Honda

Bruce Jenner (1993)
Incense and Peppermints (1993)

Ask any music lover from Pensacola, Florida, about early ‘90s bands, and Honda will inevitably come up. Singer and songwriter Rusty Dungan was older than most of the other kids in bands, and many looked up to him as a father figure—a drunken, occasionally brilliant father figure who often brought entire pitchers of beer on stage.

Along with band mates Ryan Nalley, Mike Kirkpatrick, and Jay Thomas, Dungan aimed to create a sound somewhere between Mudhoney and Syd Barrett.  Honda frequenly played shows at local dives like Sluggo's, the Handlebar, and occasionally the Niteowl, the local heavy metal club. During their short career, Honda self-released two cassettes.  The six song Honda came out in 1992, and Throw Like a Girl appeared in 1993.  They also managed a short East Coast tour in Mike’s mother’s station wagon and saved money by sleeping in the pop-up camper.

Dungan’s residences included a garage and a supposedly haunted basement, but friends mostly remember the time when he lived in a tent.  According to friend Ryan Gensemer, who played with Dungan in Inca Kola, “We would walk out on a bluff and yell, and he’d come crawling out of the woods for practice.”

"Bruce Jenner" is a highlight of Throw Like a Girl, which was recorded with Tommy Hamilton at Georgia Street Studios. (It also appears on my CD series Tiny Idols Vol. 3, which just came out in July.) Another highlight of the album is drummer Jay Thomas' insane, over-the-top cover of "Incense and Peppermints."