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Skoptzies: Working My Hand Thru The Wheel, 1984

3/1/2019

click on the album cover to visit a special page devoted to the Working My Hand Thru The Wheel cassette album, including audio player and download link, review, interview and 18 vintage photos!

Skoptzies was the first Industrial Rock band in Memphis, Tennessee. The band got its name from an heretical 19th Century Russian Christian sect that practiced genital mutilation in order to avoid the temptations of the flesh.

Skoptzies, which operated from 1983 to 1985, dealt with themes such as gore movies, drug and alcohol abuse, Elvis Presley, Deep South Chrome-like dark psychedelia, and Southern-fried Gothicism.

After two cassette albums on which the band was trying out different approaches and personnel lineups, Skoptzies hit its stride with their third album, Working My Hand Thru The Wheel, which documented their live performance at the Antenna Club in Memphis on November 4, 1984.

On a special page devoted to Working My Hand Thru The Wheel you can read a review by Jerry Kranitz, a 2019 interview with Skoptzies band leader Chris Phinney, listen to the album, and view 18 newly-published vintage photos from live shows and promotional gore pics.
Check it out here:
http://www.haltapes.com/hr008-skoptzies---working-my-hand-thru-the-wheel.html

14 Comments

Chris Phinney

I used to run Harsh Reality Music, started the label in 1982 releasing my own music in various groups. They were Mental Anguish, Pungent Odor who became The Skoptzies, Misfeasance, Macroglossia, RSVP which became Cancerous Growth, Viktimized Karcass, Planet Zero.

Anyway I started releasing tapes by artists that I liked. Over 350 tapes, some vinyl, CDs, CD-Rs, and videos on VHS. Also did distribution of some LPs. Did some writing for mags, some mail art, I did a lot of compilations as well.

Helped run Tapegerm with Bryan Baker, Scott Carr & J Mundok, for 10 years or more, a collaborative site too intense to explain here.

Had my own domain for HRM, shut down the label due to several reasons around 2006 if memory serves.

You can see some of the releases on Hal’s site, the HRM section. Quit Tapegerm around 2010.

Took a 5 year hiatus due to personal reasons but came out of it & did Mental Anguish - Frozen Lake & a few Phinney/McGee microcassette releases.

I have collaborated extensively with Hal McGee, Carl Howard - Nomuzic, Mike Jackson, plus others Prescott, Jeff Central, Charlie Goff, John Hudak, Minóy, Alien Planetscapes, Lord Litter, Don Campau, Angwana which was with Al Margolis hence the name, Pat Grafik, Isaac Ersoff, & a CD-R with a PDF comic book by Matt Howarth released on his label!

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Memphis, Tennessee, USA