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5 Girls On Fire cassettes (1983-1985)
you can take the girl out of Psychodrama
but you can't take the Psychodrama out of the girl
GOF 001 — I Think About Jackson Pollock
GOF 003 — Diary of a Shiteater
GOF 004 — Confessions of a Shit Addict
GOF 005 — 
Life is Too Funny — I Think I’ll $hoot Myself
 (updated with new info on October 25, 2018)
GOF 006 — In My Blood
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  I liked the image of the trashcan as it seemed like a joke on Jasper Johns' ale cans (which was a joke on pop art), punk (“We're the flowers in the dustbin” — the Sex Pistols, God Save the Queen), Russian Constructivism with its emphasis on strong angular diagonal lines, Hans Hoffman’s push/pull (the rectangles of Jackson Pollock at work at the top right hand corner and then the painting itself in the bottom).

  I would use my typewriter and the office copier at work to make the covers.  At home, I would add the color elements in with magic marker and crayon.  I used acrylic paint to paint over the labels.  

  The cutesy title lettering on Diary of a Shiteater was intended to be an ironic contrast to the cut up distorted sounds on the tape and the title itself.  I did the lettering by hand on all the copies.  I enjoyed doing it so the heart I added in was genuine good feeling.

  Each cover was an alteration of the one before.  Altered repetition.  I mentioned before that I thought the covers were influenced by Andy Warhol and his use of repetition.  But a lot of great artists have used/use repetition.  Like the original Pop Art question about what makes today’s homes so appealing, what makes repetition so appealing?  For me, it represents the infinite — the place that is no place and every place.
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  Then I put an end to infinity by putting my face on the cover of In My Blood.  I wanted to do something antithetical to rock 'n' roll, so I dressed up in my office garb and make up and went to a head shot photo studio down the street from the FCA office.  I think that I told the photographer that I needed some headshots for an album that I was doing to be released in France.  She got all excited and did a great job.
​  When the Vita Nova label flaked out on me and didn’t send me any copies of the tape, I released it myself with what I would call now the “face and hand tattoo” cover.

Editor's Notes:
​
In early June 2018, I asked Leslie Singer why there wasn't a GOF 002 catalog number, and she replied:

  Back in my Psychodrama days, Brett, Rob, and I would discuss the so-called sophomore syndrome that would affect bands— the first album is amazing, the second is a stinker and the third album is the return to form.  I think that I must’ve taken that received wisdom to heart and decided to skip the whole second album thing and go right to the third album.

I asked her how she came up with the name "Girls On Fire":
  I came up with the name Girls on Fire because I wanted a tough, cool name like one of the No Wave bands had.  Also I had been just listening to the Talkings Heads' song, "Love Goes To Building on Fire".  So I put the two together. 
homemade audio folk art by Hal McGee and friends 1981-2022
  • HalTapes Home
  • Indianapolis 1981-88
  • Contact
  • Walls Of Genius
  • Jay T. Yamamoto
  • Girls On Fire
  • Harsh Reality Music
    • HR107 If Bwana Godfather Revue