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| Collapsing Lungs, 1994 (from left): Mark Carpenter (bass), Kyle “Embryo” Henrich (keyboards), Brian Tutunick (vocals), Frank “Crime” Cassara (samples/percussionist/vocals), Chris Nicolas (keyboards), Pete Gross (guitar) and Chris Goldbach (drums). Photo: Atlantic Records, from their press kit. |
This industrialized, nu metal septet was fronted by Brian Tutunick, known in the Marilyn Manson lexicon as “Olivia Newton Bundy,” the band’s first bassist, from its days as a drum machine-backed quartet. Perry Pandrea, aka Zsa Zsa Speck — who formed the precursor, Mirror Mirror, with Brian Warner, aka Marilyn Manson — along with Tutunick, became ex-Spooky Kids in 1990 after the upstarts’ fourth local club date. The duo formed Collapsing Lungs in 1991, soon issuing (without Pandrea) a five-song cassette, Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics (1992).
Courtesy of Marilyn Manson garnering major label interest, labels began poking around South Florida and noticed Collapsing Lungs’ quick development as a standing-room-only club act — courtesy of the local radio hits “Crackerjack” and “Let’s Play a Game” to their credit.
Impressing Atlantic Records at an all-ages showcase at South Florida’s premiere national tour stop for metal bands, The Plus-Five Lounge, as well as at the mainstream alt-rock stop, The Edge (both defunct), the band issued the five-song debut effort, Colorblind (1994).
While MTV added the video for “Crackerjack” to their respective, weekend alternative and metal block programs 120 Minutes and Headbanger’s Ball, and the burgeoning, Dallas-based national radio network Z-Rock added the lead single to “active rotation” (alongside Seattle underdogs, the Melvins), the now hair metal-ignoring active rock radio format and newly-instituted “rock alternative” stations (again, more interested in the “alt-safe” Crash Test Dummies and Spin Doctors) ignored the band. A tumultuous tour ensued (their touring-Winnebago constantly breaking down) resulting in Brian Tutunick leaving the band he created.
The remaining members of the septet — now a sextet with sampler and second vocalist Frank “Crime” Cassara as lead vocalist — quickly regrouped as L.U.N.G.S (depending on the source: an acronym for “Life Under No Greedy Suckers” or “Losers Usually Never Get Signed”). As Atlantic lost interest in the beleaguered band, they signed with the Arizona-based metal specialty imprint Pavement Records, which released the radio and retail ignored Better Class of Loser (1996), featuring the single, “Pull It Off.”
Brian Tutunick returned to Florida stages in 1996 with the electronica/industrial concern Nation of Fear, which released an eponymous full-length effort (1996) and Everything Beautiful Rusts (1999); he followed with the like-minded, Orlando-based Depravity Scale (2011). Frank “Crime” Cassara returned with the punk band, the Mary Tyler Whores. Drummer Chris Goldbach — who sat on the kits for both ’Lungs concerns — did the same for the popular Florida punk bands RadioBaghdad (which also featured Pete Gross) and Against All Authority.
Collapsing Lungs is a case of an innovative band too soon: No sooner did the band split, Jacksonville, Florida, native Fred Durst formulated the analogous-sounding Limp Bizkit in 1994. Nominated for three Grammy Awards, their brand of fusing hard core punk and urban hip hop with ’80s heavy metal and European-industrial sold over 40 million records worldwide — alongside analogous platinum sellers KORN and Linkin Park.
A short-lived Collapsing Lungs reunion occurred in 2020 as lead vocalist Brian Tutunick, Pete Gross, Mark Carpenter, and Chris Nicholas released series of streaming-singles as a precursor to a full-length album that never occurred.
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You can enjoy Collapsing Lungs' P.A.E.L demo and Colorblind, as well as Better Class of Losers from L.U.N.G.S, and the complete discography of Nation of Fear, on Over the Edge Radio You Tube.
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