The saddest part of all of his is that in our recent conversations, Clark excitedly talked about the future. This also means there will never be another Exterminators show, which is something Clark wanted to do again as he shared with me as recently as January 2020. The band can simply not go on without Clark. No one knew it that night, but it would be their last show. Mighty Sphincter played as recently as February 16, at Chopper John’s for the Sarah Shelton memorial benefit show. Clark suffered from mental illness throughout his adult life and, but the real and sensitive Doug Clark would always show through in the end. Clark rarely had more than a couple of nickels to rub together.Īs is often the case with local rock 'n' roll royalty, he could slip into sometimes long and frightening bouts of manic behavior that would make you wonder if this uglier version of him was the real him.
I was lucky enough to spend many hours at several of his small apartments over the years, and by no means was Clark living an opulent lifestyle. To say he lived a spartan lifestyle is an understatement. He would volunteer his time to distribute food to those less fortunate. He was small in stature and inherently kind. It felt as if Clark had opened a door for me that I hope never shuts. He was very gracious to us, and it was such a great feeling to be part of the Phoenix underground that night. A friend and I filmed Mighty Sphincter at a venue called Crash on Seventh Street and Pima Road in Phoenix. He was temperamental because of the extremely high standards that he set for himself. If something didn't sound just right, he was known to hold up practices or cancel performances. Clark was deadly serious about his music and was something of a perfectionist. He was earnest in his need for Mighty Sphincter to be respected. What many don't know is that Clark wasn't a fan of that aspect of his band. After all, Mighty Sphincter were a band known for their hoaxes. When I messaged Slope Records (who released Mighty Sphincter's 2017 album, Darkest Angel) owner Thomas Lopez to tell him about Clark, his first response was that it couldn’t be real. “He was a big part of how Phoenix punk developed its weirdo sound," remembers Michael Cornelius.Ĭlark started Mighty Sphincter after having been in both Exterminators and Brainz. Numerous tapes and bootlegs are floating around out there.Ĭlark was truly one of the most talented musicians to come out of Phoenix. When you would ask about it, the answer would always be different, too, just like a real vampire would do.īut vampires can have heart attacks. Doug Clark, the guitarist in the influential death rock group Mighty Sphincter, died on March 22, 2020. Over the 38 years they were a band, Mighty Sphincter released five full-length records and a half-dozen or so singles and EPs (if you count official recordings). He also believed that he was a mythological being and celebrated that lifestyle for many years. Doug Clark had fangs like a vampire (they were dental implants). Not many people can honestly say they were friends with a vampire.īut I can.
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