Featuring two former members of the California desert rock specialists Thin White Rope, Odom-Kunkel have released their second recording, the 4-song 10-inch EP “Sniffing Spirits,” the set available now via Too Long to Chew Music. Stoo Odom brings the upright bass and vocals, and Roger Kunkel handles the guitar. Rootsy with an experimental, improvised edge, the quality rises with repeated spins.
Thin White Rope was a key band from the desert rock side of the Paisley Underground spectrum, forming in the early 1980s in Davis, CA, and releasing their debut album, Exploring the Axis, in 1985 on Frontier Records. Guitarist Roger Kunkel was in the band from essentially the beginning and remained a participant until they called it quits in 1992.
To the band’s credit, it’s not exactly easy to choose Thin White Rope’s best record. The debut is solid, its follow-up Moonhead (1987) is a little better, and third LP In a Spanish Cave (1988) maintains the quality, but Sack Full of Silver (1990), with its leftfield cover of Can’s “Yoo Doo Right,” likely takes the prize. The final album, The Ruby Sea (1991), is far from a disappointment, however.
Bassist Stoo Odom joined late, playing on The Ruby Sea and the EP “Squatter’s Rights” (also 1991). Odom also plays on The One That Got Away (1993), a double live set documenting Thin White Rope’s final show. That gig took place in Ghent, Belgium, on June 28, 1992. It doesn’t appear that Thin White Rope has ever reunited.
Odom and Kunkel’s rejoining of forces first brought Here Comes the Space Cow in 2025, the debut adding Max Hart on Hammond organ and pedal steel and Bart Van der Zeeuw on drums. Still available on vinyl, with a digital option on Bandcamp, the set exudes a playful, rockish vibe, with plenty of appealing moments and a culminating version of “Buddy Bolden’s Blues.”
Essentially stripped back to a duo, “Sniffing Spirits” is a less forward thrusting and more enveloping affair. There is something like percussion in the ragged, bluesy opener “The Sniffing Song,” the highlight of which is a tough slide-guitar solo with big, thick upright-bass notes underneath.
Stretching out to over seven minutes and reinforcing the duo’s improvisational bona fides, “Smell” is the set’s standout, the pair intermingling until roughly in the middle, when some desert noir guitar motifs take shape, drift away, and then come rolling back full force for the close. And there’s a sweet drone as bedrock for the entirety of the piece.
Odom’s vocals return for “You Gotta Feed,” less in singing mode and halfway to recitation, which works very nicely with the surrounding instrumentation, especially Odom’s arco moves as the cut concludes. Closer “Taste” begins with some more extremely low-toned bowed bass rumble in a return to the improv zone sans vocals. In desert rock terms, this gets into the ballpark of Sonic Youth playing Desolation Center, capping off a very engaging release. Hopefully, Odom and Kunkel continue in this duo-improv formation for a full LP.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
