HR014 — Spit On It — Various Artists — C60 — 1985
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REVIEW by JERRY KRANITZ
The first Harsh Reality compilation is a 60 minute tour de force of eight American punk bands.
First on deck is three tunes from The Sarcastic Assholes (Marion, VA). ‘Gary Gilmore’ is classic hardcore that’s relatively mild on the thrash and with vocals I can actually make out. This is followed by a dancey New Wave instrumental. Finally, ‘Don’t Smoke’ keeps twisty turny alternating between stoned rock and steroidal thrash.
Dead Silence (Boulder, CO) do something similar on ‘Too Late’, waffling between stoned metal and rockabilly(-ish) punk. Pretty tight rhythm section these guys have. ‘Tug-O-War’ is solidly cranked out punk, with cool fuzzed guitars and ripping, dissonant solos. And ‘Patriots Fight’ has a beerhall anthem quality that makes for a fun rocking tune. Never heard of this band and they’re pretty damn good.
Harsh Reality’s very own Skoptzies make a three song appearance. ‘Tell Me Why’ is fun rocking punk with wailing and squealing keys. ‘Be My Friend’ is some of the most whimsically freaky space punk I’ve ever heard, laying down a tightly funky punk-psych rocking dance groove and blasting off with some wild and crazy electronic effects. And ‘Age-A Part Of Life’ is among the most thrash rocking hardcore songs Skoptzies ever recorded.
Severed Justice (Memphis) pull no punches with their band titled classic hardcore thrashing first of three songs. ‘Let’s Go’ is far more sedate, sounding like a stoner punk band, though later in the song they let their mohawks fly high and cut loose with some more high octane hardcore. But then they surprise by veering into a bluesy psychedelic boogie garage rocker with punk vocals. Severed Justice flash their purest hardcore credentials with their final, merely 23 second ‘Generic Thrash’.
Alright folks, here we’ve got the successor to Skoptzies… Viktimized Karcass, who would prove to have an impressive shelf life and lengthy discography. ‘Wife Says’ is doomily ominous hardcore punk with a psychedelic 70s hard rock edge. ‘Queers’ is crazy but cool psychedelic punk with hints of carnivalesque space rock. And ‘Meathead Or Skinhead’ is a noisy blend of chunky stoned punk and 70s hard rock.
Youthquake (Catasauqua, PA) crank out fast and furious hardcore and are another band that surprised me with decipherable vocals. Actually it’s not pure hardcore. ‘It Wasn’t Your Choice’ likes to rock n roll between explosive verses. ‘American Escalation’ similarly injects a good time rock n roll feel into its angst ridden punk. And the appropriately titled ‘Stress Test’ is a punk-metal song with eruptive moments of ass kicking thrash.
Third Force (Topeka, KS) are a tightly knit unit that play buzzsaw metal laced punk thrash. I can’t make out a damn word their female vocalist is singing. But they can play, having a solid rhythm section and a monster guitar sound. The music is thrash but makes constant turn on a dime rhythmic twists and turns. Impressive recording quality too.
Finally, Eraserheads (Memphis) play KILLER whacked out psychedelic punk thrash and are another impressively tight band. The guitars chords are beautifully caustic, with ripping momentary solos.
The first Harsh Reality compilation is a 60 minute tour de force of eight American punk bands.
First on deck is three tunes from The Sarcastic Assholes (Marion, VA). ‘Gary Gilmore’ is classic hardcore that’s relatively mild on the thrash and with vocals I can actually make out. This is followed by a dancey New Wave instrumental. Finally, ‘Don’t Smoke’ keeps twisty turny alternating between stoned rock and steroidal thrash.
Dead Silence (Boulder, CO) do something similar on ‘Too Late’, waffling between stoned metal and rockabilly(-ish) punk. Pretty tight rhythm section these guys have. ‘Tug-O-War’ is solidly cranked out punk, with cool fuzzed guitars and ripping, dissonant solos. And ‘Patriots Fight’ has a beerhall anthem quality that makes for a fun rocking tune. Never heard of this band and they’re pretty damn good.
Harsh Reality’s very own Skoptzies make a three song appearance. ‘Tell Me Why’ is fun rocking punk with wailing and squealing keys. ‘Be My Friend’ is some of the most whimsically freaky space punk I’ve ever heard, laying down a tightly funky punk-psych rocking dance groove and blasting off with some wild and crazy electronic effects. And ‘Age-A Part Of Life’ is among the most thrash rocking hardcore songs Skoptzies ever recorded.
Severed Justice (Memphis) pull no punches with their band titled classic hardcore thrashing first of three songs. ‘Let’s Go’ is far more sedate, sounding like a stoner punk band, though later in the song they let their mohawks fly high and cut loose with some more high octane hardcore. But then they surprise by veering into a bluesy psychedelic boogie garage rocker with punk vocals. Severed Justice flash their purest hardcore credentials with their final, merely 23 second ‘Generic Thrash’.
Alright folks, here we’ve got the successor to Skoptzies… Viktimized Karcass, who would prove to have an impressive shelf life and lengthy discography. ‘Wife Says’ is doomily ominous hardcore punk with a psychedelic 70s hard rock edge. ‘Queers’ is crazy but cool psychedelic punk with hints of carnivalesque space rock. And ‘Meathead Or Skinhead’ is a noisy blend of chunky stoned punk and 70s hard rock.
Youthquake (Catasauqua, PA) crank out fast and furious hardcore and are another band that surprised me with decipherable vocals. Actually it’s not pure hardcore. ‘It Wasn’t Your Choice’ likes to rock n roll between explosive verses. ‘American Escalation’ similarly injects a good time rock n roll feel into its angst ridden punk. And the appropriately titled ‘Stress Test’ is a punk-metal song with eruptive moments of ass kicking thrash.
Third Force (Topeka, KS) are a tightly knit unit that play buzzsaw metal laced punk thrash. I can’t make out a damn word their female vocalist is singing. But they can play, having a solid rhythm section and a monster guitar sound. The music is thrash but makes constant turn on a dime rhythmic twists and turns. Impressive recording quality too.
Finally, Eraserheads (Memphis) play KILLER whacked out psychedelic punk thrash and are another impressively tight band. The guitars chords are beautifully caustic, with ripping momentary solos.
CHRIS PHINNEY INTERVIEW by JERRY KRANITZ
JK: So everybody running labels inevitably did compilations, but I have to ask anyway… ‘Spit On It’ was your first compilation. How did you take the plunge into doing a compilation?
CP: I decided I wanted to do a comp and I was in touch with a lot of punk rockers. I sent a lot of shit out but I didn’t get a whole hell of a lot back. I got some pretty cool bands, but I didn’t get everybody I wanted. So Skoptzies ended up on there. And Karcass.
JK: You had eight American bands. Were the non-Memphis bands people who had been submitting tapes to Malice for review?
CP: That’s how I knew most of them.
JK: Did you approach the ones you had hoped would submit a track?
CP: Yeah, I wanted to do a hardcore comp. I’m not exactly sure why. I was listening to a lot of hardcore at the time so that had to have been the reason why. But I reached out to the bands I liked and asked them to send me a track. And some did and some didn’t. More didn’t than did. That’s the way that shit goes.
JK: You’ve already explained to me that Skoptzies had disbanded by this point and these were recordings you had leftover.
CP: I managed Eraserheads. If you recall way the hell back to Why Should We Play Their Game? by Pungent Odor, Mick Cock was playing on some of it. Mike Cupp was his name. He ended up being the leader of Eraserheads. And he ended up hiring me to be their manager. So I did promo for them and flyers. Little small mini tours and all that. And they put out a 7” and whatever and then they broke up. I don’t know where he is now.
JK: You answered a question I was going to ask. Eraserheads was a Memphis band I’d not heard of. But Mick Cock from Pungent Odor was the connection with them.
CP: He was the leader of that band. It was like Kim (Kruger) and Marilyn Duckworth, Jim Duckworth’s wife, in the Marilyns. You saw the Marilyns review in Malice #9. Kim used to be in The Marilyns, an all girl band that played a lot with the Skoptzies. They were pretty good. Jim Duckworth, was in Skoptzies, and appeared on Bearers Of The Imperial Seal. He didn’t last long. He was actually too good a guitarist to play with us. When I say too good a guitarist I mean more jazz, artsy oriented than rock industrial.
JK: Severed Justice.
CP: That’s Mike Jackson’s band. We [Viktimized Karcass] stole Mike Jackson from Severed Justice.
JK: My brain got scrambled and didn’t realize Mike was a Memphis guy.
CP: He was the singer for Severed Justice. He was a little punk kid that used to hang out all the time.
JK: Was that your first connection to him?
CP: No, he did a little fanzine called Bullsheet, or something like that. I think it was Bullsheet. We used to talk all the time. He was with Severed Justice and I asked him one day would you like to play with Karcass and he said yes. I said you ain’t worth a shit at bass but you’re gonna play bass (laughs). And he played bass for a little while until we got another bass player. We’ll talk about all that later.
JK: Was this compilation the first appearance of Viktimized Karcass?
CP: Yeah. We had a tape in the works.
JK: So this was the first Viktimized Karcass. And Skoptzies had disbanded and these were leftover recordings. But you were getting Karcass off the ground at this time.
CP: Right. We were trying to.
JK: So everybody running labels inevitably did compilations, but I have to ask anyway… ‘Spit On It’ was your first compilation. How did you take the plunge into doing a compilation?
CP: I decided I wanted to do a comp and I was in touch with a lot of punk rockers. I sent a lot of shit out but I didn’t get a whole hell of a lot back. I got some pretty cool bands, but I didn’t get everybody I wanted. So Skoptzies ended up on there. And Karcass.
JK: You had eight American bands. Were the non-Memphis bands people who had been submitting tapes to Malice for review?
CP: That’s how I knew most of them.
JK: Did you approach the ones you had hoped would submit a track?
CP: Yeah, I wanted to do a hardcore comp. I’m not exactly sure why. I was listening to a lot of hardcore at the time so that had to have been the reason why. But I reached out to the bands I liked and asked them to send me a track. And some did and some didn’t. More didn’t than did. That’s the way that shit goes.
JK: You’ve already explained to me that Skoptzies had disbanded by this point and these were recordings you had leftover.
CP: I managed Eraserheads. If you recall way the hell back to Why Should We Play Their Game? by Pungent Odor, Mick Cock was playing on some of it. Mike Cupp was his name. He ended up being the leader of Eraserheads. And he ended up hiring me to be their manager. So I did promo for them and flyers. Little small mini tours and all that. And they put out a 7” and whatever and then they broke up. I don’t know where he is now.
JK: You answered a question I was going to ask. Eraserheads was a Memphis band I’d not heard of. But Mick Cock from Pungent Odor was the connection with them.
CP: He was the leader of that band. It was like Kim (Kruger) and Marilyn Duckworth, Jim Duckworth’s wife, in the Marilyns. You saw the Marilyns review in Malice #9. Kim used to be in The Marilyns, an all girl band that played a lot with the Skoptzies. They were pretty good. Jim Duckworth, was in Skoptzies, and appeared on Bearers Of The Imperial Seal. He didn’t last long. He was actually too good a guitarist to play with us. When I say too good a guitarist I mean more jazz, artsy oriented than rock industrial.
JK: Severed Justice.
CP: That’s Mike Jackson’s band. We [Viktimized Karcass] stole Mike Jackson from Severed Justice.
JK: My brain got scrambled and didn’t realize Mike was a Memphis guy.
CP: He was the singer for Severed Justice. He was a little punk kid that used to hang out all the time.
JK: Was that your first connection to him?
CP: No, he did a little fanzine called Bullsheet, or something like that. I think it was Bullsheet. We used to talk all the time. He was with Severed Justice and I asked him one day would you like to play with Karcass and he said yes. I said you ain’t worth a shit at bass but you’re gonna play bass (laughs). And he played bass for a little while until we got another bass player. We’ll talk about all that later.
JK: Was this compilation the first appearance of Viktimized Karcass?
CP: Yeah. We had a tape in the works.
JK: So this was the first Viktimized Karcass. And Skoptzies had disbanded and these were leftover recordings. But you were getting Karcass off the ground at this time.
CP: Right. We were trying to.