at

870-401: Was released in 2009. DeLeon left the Mentors in 2014 during the making of a full-length documentary film called The Mentors: Kings of Sleaze Rockumentary , directed by April Jones. On May 25, 2017, the Mentors released The Illuminaughty , their first studio album in eight years, with Broy and Lomas sharing the vocal duties. In 2019, a documentary about the band and Hoke, The El Duce Tapes ,

900-604: Was released in April 1990. Described as raw and primitive, it shows the band favoring simple song structures and visceral, demented aggression over technical proficiency and over-complicated soloing . The album's title track made it to the "100 Best Death Metal Songs" list compiled by the German version of Metal Hammer . Around the time their first record came out, Pungent Stench were already an experienced live band, having played with Carcass , Entombed , Napalm Death , Extreme Noise Terror , Atrocity and Prong , among others. By

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