Scentzilla!

I love geeks. (Of course, one could argue that’s out of self-preservation, but I can only aspire to geekiness… I’m stuck over here in Dorktown.) I would think it’s universally accepted nowadays that geeks create their own kind of cool.

Meet Lothar & the Hand People. Lothar is not a human; Lothar is a theremin. This band out of Denver is not especially well known. But their techno/hippie daftness has inspired others who are well known, from the Chemical Brothers sampling their work, to giving Mike Myers a name for one of his sillier Saturday Night Live skits. Even Julian Cope apparently approves. Lothar & the Hand People are the epitome of cool geeks.

Listen to a sample of “Paul, In Love,” and remember it was released in 1968. They were eccentric, and arguably ahead of their time with this track.

Interesting side note: There is a direct and funny little connection between the theremin and fragrance. Composer Harry Revel collaborated with theremin master Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman for an album filled with songs inspired by Corday’s perfumes, called Perfume Set to Music. You can read more about it by visiting BastaMusic.com.

Demeter is the house that Christopher Brosius built, going against the tradition of beautiful smells by appreciating interesting smells. While some of the Demeters are conventionally pretty in a way, some are simply unwearable in their peculiarity. It’s the unwearable ones that find Demeter at the peak of its geeky-cool game.

Mesquite is one of their oddballs which once I knew existed, I had to have it.

It reminds more of barbeque chip flavoring than of straight mesquite, but that’s okay, too. Demeter’s Mesquite smells sweet and smokey, with a little leathery undertone that is likely providing the smoke. My highest compliment is that it makes a terrible perfume, magnificently out of place on the human body. Creating a spray to make people smell like meat marinade qualifies as a modest proposal, and the satire-lover in me enjoys how deliciously wrong it is.

However, I have finally succumbed to buying one of their pretty scents. Our new house has a bathroom with no windows, and without going into too much detail, I’ll just say something was needed to freshen up the air in there from time to time. I was surprised to see that the Wild Oats now nearest me carries a fairly decent selection of Demeter, including the home fragrance sprays. Bamboo was selected, because when testing my husband enthused, “hey, this doesn’t smell gross!” (We both object to the harsh edge of most commercial aerosol sprays.) Bamboo smells of dewy, sappy green stems, and while not exactly mimicking nature, it comes close enough for our purposes. The price doesn’t bite too hard, even at $18, since one or two pumps on the spray is all it takes to get the job done.

I admittedly have bought very few fragrances in the line. Many have a strange synthetical twang I don’t personally care for. But I simply can’t imagine what the future of smell culture might look like without Brosius’ work at Demeter and CB I Hate Perfume. And I don’t want to. His idiosyncratic choices make perfumery more interesting, and we’re all the luckier for them.

Next on the list of geeky cool Demeters I have to try? Earthworm. It’s so wrong. So gross. I can’t wait.

Image of album cover from lotherandthehandpeople.com, and Paul, In Love is from the album Presenting… Lothar & the Hand People, which is available used through Amazon sellers and new through Music Millennium.