GOF 003 Diary of a Shiteater
by Girls Who Hate Their Mothers and The Chicken Fucks 1983
by Girls Who Hate Their Mothers and The Chicken Fucks 1983
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digitized from Leslie Singer's original cassette master,
by Hal McGee, June 2019 |
Editor's Note: Leslie and I want to thank Little Fyodor for contributing digitizations of his personal copy of Diary of a Shiteater that he received directly from Leslie in the 1980s. The above rendition of the tape cover is taken from his copy.
Diary of a Shiteater cover variation
Diary of a Shiteater cover at Discogs
Review of Diary of a Shiteater by Graham Ingels, Castanets cassette review section, OP Magazine, "S" issue, September-October 1983
Diary of a Shiteater is a tape that as I recall I was selling for a penny. I sold quite a few. I wonder what happened to them. Probably still stilling in landfills across the US.
Diary of a Shiteater was completed circa May/June 1983. After the death of Gloria Swanson (April 1983 — you can see a photo of her on the cover of Little Fyodor's copy above) but before the recording of the Mary Davis Kills Mary Davis Kills show at Ollie's in July 1983 (on the Confessions of a Shit Addict cassette).
Diary of a Shiteater is a volcanic bubble of cut up samples and songs by me, Girls on Fire, with my old bandmates, who were then in the second incarnation of Psychodrama (Brett, Rob and Mark), plus snippets by other artistes and found audio —— All put through the metaphorical meat grinder with audio levels pushed into the red even more than The Velvets' White Light/White Heat, and blown out speakers crackling with distortion. Very demonic. Like a horror movie version of the documentation of the John Cage/David Tudor performance of Variations IV recorded at the Feigen/Palmer Gallery in 1963; with the distorted voices and art opening/party conversation.
Brett and Rob would send me cassette tapes and I interspersed them with the stuff I was coming up with. I don't think that I sent them the tape in advance to review or approve before it went out into the world. I also don't remember their reactions to the tape either. However, I do think that Brett came up with the name "The Chicken Fucks" and I definitely remember coming up with the name "Girls Who Hate Their Mothers." I think that we went with the different names because both of those names seemed more even more aggressive to us like the cut-up process/sounds on the tape than even Psychodrama or Girls on Fire.
Diary of a Shiteater was completed circa May/June 1983. After the death of Gloria Swanson (April 1983 — you can see a photo of her on the cover of Little Fyodor's copy above) but before the recording of the Mary Davis Kills Mary Davis Kills show at Ollie's in July 1983 (on the Confessions of a Shit Addict cassette).
Diary of a Shiteater is a volcanic bubble of cut up samples and songs by me, Girls on Fire, with my old bandmates, who were then in the second incarnation of Psychodrama (Brett, Rob and Mark), plus snippets by other artistes and found audio —— All put through the metaphorical meat grinder with audio levels pushed into the red even more than The Velvets' White Light/White Heat, and blown out speakers crackling with distortion. Very demonic. Like a horror movie version of the documentation of the John Cage/David Tudor performance of Variations IV recorded at the Feigen/Palmer Gallery in 1963; with the distorted voices and art opening/party conversation.
Brett and Rob would send me cassette tapes and I interspersed them with the stuff I was coming up with. I don't think that I sent them the tape in advance to review or approve before it went out into the world. I also don't remember their reactions to the tape either. However, I do think that Brett came up with the name "The Chicken Fucks" and I definitely remember coming up with the name "Girls Who Hate Their Mothers." I think that we went with the different names because both of those names seemed more even more aggressive to us like the cut-up process/sounds on the tape than even Psychodrama or Girls on Fire.
scan of Diary of a Shiteater cassette at Discogs
Side 1 of Diary of a Shiteater:
— Girls on Fire song — “I Wish I was Andy Warhol”
Pure vocal and guitar screech.
The lyrics: “I wish I was Andy Warhol, I wish I could say yes to everything, I wish I could say everything is great.”
Pure vocal and guitar screech.
The lyrics: “I wish I was Andy Warhol, I wish I could say yes to everything, I wish I could say everything is great.”
— A sample from Gang of Four from the song “I Love a Man in a Uniform”.
— Rob sings: “I want to smell black leather…” and “Thanks for the memories…”.
— A sample from the Ramones (all these samples are only three or four seconds long at the most).
— Girls on Fire song: “I Feel Sad About Tennessee Williams”
“Terrible day, beautiful scenes, He was an old fat alcoholic but I’m so sad because he’s so dead.”
This was written upon hearing of the playwright, Tennessee Williams' passing.
— Rob sings: “I want to smell black leather…” and “Thanks for the memories…”.
— A sample from the Ramones (all these samples are only three or four seconds long at the most).
— Girls on Fire song: “I Feel Sad About Tennessee Williams”
“Terrible day, beautiful scenes, He was an old fat alcoholic but I’m so sad because he’s so dead.”
This was written upon hearing of the playwright, Tennessee Williams' passing.
— A sample from the Siouxsie and the Banshees song, “Hong Kong Garden”.
— A sample from a Smithsonian music of the world record.
— A sample from The Contortions' album, Buy.
— A sample from the Talking Heads song “Swamp”: (I do a cover version of “Swamp” on Life is Too Funny—I Think I'll $hoot Myself).
— Girls on Fire song – “Eva Hesse”
The lyrics: “My name is Eva Hesse. My life is absurd. I have a brain tumor.”
This song is about the influential American sculptor, Eva Hesse, who died at a young age from a brain tumor.
— A sample from Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman”.
— Audio of a conversation with Brett, Mark and Rob discussing their favorite TV shows such as the Three Stooges and their desire for Psychodrama to become a party band. (I think that they are being sarcastic on this point.) In the background, The Cars song “Shake It Up” is playing and Brett references it.
— A sample from The B-52’s song “Party Out of Bounds”.
— Several unidentifiable hardcore punk samples.
— A sample from Jill Kroesen’s “Jesus Song”.
— A little Psychodrama ditty song by Rob about being anti-social.
— A sample from a Smithsonian music of the world record.
— A sample from The Contortions' album, Buy.
— A sample from the Talking Heads song “Swamp”: (I do a cover version of “Swamp” on Life is Too Funny—I Think I'll $hoot Myself).
— Girls on Fire song – “Eva Hesse”
The lyrics: “My name is Eva Hesse. My life is absurd. I have a brain tumor.”
This song is about the influential American sculptor, Eva Hesse, who died at a young age from a brain tumor.
— A sample from Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman”.
— Audio of a conversation with Brett, Mark and Rob discussing their favorite TV shows such as the Three Stooges and their desire for Psychodrama to become a party band. (I think that they are being sarcastic on this point.) In the background, The Cars song “Shake It Up” is playing and Brett references it.
— A sample from The B-52’s song “Party Out of Bounds”.
— Several unidentifiable hardcore punk samples.
— A sample from Jill Kroesen’s “Jesus Song”.
— A little Psychodrama ditty song by Rob about being anti-social.
scan of Diary of a Shiteater cassette at Discogs
Side 2 of Diary of a Shiteater:
— Audio from a G.I. Joe TV commercial from circa 1979 or 1980. When I was little I was quite the tomboy. I would play with G.I. Joe's instead of baby dolls or Barbie's. When I was seven years old I refused to join the Brownies (the intro group to the Girl Scouts) because going to their meetings would have cut into my time playing with my G.I. Joe’s.
— The same old car crash sample that everyone and me uses over and over again.
— More singing from Rob.
— More from Buy by The Contortions.
Audio from a Calvin Klein TV commercial. I use a loop of this audio on the track “My Calvins” which appear on Confessions of a Shit Addict.
This audio I pulled from the amazing Just Another Asshole #5 audio compilation put out by Barbara Ess. It is from the track entitled “Calvin Klein” by Vikky Alexander. I read a review of the compilation in New York Rocker and ordered and received a copy directly from Barbara Ess. The project is a real who’s who of the NYC downtown/East Village art scene of the late ‘70’s/early ‘80’s. I knew one of the contributors, Richard Morrison (“Die”) from about 2009 until his untimely demise in 2015. He was a neighbor, a wonderful host and artistic supporter. I miss him and his roommate, author and Gay and LSD activist, Larry Mitchell, very much.
— A sample from my cover version of the Mars’ song from No New York, “Tunnel".
— Girls on Fire song: “My Telephone”.
The lyrics: “My telephone won’t ring, I paid my bill, what’s wrong, my telephone?”
— The same old car crash sample that everyone and me uses over and over again.
— More singing from Rob.
— More from Buy by The Contortions.
Audio from a Calvin Klein TV commercial. I use a loop of this audio on the track “My Calvins” which appear on Confessions of a Shit Addict.
This audio I pulled from the amazing Just Another Asshole #5 audio compilation put out by Barbara Ess. It is from the track entitled “Calvin Klein” by Vikky Alexander. I read a review of the compilation in New York Rocker and ordered and received a copy directly from Barbara Ess. The project is a real who’s who of the NYC downtown/East Village art scene of the late ‘70’s/early ‘80’s. I knew one of the contributors, Richard Morrison (“Die”) from about 2009 until his untimely demise in 2015. He was a neighbor, a wonderful host and artistic supporter. I miss him and his roommate, author and Gay and LSD activist, Larry Mitchell, very much.
— A sample from my cover version of the Mars’ song from No New York, “Tunnel".
— Girls on Fire song: “My Telephone”.
The lyrics: “My telephone won’t ring, I paid my bill, what’s wrong, my telephone?”
— Audio of Brett reprimanding me while talking over some religious music about how I should do songs about the sanctity of the soul instead of shit about my job.
— Girls on Fire song: “Sylvia Plath was Smart”.
The lyrics: “Sylvia Plath was smart, stuck her head in an oven as soon as her kids were born, She didn’t fuck their minds up like you did Mother.” Well, at this point, I’m sure none of that is true. Moving right along…
— Girls on Fire song: “Sylvia Plath was Smart”.
The lyrics: “Sylvia Plath was smart, stuck her head in an oven as soon as her kids were born, She didn’t fuck their minds up like you did Mother.” Well, at this point, I’m sure none of that is true. Moving right along…
— Samples of gamelan music.
— More noise and more guitar from Girls on Fire.
— More noise and more guitar from Girls on Fire.
— Girls on Fire song: “Cindy Sherman”
The lyrics: “It puts me into convulsions, it is so blank, so meaningless, Just like 1963, it’s 1983.” I have always been a fan of Cindy Sherman’s work even the stuff I don’t like.
The lyrics: “It puts me into convulsions, it is so blank, so meaningless, Just like 1963, it’s 1983.” I have always been a fan of Cindy Sherman’s work even the stuff I don’t like.
— More samples from that Smithsonian world music record.
— “Arlington Ridge Road”- a demo of a song from my Psychodrama days- nothing but screams and guitar noise about impressions of that road that runs from Arlington into Alexandria, Virginia.
— A sample from Brian Eno’s song “No One Receiving” from his album Before and After Science.
— Audio of Rob talking about acoustic drums on a punk record. “You can’t have a punk record without acoustic drums”.
— Girls on Fire song – “Eva Hesse”, the full song. The lyrics: “My name is Eva Hesse. My life is absurd. I have a brain tumor.” This song is about the influential American sculptor, Eva Hesse, who died at a young age from a brain tumor. I sound like that demonic, homicidal talking doll from the Twilight Zone episode, "Living Doll", starring Telly Savalas (Kojak).
— “Arlington Ridge Road”- a demo of a song from my Psychodrama days- nothing but screams and guitar noise about impressions of that road that runs from Arlington into Alexandria, Virginia.
— A sample from Brian Eno’s song “No One Receiving” from his album Before and After Science.
— Audio of Rob talking about acoustic drums on a punk record. “You can’t have a punk record without acoustic drums”.
— Girls on Fire song – “Eva Hesse”, the full song. The lyrics: “My name is Eva Hesse. My life is absurd. I have a brain tumor.” This song is about the influential American sculptor, Eva Hesse, who died at a young age from a brain tumor. I sound like that demonic, homicidal talking doll from the Twilight Zone episode, "Living Doll", starring Telly Savalas (Kojak).
— Psychodrama with Brett singing doing a song about Ian McKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi fame. I think that Brett is making fun of Ian.
— Girls on Fire song — “Beautiful Sexy Luscious Car Crashes”.
The lyrics: “I want to see beautiful, sexy, luscious car crashes, they turn me on and on, They even turn my boss on, blood everywhere.”
— Girls on Fire song — “Beautiful Sexy Luscious Car Crashes”.
The lyrics: “I want to see beautiful, sexy, luscious car crashes, they turn me on and on, They even turn my boss on, blood everywhere.”
— Audio of Brett, Mark and Rob talking about fitting into shirts and kicking Rob out of the band because he is too fat to fit into his shirt. Then it goes into a chant about short hair, “Short Hair, Short Dicks.” Brett says he took a poll and it is true.
Then there is some discussion of Brett getting shot at a party.
— Audio of telephone recording with Brett and unknown young woman. Brett starts off the conversation by identifying himself as Jesus and apologizing for Psychodrama’s performance at a party. It sounds like the young woman was the host of the party. She seems surprised to hear from Brett and while she seems to appreciate his apology, she mentions that Mark pulling out a knife and menacing the guests with it, was not appreciated. Brett tries to keep her on the phone while she keeps saying she has got to get go. He says that the call is being recorded and will appear on the next Psychodrama record as the band wants to apologize to DC for their actions. Then Brett says something very rude to the young woman and she rightfully tells him to “Fuck Off” and hangs up the phone. In response, Brett and company’s reaction is peals of laughter at their prank call.
— A sample of Toni Basil’s hit song “Mickey” and then once again a bit of the hardcore punk mixed with flute sounds that have weaving in and out a bit so far.
— The tape culminates with a Psychodrama song with Brett saying at the end “That is another one for Dody.” Most likely a reference to the owner of the legendary, original 9:30 Club, Dody Bowers. Then more peals of laughter in reaction to that.
Then there is some discussion of Brett getting shot at a party.
— Audio of telephone recording with Brett and unknown young woman. Brett starts off the conversation by identifying himself as Jesus and apologizing for Psychodrama’s performance at a party. It sounds like the young woman was the host of the party. She seems surprised to hear from Brett and while she seems to appreciate his apology, she mentions that Mark pulling out a knife and menacing the guests with it, was not appreciated. Brett tries to keep her on the phone while she keeps saying she has got to get go. He says that the call is being recorded and will appear on the next Psychodrama record as the band wants to apologize to DC for their actions. Then Brett says something very rude to the young woman and she rightfully tells him to “Fuck Off” and hangs up the phone. In response, Brett and company’s reaction is peals of laughter at their prank call.
— A sample of Toni Basil’s hit song “Mickey” and then once again a bit of the hardcore punk mixed with flute sounds that have weaving in and out a bit so far.
— The tape culminates with a Psychodrama song with Brett saying at the end “That is another one for Dody.” Most likely a reference to the owner of the legendary, original 9:30 Club, Dody Bowers. Then more peals of laughter in reaction to that.
Castanets cassette review section, OP Magazine, "S" issue, September-October 1983