The zine is presented one page at a time in the size it was scanned. It is followed (for older eyes) with a repeat of each page in the largest size that the columns would allow.

Artitude Issue #4 repeated in larger image size...

Artitude Issue #3 repeated in larger image size..

The zine is presented one page at a time in the size it was scanned. It is followed (for older eyes) with a repeat of each page in the largest size that the columns would allow.

Artitude Issue #2 repeated in larger image size...

Artitude Issue #1 repeated in larger image size...

Veteran hometaper and radio personality Don Campau broadcast the last of his long running No Pigeonholes radio shows on December 15, 2019. Don had been in radio since 1971 but didn't launch No Pigeonholes until 1985, where the show spent its life on listener supported station KKUP in Cupertino, California.

No Pigeonholes was born out of Don's cassette culture activities: "In early 1984 I got the idea to do an all home tapes show but at first didn’t have enough. I started a massive letter-writing campaign and solicited cassettes from addresses in Option (magazine). The underground scene was pretty fledgling in those days but gradually it really snowballed to where it is today." (quotes from my upcoming book, "Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age")

Don's enthusiasm for his work reflected the communal spirit of the 'anyone can be an artist' aesthetic: "For me, the challenge has been with my radio show. Because of the amount of submissions it has been difficult to get everyone on the air in a timely manner. Sure, I love quality music but my No Pigeonholes show is more about giving people a chance to be heard and letting their music speak for itself. And although I do try to pick out what I think is the best songs from a person/bands' submission, I give everyone airplay no matter the style, no matter if I think they suck. You do not have to be good, fashionable, or professional to be on No Pigeonholes. That being said, I am always amazed at the amount of talent and creativity out there."

Wow, nearly 35 years... KUDOS Don! I have always been inspired by your energy, enthusiasm, community spirit, and I DIG your music!

The good news is that Don is by no means slinking off into retirement. His spin-off EXP show continues to air on KOWS, at kowsfm.com. He will also be working on an archival project, which I am especially excited about.

CLICK HERE to listen to the final No Pigeonholes show.

In the early 2000s Chris Phinney posted a handful of songs from his band Viktimized Karcass (VK) to mp3.com (remember that?!!). These were random tracks rather than albums. But the samplings were so intriguing that I have been itching to hear full albums ever since. When I embarked on the journey with Hal McGee and Chris to document the history of his Harsh Reality label, as much as I enjoyed pouring through each tape, I was edgily waiting for HR019 when I knew we would reach the first Karcass cassette, and that they would come fast and furious throughout the remainder of the catalog.

I have long considered Alien Planetscapes, F/i, and ST 37 to represent the pantheon of 1980s American underground Space Rock bands. And while I’ve only heard four VK cassette albums so far, the music has been so unique and creatively OUT THERE that the band clearly deserve the same accolades I’ve been heaping on the others for so long.
 
I have always loved Hawkwind’s Space Ritual, in part because of the spaced out, Blanga rocking chaos. But the Hawks have got nothing on VK for cosmic insanity. VK usually defy analogies, but my reviews of the first four tapes include references to Hawkwind, Chrome, Captain Beefheart, and, get this… ZZ Top, demonstrating the twisted, inverted, and totally art damaged impressions the music made on me.
 
If these analogies raise your eyebrows, just check out ‘Moving To Georgia’ on the Atrocity Slaughter album (HR022). Imagine a ZZ Top meets Chrome, acid drenched, space rocking jam and you might get something like this tune. The guitars screech and scream like banshees wailing and the vocals have a cool Damon Edge/Billy Gibbons quality that are very much on a surreal Alien Soundtracks/Rio Grande Mud point on the rock ‘n’ roll axis.

VK easily out Hawkwind the Hawks on their A Matter Of Principle (HR019) debut. I love how Side A wraps up with ‘Prelude To (Crazy)’, a mapcap jam that sounds like a lo-fi, industrial, yet heavy rocking take on the more freeform moments of Space Ritual. The oscillators are cranking and the guitars are jamming for what is just a prelude to the anarchy that continues on Side B with ‘Crazy’, with its screaming synths, cosmically carnivalesque electronic melodies, and crazy as hell but riotously fun tape manipulated vocals.
 
VK was launched with an intentional air of mystery. Before any music had been released, Chris published a full page ad in issue #3 of his Malice Fanzine which simply read: “Beware of Viktimized Karcass”, and including info c/o Malice.

The band began as the quartet of Chris, Roger Moneymaker, Richard Martin, and Pete McLean on drums. McLean would prove to be unreliable and passed away some years later. (A side note is that McLean was Alex Chilton’s cousin.) Richard Martin would already be familiar to Harsh Reality followers, having recorded with Chris in Macroglossia and Eternal Concessions.

But Moneymaker’s guitar took me completely by surprise. Fire up Side B of the Madness & Mayhem tape (HR025) and you’ll hear what I mean. The guitar is absolutely OUT THERE, with killer swirling, serpentine, Beefheart bluesy, brain fried leads. Moneymaker is a monster freakout guitarist on this stretched out space rock and sound effects experimental jam for the ages.

A few other musicians would join VK, including Mike Jackson, Phinney’s partner in another prolific band, Cancerous Growth. But Phinney, Moneymaker and Martin would be mainstays throughout the band’s history, which lasted until the early 1990s when Chris brought Harsh Reality to a close.

Not only was VK Chris' favorite of all his Harsh Reality bands and collaborations throughout the 1980s, but he considers it to have been the Harsh Reality ‘house band’.
 
In addition to over 30 tapes released on Harsh Reality (including an Alien Karcasscapes collaboration with Alien Planetscapes – HR047), VK tapes appeared on numerous other labels including Big Body Parts, IRRE Tapes, Lord Litter’s Out Of The Blue, Sound Of Pig, Audiofile Tapes, Galactus Tapes, Xkurzhen Sound, Prion Tapes, Old Europa Café, Alternate Media Tapes, EE Tapes, The Rat Music Company, and SSS Productions.
 
At the time I published this article, Hal McGee is digitizing and uploading the four VK tapes we’ve covered so far, along with the other new catalog tapes we’ve covered through HR026.
 
While this article focuses on Viktimized Karcass, it is really a status report, insidiously intended to focus the world’s attention on developments with the Harsh Reality historical site and, hopefully, keep your interests fired up.
 
Every tape in the catalog is, to varying degrees, a gem. Not only was Harsh Reality an important label in cassette culture history, a significant portion of the catalog documents the creative activities of a sprung-from-the-punk era, no holds barred, experimental slice of the Memphis, Tennessee creative milieu, consisting of label honcho Chris Phinney and his cohorts in what they liked to term the ‘Memphis Mafia’.
 
The Harsh Reality historical site can be found HERE
 
Bookmark this link and check it REGULARLY for updates!!

MORE photos below...

Digital music is fantastic. It is instantly, globally DISTRIBUTABLE. And it couldn’t be easier and cheaper for artists to collaborate. In short, I’m a supporter.

I am also a child of the 70s who spent countless hours sequestered in my bedroom listening to record albums and gazing at the covers. The music in those days got my full, undivided attention. People don’t necessarily do that in our 21st century world of DISTRACTION.

I am still a sucker for physical product. Three recent acquisitions are poster children for the beauty of music released by artists who put genuine tender loving thought and care into the entire package which is, ultimately, all part of the EXPERIENCE of the music they have created.

This is a tribute to music as something I can hold in my hands while listening. And, in these cases, marvel at the care that went into them. What follows is one vinyl LP, one cassette tape, and one CD. All are also available digitally.

Blood Rhythms – “Civil War” (LP)

I’ll say at the outset that this is the granddaddy of all physical music packages I have seen in years. The LP is pressed on red vinyl, comes housed in a sturdy gatefold jacket, and includes an absolutely STUNNING 44 page glossy art booklet. View the video for a detailed look.

The entire set is a delightful audio art, soundscape, collage, noise excursion. The music excels at simultaneous aggression and tranquil thematic development. I love how the music dramatically twists and turns on emotional and mood shattering dimes. It can be harsh, but there is a LOT going on… much sonic ear candy for the brain to ingest and absorb. I have listened to this LP several times, flipping slowly and intentionally through the art book, transfixed by the images. The imagery absolutely impacts the experience of the sounds on the LP!

Check out the No Part Of It label at https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com

Greathumour – “Hog is Dressed (Cassette)
 
EC community member Max Eastman’s Tribe Tapes label is new to me. Max got my attention when he posted a picture of this package and I promptly placed an order. The tape comes housed in a ziplock bag with an 8 ½ x 11 cover and credits, which is tastefully adorned with dried goodies from the ground.
 
This is an excellent set of experimental sound exploration that blends all kinds of fun electronics, keys and effects. The space electronics appeal to me. And I really like the church organ that blends with swirling bee swarm noise textures. The wind tunnel rush of noise and static is punctuated by oscillations and various other effects, some of which can be quite harsh, though it’s tempered at times by bits of groaning organ melody. Later Max blasts off into space for an onslaught of whimsical alien effects that attempt to navigate through a caustic maze of sound chaos. Things even get a wee bit rhythmic at times. Very cool!
 
Visit the Tribe Tapes label at https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com

Moon Men “3” (CD)
 
Moon Men is the quartet of EC community member Bret Hart, Bill Jungwirth, Jerry King, and Dave Newhouse. I’ve been following Bret’s music for nearly 20 years and have written about him extensively. And Newhouse was a founding member of Washington, DC based prog-jazz-Canterbury legends The Muffins.
 
I’ll confess that I only buy CDs anymore if they are by an artist I follow closely. Other than that, I’ll opt for digital if only CD is available. But Bret is not one to be hindered by the physical limitations of the format, which is no surprise because he came from the 1980s CASSETTE world!!
 
I sprung for the special limited edition. Check this out… The CD is housed in a gatefold jacket, but also comes with a postcard signed by the band members, a poster, and a bonus 3” CDR  with accompanying 14 page handmade, PERSONALIZED art booklet. Isn’t it loverly? View the video for a detailed look.
 
This is the third Moon Men album and, like the others, it’s a crazy but totally seamless blend of avant-jazz-progressive rock… Prog-jazz with an adventurous experimental edge. I like how jazzy horns trip along on ‘Peas & Carrots & Grass’ to a steady jazz-rock rhythmic pulse. After a few minutes the guitar challenges them and the musicians bull and matador circle each other, slowly jamming and finding their way as noise and effects color the proceedings. I love the contrast between the chaotic jamming groove, sweetly swooning horns, and brief punked out vocals on ‘Coeur De Boeuf’. Lusciously clunky!
 
Other highlights include ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon Is Dark For A Reason’, which has a dreamy melodic vibe that recalls the Canterbury sound of 1980s Muffins. But it’s amped up an experimental notch with scratching effects, clatter percussion and cascading electronics. Dig that lazy, lysergic jazz-blues on ‘Nurse Ratched’. Moon Men get nicely spacey on ‘The Mutt Stars And Cat Planets’, rocking HARD in alien prog-jazz land, but later make a gradual descent into a beautifully melodic Canterbury finale.
 
Progheads with a taste for the creatively strange will dig this!
 
Check out this and LOADS of other Bret Hart releases at https://bhhstuff.bandcamp.com

My introduction to the wild, whacky, wonderful world of Charles Rice Goff III was in 2001 when he submitted a CD by his band the Magic Potty Babies for review in my online zine Aural Innovations. My positive response to what I described at the time as “cosmic but crazy… meditational but chaotic”, and my inclusion of the album on my Best of 2001 list, led to what has been an 18 years and still counting journey into the work of an artist who sounds like no one but himself (and that includes his many band projects).

Regular visitors to the EC site will recall a few songs inspired by The Doors that Charles posted in recent months. If you enjoyed those then you’ll be tickled to know that he has now released a full nine song album. And you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that Charles doesn’t “cover” Doors songs. As he says in the notes to the Swinging From Loose Hinges collection, “The interpretations presented here showcase how the Doors’ approaches to composition, performance, experimentation, and expression, affect me as an artist, right here in the 21st Century. While these recordings all contain elements of their antecedents, they each have a life of their own.”

The “right here in the 21st Century” part is important to note, because Charles explains that the Doors have been a powerful life-long inspiration, having recorded the first album of contemporary music he ever possessed (he was 8 years old, now 60).

I like to get immersed in an artist’s music. And I mean reeeeeally get my brain matter all gnarly wrapped around an album. And Charles make immersion enticing with his penchant for detailed album and track notes.

The music? Come with meeeeeeeee…….

The set opens with “Moonlight Drive”. Charles plays the song acoustic guitar singer/songwriter style, retaining the light, whimsical nature of the original as he embellishes the proceedings with trippy ambient waves, mystical melody and bells, and oddball percussion. After about three minutes the music briefly full band rocks out before receding into a pastorally spaced out finale.

Charles’ take on The Doors’ “My Wild Love” hews closely to the lazy tribal chant of the original, but colors the vocal/percussion core with electronic splashes, soundscapes, spectral choir, and other fun effects.

I love the alien bubbling/gurgling/symphonic electronics, keyboard melody, and guitar on “The Unknown Soldier”, creating a nicely flowing song that’s chock full of collage craftsmanship and oodles of freaky effects fun.

​“Wishful Sinful” is all Goff. He starts off like he’s going to do “Touch Me”, but then starts to recite other Morrison lyrics and layers in collaged vocals from, hold on to your hats… The Book of Revelations. The music then melts into a dreamily pop rocking version of “Wishful Sinful”. I love the way Charles creates the pop-orchestral elements of the song. There’s lots of lysergic montage effects fun, and near the end we briefly descend into psychedelic darkness and then, finally, a brief but lulling acoustic finale. Lots going on here, with many twists and turns, and Charles makes it flow seamlessly.

I had no idea until reading Charles’ track notes that The Doors’ “L'America”, which was on the L.A. Woman album, was originally written to be part of the soundtrack to Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 movie Zabriskie Point, though Antonioni rejected it. Interesting historical factoid. Charles begins with the vocals to the song, peppering it with jittery electronics. But it soon starts to alternate between and blend with a succession of psychedelic dreamland and quirkily eccentric themes.

“The Crystal Ship” is one of my personal favorite Doors songs. It’s so seductively and 60s psychedelically pop song mesmerizing. Charles touched on it during his rendition of “Wishful Sinful”, but here takes it into experimental outer space. Charles sings the core song, though the music is like some zany but beautifully crafted avant-prog composition and includes bits of Morrison himself reciting his poetry.

“Blue Sunday” is such a beautiful Doors song and includes the loveliest of guitar leads. Charles recreates the vibe of the song as only he can, sounding like an intergalactic piano bar crooner. AND, though completely different from the Robbie Krieger guitar of the original, Charles plays a luscious acoustic guitar lead, accompanied by piano and dreamily spaced out harmonies.

​“Aztec Wall Of Vision” caught my attention because I didn’t recognize the title and it’s credited to Jim Morrison/C. Goff III. Charles explains that it’s excerpted from Morrison poems that were never set to music by the Doors. The result is a stream of passionately recited poetry, supported by Frippertronic guitar, clatter percussion, and more.

“When The Music’s Over” is personal favorite in the Doors’ catalog. It’s classic West Coast 60s psych, with a soulfully grooving edge, and at nearly 11 minutes takes off into the cosmos with some killer jamming. Yet it’s trademark Doors, with lots of room for the Lizard King poet to stretch out. Charles’ version kicks off as an acoustic and electronic song with a slightly dissonant yet strangely lulling melody. The melody/rhythm is like a choppy, warbled march, punctuated by effects that are both searing and gurgling. It’s a hell of a roller coaster ride, veering from psychedelically bucolic segments to wigged out gloms of deep space effects, creating one big passionate blend of music, vocals, effects, and creative editing.

A free download of Swinging From Loose Hinges, including artwork and detailed notes, can be found at
https://archive.org/details/SwingingFromLooseHinges

I would also encourage all in the EC community to visit the Taped Rugs Productions web site for the muthaload of Goff history. Charles is a singular talent and creative force whose music is always challenging, different, and fun.

The journey starts here: http://tapedrugs.com

With nine issues published from December 1982 to January 1985, Malice Fanzine ended just as what I’ll call the post-OP zine scene in the U.S. was cranking up. Specifically, the zines that would include industrial, electronic, experimental music in their coverage, and homemade/cassette culture artists.

Malice may have been inspired by hardcore punk, but reading through the reviews in Issue #1 we see coverage of releases by artists such as Monte Cazazza, Richard Bone and Fad Gadget, in addition to more New Wave styled bands. Chris Phinney and Mike Honeycutt’s links to Rough Trade provided a window to the UK scene and, as Mike had explained when I interviewed him a couple years ago about his D.J. experiences in Memphis radio, they were able to leverage their ties to Rough Trade to secure overseas distribution for Malice.

​Issue #1 also included a plug for C.L.E.M., the late great Contact List of Electronic Music. OP magazine may have been a crucial catalyst for the cassette culture network, but Malice had an early finger on the pulse of developments in music coast to coast and across the ocean. Malice’s coverage was local Memphis, national, and international. The local component was also apparent in the increasing number of ads for Memphis record stores, comics shops, photographers, clothing shops, legal stimulants/smoking accessories, and more.

Malice was riotously punk in its attitude. I love the “MESSAGE TO OUR READERS!!” in Issue #4: “Malice would like to thank everyone that gave us a helping hand in putting this issue out. Anyone that stood in the way or fucked with our project can lick a big boner & slobber on a knob!! Fuck ‘em all. Malice is a non-profit organization for the advancement of new music, art & cultural enrichment. Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke!!!!! THANX”

While interviewing Chris for the Harsh Reality Music historical site, which is housed at haltapes.com, I was treated to detailed descriptions of his experiences booking shows at the Antenna Club. EC readers know that things happen because individuals step up and take the initiative. Publishing Malice dovetailed with Chris and Mike’s activities booking many of the bands that played the Antenna. Reading through all nine issues reveals Memphis as a hotbed of live activity. Concert reviews of bands that played the Antenna include a to-die-for gamut of punk and New Wave, including Bad Brains, Mission of Burma, U.K. Subs, Circle Jerks, Gun Club, Panther Burns, Shockabilly, Sun City Girls, and many others.

Non-Antenna (larger venue) shows included Iggy Pop, Nash the Slash, The Residents, Wall of Voodoo, Psychedelic Furs, and Public Image Limited. Well, ok, the PiL show was at the 688 Club in the Atlanta. I was living in Atlanta during these years and, though I wasn’t at the PiL show, I could write an article about the many fond memories I have of the 688. And four Atlanta bands I knew well from this era, REM, Pylon, Love Tractor, and The Method Actors, cropped up in reviews of shows at the Antenna. (It’s interesting to hear Chris recall booking REM on their first tour when they only had a 7” available and about 35 people were in attendance.)

To emphasize Malice’s importance in documenting the punk, industrial, electronic and experimental scenes, I’ll share some personal favorite highlights. If you haven’t read the scans that are online yet this will hopefully send you running to check them out:

Issue #2 includes an article on Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records. The ‘News & Info’ section lists the “Touch” cassette/magazine, “a unique art-music poetry collaboration”. The contributors weren’t homemade artists, but featured stalwarts of the day like New Order, Simple Minds, Tuxedomoon, Robert Wyatt, and others. Issue #3 has articles on Crass, Chrome, and Cabaret Voltaire, representing an impressive variety of ‘C’ bands! Issue #4 has an article on The Damned.

Issue #5 reviews the great “Rising From The Red Sand” Industrial music cassette compilations, plus reviews of the pre-Muslimgauze E.G. Oblique Graph, and an interview with controversial punk nut G.G. Allin. A full page is dedicated to Twist & Decease, the new cassette by LXSS, who I had not heard of before. I got wrapped up in the description of “dark electronics, tape & voice manipulation, & everything from minimal muzak to all out audio assault”. I couldn’t resist Googling and, surprise surprise, it’s on YouTube. Check out “Off Komarov”, which takes up all of Side A, featuring classic experimental sound and noise fun:

​Though cassettes had been reviewed in Malice, issue #6 is the first to explicitly call out ‘Tape Reviews’ in the table of contents. An entire page is dedicated to reviews of tapes by The Nightcrawlers, Chris Gross, Bliss Blast, and the Macrofusion Computer Music sampler. The last one I’d never heard of and it’s fascinating, in 1983, to read about digital music that is “created totally under computer control.” We’re also treated to articles on G.X. Jupitter-Larsen and The Haters, Maurizio Bianchi (M.B.), and a Suicidal Tendencies interview.

Issue #7 stands out with lots of cassette reviews and significantly more names who are today recognizable cassette culture veterans, including tapes by Tom Furgas, F/i, Human Flesh, Bene Gesserit, the great TRAX “Anthems 2” compilation and “Area Condizionata” cassette magazine, and much more.

Of importance to my work with Hal and Chris on the Harsh Reality Music historical site is the Issue #8 ‘News & Info’ announcement of a “Nu tape label in town, Harsh Reality Music”, and its first four releases plus upcoming tapes. Hopefully all EC readers are by now aware of the availability of digital listening on the Harsh Reality Music home page. Issue #8 also includes interviews with John Oswald (Mystery Tapes label) and Corrosion of Conformity.

Though Malice documents what seems like a vibrant Memphis live scene, Chris was frustrated by the lack of support for truly alternative bands and lost opportunities to book some of them. In the final issue ‘Editorial’, Chris challenges punks: “Why only listen to Hardcore? This is the question I pose to all the so called punks here. I mean open up your fucking mind & learn something! Electronic bands have things to say that are the same or just as important as hardcore groups. Industrial & E.M. & Hardcore go hand in hand.”

It isn’t easy being among the few willing to step up and make things happen…

One of my favorite parts of Malice, and a contributor to what I feel made it such and all around special package, was the ART! Comic art was a huge part of the zine, and increasingly so with each new issue. I was a fan of 70s undergrounds, and some of the art in Malice was on par with the best of 70s underground comix artists.

The two full pages of art by Darmstadter in issue #1 could easily have been from a 70s issue of Slow Death by Greg Irons or Jaxon.

The cover of issue #2 by XNO recalls the best Rich Corben comix art from the 70s.

​I love the clever issue #3 cover by artist Mad Mad, which depicts a chilled out guy with shades on who could be basking in the sun, holding a sign saying “Its Gonna Be A Golden Day! Music and Art for the New Age!”. And a note that the zine is “Free for Now!”. But what our relaxed fellow is basking in is not the sun but a nuclear mushroom cloud.

Another highlight is the issue #4 cover by XNO, which looks like an underground comix take on the crazy art that used to appear in old Hot Rod magazines.

And throughout each issue were Sunday Funnies styled comix, though with a twisted underground edge. And Lee Ellingson’s Testicle Head in issue #8 is like something from the old 50s EC comics.

It’s a thrill to finally be able to read these mags. Not only are they important documents of the era but are absolutely essential to the Harsh Reality Music historical site. Thanks to Chris for making them available and HUGE thanks to Hal for all the scanning!!!

This is the third part of an Electronic Cottage series introducing Malice Fanzine.
Part 1 -- Hal McGee introduces Malice Fanzine Issues #1-5
Part 2 -- Hal McGee introduces Malice Fanzine Issues #6-9

Chris Phinney has a long and varied homemade music/cassette culture history. From zinester, to local Memphis, Tennessee scenester, to homemade recording artist, Harsh Reality Music label head, and well beyond Earth’s orbit, Phinney’s contributions to the dawn of post-punk home recording and networking beg documentation.

I am excited about working with Chris and Hal on the Harsh Reality Music historical web site that will be housed at haltapes.com. Hal started the site with a label discography:
​http://www.haltapes.com/harsh-reality-music.html

A personal side note is that my introduction to both artists was through a review submission of their 1997 Homemade Alien Music Volume 2: Ancient Astronauts collaboration. In 2000, Chris sent me a copy of the CD for review in Aural Innovations, and the cover art and accompanying comic book immediately grabbed my attention. Here is the review I published in the online edition of Aural Innovations (issue #13, October 2000).

Little did I know at the time that this set of space exploratory music was only the beginning of what would be a glorious tsunami of submissions that would find me well steeped in both Chris and Hal’s experimental, electronic, space, noise, cut-up worlds for years to come.

Our approach (so far…)

I am listening to and making detailed track notes for every tape in the catalog. I’m in my element here… My love of deep dive, total immersion into music and writing about it is what drove my passion for running the Aural Innovations web zine for 18 years.

We started with the first ten tapes in the catalog. Check out the Harsh Reality discography and you will see that Hal has the first several releases, including the first of Chris’ ‘bands’ - Pungent Odor and several Skoptzies tapes - digitized and available to stream.

I sent my track notes to Chris, whose memory of these early 1980s efforts needed jogging. With the cobwebs (more or less) cleared, I called Chris on December 5, 2018, and we took a two hour stroll down Harsh Reality memory lane. We discussed his publication of the Malice fanzine, each of the first ten tapes in the catalog, and his efforts to inspire, provoke, and promote a local punk/experimental music scene in Memphis.

Talking to Chris was fascinating.
Chris (and Mike Honeycutt’s) publication and local/ international promotion of Malice, their efforts to promote both local and national touring punk acts in Memphis, and Chris’ international networking/trading/collaborating efforts with Harsh Reality straddle and intertwine with the punk and cassette culture histories that unfolded throughout the 1980s.

CHRIS:
“We started Malice with Bob X and Xno. They were both cartoonists. Mike Honeycutt wrote some stuff and I wrote some stuff. When we started the zine it was a mutual thing. We had artwork from all over the place. We wanted it to be comics, and reviews, live stuff and photos. And we paid for it with ads. As we got closer to the end everyone pretty much kind of quit. The last issue, number 9, I did all by myself. I was talking to Honeycutt and we said, you know, why are we reviewing all these other people’s stuff when we could be doing our own stuff, even though we don’t have the gear to do so? Basically we got burned out on the publishing. So I started a label and started recording with no gear hardly at all.”

The Harsh Reality label released tapes by an exciting array of international artists, including a country specific series of compilations. But beginning with the first Harsh Reality tapes was of particular interest to me because of the very first recorded experiments by Chris and some of his Memphis cohorts. It’s crucial to understand that despite the range of international artists on the label, there was always a local Memphis element, featuring numerous bands and collaborations by a group of musicians that Zan Hoffman dubbed ‘The Memphis Mafia’.

When I was introduced to Chris’ music in 2000, he was already a seasoned home recording artist and knew his way around synths and keys.
​But listening to the first recording under his Mental Anguish moniker aka — HR001: Better Pull That Plug — was a shock and awe experience. The young artist noodling at home and exploring the possibilities features a fun glom of banging on objects, primitive percussion, power tools, ranting vocals, and even some organ and acoustic guitar. All were recorded real time with an Akai 4-track open reel-to-reel.

CHRIS:
“The organ was an organ that my dad had. It was an electronic organ that you plug in. And of course I had an acoustic guitar. A Spanish flamenco. And everything else was basically trash can lids, sheet metal, horseshoes. I was just trying to make my own stuff and see what would happen. It was all pretty much just improv really. Mostly real time, recording as you’re playing it.”

The rest of the first ten releases include collaborations with Mike Honeycutt (Non Religious Sect), Richard Martin (Macroglossia), the Pungent Odor and Skoptzies tapes, another Mental Anguish set, and Chris’ first experience with releasing music by an international artist (Konstruktivists - Psyko-Genetika 2).

And this is just the tip of a 338 tape iceberg. Interviewing Chris by phone about the first ten releases went really well, so I think we’ll continue to attack these in chunks. We allowed the discussions to be sufficiently free-form that all kinds of interesting and important historical bits crept in. I imagine the discussions will always be more detailed when it comes to the local releases that Chris and his mafia cohorts collaborated on. And, indeed, I see the local Memphis component as being a story in itself. Stay tuned for further updates…