Published on Aug 21, 1998
Doug Pinnick has, in the course of one album, obliterated the
history of his other band, King’s X.
King’s X (which has a new album scheduled to be released in
October) has made cerebral, complicated music now for well over a
decade, but has always seemed to have the weight of their projects
collapse upon themselves. They also have struggled, even with the
backing of a major label, to be considered a major player in the
confusing field of rock and roll. (Are they metal? Progressive?
Funk? Psychedelic?)
On his first solo effort, Pinnick and his new
almost-one-man-band Poundhound shows exactly what King’s X has been
doing wrong all these years on
Massive Grooves From The Electric Church Of Psychofunkadelic
Grungelism Rock Music (hereafter called Massive Grooves).
Pinnick handles all instrumentation and vocals except for drums;
those duties are shared by Chad Lyons, Shannon Larkin and Pinnick’s
bandmate from King’s X Jerry Gaskill. (If this wasn’t enough of a
King’s X link, Ty Tabor, the third member of the band, mastered the
disc. So much for a solo effort, I guess.) And while he has been
known as a bassist, Pinnick demonstrates skills that should leave
your jaw drooped for weeks.
After you get through the brief opening montage “Rev,” the
journey starts on a powerful note with “Jangle,” a song that, like
most of the rest of the album, is just plain fun to listen to.
That, as they say, is the hardest part of the battle.
From then on,
Massive Grooves locks you into a solid combination of funk
and rocktaking the best attributes from both genres without making
their influences too overpowering. Cuts like “Shake,” “Love” and
“SuperSalad” all shine, while other numbers such as “Friends” and
“PsychoLove” take a more introverted look at life without
sacrificing anything in the music. Even the production, which
almost has a treble-like bass sound to it, is refreshingly
crisp.
When listening to this, one has to wonder what took Pinnick so
long to put this out – or at least to get this type of an influence
into King’s X’s music. Honestly, had they kicked this type of a
flavor into their music, they would have been in the ballpark of
superstardom. Instead, Pinnick has to shake off the albatross of
King’s X to create his own vibe. Fortunately, he succeeds.
Things do get a little tiring near the end of
Massive Grooves, but overall Poundhound sounds like the
album that Pinnick has been waiting all these years to do. It’s a
breath of fresh air in a world of music that often has a smell of
stagnation, and it should not be overlooked.