Pink Police

By Harold Zimm

Photo by Jason Reed

Although you’ve never heard of Ronney Osmond, he may seem familiar. So may Quief Moon, The Reverend Bro Diddley and whoever else is playing with Atlanta’s Pink Police this week. Considering the group has ostensibly come from nowhere, the band members seem remarkably good at their instruments. Considering how remarkably good they play their instruments, they seem appallingly unrehearsed.

Ocha La Rocha alumnus Ronney Danger, AKA Ronney Osmond, started the band as a celebration of freedom. Literally.

“I went to court,” says Danger, “and got off probation and everything, and went to celebrate with margaritas. We ended up going to the house and jamming.”

The “we,” in this case, included members of Atlanta titans Sovus Radio and Gringo Star, along with former Ocha drummer Satchel Mallon. Gringo Star’s Nick Furgiuele adds, “We just did a private performance for the mayor, and then they dropped all the charges.” The band also claims to employ Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore as their producer, to be signed to VICE Records and to hold a spot at this year’s Bonnaroo festival.

If it all sounds like they’re making it up, it’s because they are. Just like their live music, they begin their back-story with only a vague idea, and improvise the rest as they go along. Or, as Danger puts it, “We have an idea of what we’re doing, but we don’t really know what we’re doing.” Pink Police’s improvisations have started with covers of Heart and Green Day songs, for example, but few people would recognize their unique interpretation.

Pink Police is a group of established musicians whose regular gigs demand concentration, planning and arduous work. While these pressures are accepted as part of entertaining an audience, the band welcomes the opportunity to improvise and joke in a pressure-free context. The group’s headquarters, Atlanta’s Star Bar, has recently come into vogue as the town’s hippest venue; and, since it is also Danger’s place of employment, the drinking/jam sessions are never short on atmosphere. Says Sovus Radio’s Chris Kaufmann, holding up a glass, “Red Dawn is the official drink of Pink Police.” A Red Dawn, of course, happens to be pink.

Star Bar makes for a great clubhouse but the band is not limited to its own personal cave. At Peter Furgiuele’s suggestion, 97 Estoria, one of Atlanta’s most down-to-earth watering holes, has just recently begun hosting shows as a venue. As the first show approached and the bar could not find a band to play, the brothers Furgiuele brought in Danger and company to help out. The second Pink Police show ever was 97 Estoria’s inaugural show and the bar now hosts live shows every week.

The Pink Police lineup may shift and the songs may never be the same twice, but the band members insist that the act is not an afterthought. They cite world domination as their main goal, but they gladly settle for amusing — and bemusing — the rest of Atlanta’s music community. The band has seemingly infiltrated the independent rock scene because they were already a part of it. One could even argue that they are it, and they’ve already succeeded at entertaining themselves.

www.myspace.com/wearepinkpolice