OFFBEAT - "A Public Access TV Show" (1991-1992)

It's been 30 years since we made our public access TV show called "OFFBEAT," and that's how long it's taken to finally get it out to a larger audience! We did a total of ten episodes of "OFFBEAT" in 1991 and 1992.

 It was a thirty minute show about four nuclear knuckleheads called The Offbeatniks, flying around in their espresso fired spaceship watching music videos for entertainment!

Each episode was filled with new adventures.

The Offbeatniks were Wes Hanson, Brian J. Riedel, Gary Wray and myself.

In the sixth episode, we had a serious upgrade, and were joined by Galaxy, The Offbeat Girl, who was played by Christy Michelle who went on to have a great career as a model, actress, and producer as Christy Taylor. After four shows, her manager wisely told her to ditch us.

Other regulars were Tom Ferranti and Andrew Rey.

 

In fact, it was Tom, aka Rev. Spike Beasley, who got us started, since he already had his own show known as "Achoo."

 

We didn't have much money, and even less sense, but we did have some fun, and now you can see for yourself what it was like. The quality of the videos is horrible, because these were VHS copies of copies, but it really doesn't matter much. I could list all the talent involved but just go see for yourself

RIGHT HERE!!
 And while you're there, watch the Zazerac videos I made for John Sanders too!!

BITE THE WAX GODHEAD - "Gajoob Issue #7 - Sampler #8" (1991)

I finally got around to the eighth sampler tape that came with issue # 7 of Bryan Baker's Gajoob magazine back in 1991, and it's really turned into quite a task.

 

 The cut I picked off this tape was by a New York band called Bite The Wax Godhead, who I never actually communicated with, but was familiar with, because their friend Michael J. Bowman, had sent me a VHS tape back in the day for our public access TV show called "OFFBEAT." 

The tape had songs by MJB and Bite The Wax Godhead performing in a club in New York, and we aired one of their songs on the fourth episode of the show. Michael J. Bowman also did the artwork for the cover of Gajoob #7.

The members of Bite The Wax Godhead were Alec Cumming on Bass, Guitar, and Vocals, Cynthia Harden on Keyboards and Vocals, and Larry Horowitz on Lead Guitar and Background Vocals.

 

The tape that was reviewed in the magazine was not this one, and was called "Obvious Signs Of Decay," but I can't find a picture of it. This tape does have the same song on it that was on the other one too.

 

 Bite The Wax Godhead has pretty much retired but they still have a My Space Page!

 You can also listen to some of their music on this Soundcloud Page.
 

 An interesting side note is Alec and Cynthia got married and their daughter Julia Cumming is a model and the front person and bass player for a fairly popular band called Sunflower Bean. I never heard of them before, but I'm old. See, this is what happens when you Bite The Wax Godhead!
 

BITE THE WAX GODHEAD - "While You're Dreaming"

Now I have to go and see if I can salvage the videos of "OFFBEAT" and put them up on YouTube for all the world to see, something I should have done years ago. I thought I had two done, but there seems to be a sync problem to go along with the horrible quality, but they is what they is!

ANDREWS/LIGON - "Special Compilation Tape" (Early 90's)

This was a "Special Compilation" tape put together by Duke Andrews and Jacky Ligon from High Point, North Carolina. If I counted right, there are 32 songs on this tape! When I decided to do a compilation tape of some of my favorite artists that I had traded tapes with called "Refried Dreams," Duke was one of the people I asked to submit something, and he sent me this tape.

Along with the tape, Duke also sent me copies of some of his artwork!

I looked around as much as I could, but the only semi-current info about Duke Andrews or Jacky Ligon I could find was this Bandcamp page where they had contributed to a compilation tape put out by Eric Hausman six years ago called "Repercussion."

All I can say is that Duke Andrews and Jacky Ligon were having fun and had quite a sense of humor as evidenced by these drawings and by the following song.....

ANDREWS/LIGON - "Fartolist For Hire"

ED DRURY - "Hidden Tracks" (2021)

Just yesterday Ed Drury released a new solo album called "Hidden Tracks" on Bandcamp!

Ed describes it thusly.....

"A collection of previously unreleased or "hidden" tracks. Some are the original recordings of compositions I did over the past several months for the Chris Phinney and Ed Drury project on Harsh Reality Music. As a bonus for buying Hidden Tracks, there are four "hidden" tracks of the collaborative pieces found on the six (soon to be seven) albums Chris, and I did together."

 

Ed Drury is a multi-faceted cat as you might gather from this image. Do yourself a favor and check out his website! 

But in the meantime, buy this music, open a bottle of wine, go sit out on the back porch in the rain, listen to it. and chill!

Here's just one good reason...

ED DRURY - "Remember Your Wallet"

CHRIS PHINNEY & ED DRURY - "Back In Blue" (2021)

I don't know how they keep doing it or how much longer it will go on, but the duo of Chris Phinney and Ed Drury have been killing it for the last couple of months! With almost a song for each and every day, "Back In Blue" is their first complete release for the year 2021, which already makes this a better year than the last one!

There are 20 great songs on this release, of which four of them are bonus tunes you get when you download the whole thing, but my absolute favorite is this very Green and foggy tune called "Backstory." Most of the songs are Ed Drury playing guitars and added effects, and Chris Phinney on synths, more effects, and responsibility for the final production. I'm mighty proud of the fact that Chris decided to use this "Backstory" photo along with ten others that were taken by me.

I seriously suggest you check it out!

CHRIS PHINNEY & ED DRURY - "Backstory"

1980's & 90's TAPE TRADING CORRESPONDENCE

I still have a big box of correspondence from my 80's and 90's tape trading days, and not long ago, I pulled out a few interesting letters I got from all over the world. A common thing was to write a letter on the back of a flyer or some other odd piece of paper! The letter below from Chris Phinney was written on the back of this advert for MENTAL ANGUISH!

 

This letter cracks me up! I emailed it to Chris a while back, and he still remembered it!

It was explained to me that this letter from Egg & Anvil was stamped by the guy's wife. I never could figure it out, I guessed she either hated the tape I sent him, or it was just her own form of artwork. Either way, it was interesting, but a little difficult to read!

This was a submissions letter from Mike Tetrault for the multitude of his compilation tapes a person could be a part of if they so chose. Was there any topic not covered? It doesn't look like it!

Many letters were short and to the point like this one from Brian of The Lie Detectors.

People not only knew how to write back then, but many people made up their own style like this letter from Danielle in New Zealand.

When you didn't even know you had any fans, nothing was better than getting fan mail from somebody like mia hermana chiquita Geneveva in Bulgaria!!

Since most people don't even know how to write in cursive these days at all, I'll bet almost any amount of money that you don't know anybody who has handwriting like Ken Clinger!

At one point, I actually sent some of our tapes to real record companies like Geffen. I was totally surprised to even get a response, much less a cordial one like this!

JOHN SANDERS - "People's Park" (1996)

 John Sanders has had a long and storied musical career, and it all started in 1977, in Commerce, Texas with a band named Ebofyte.

 John Says "Ebofyte was actually named Eboflyte, someone messed up the poster but I thought Ebofyte made us sound more radical."

Besides John, some of the other folks in this photo are Lewyllen Blackburn, Drummer Nate Williams, sax player Kelvin, and guitar player Nate.

 

In the mid to late 80's John played guitar and keyboards, and sang, in the punk/funk Crash N Burn, in the San Francisco Bay area!

"The CnB poster was the work of guitar player Ray Houghton. Its a drawing of the Club Foote where we put on a lot of shows, love the typical 80s forlorn punk girl sitting in the doorway."

John was a very busy guy when he lived in Northern California, and from 1988 to 1990, he was playing keyboards in the dynamic soul group New Power Soul.

On into the 90's, he was in a jazz band called Memphis Mystics.

Then came the very cool band Stepping Razor up into the 2000's.

 

Since the early 2000's John has lived in Memphis, and spends most of his time playing in the fantastic jazz trio called Zazerac!

I've got music from most all those eras to share with you, but for now, let's get this party started with a very cool solo tune from about 1996, with John responsible for both the keyboards and the drum loops!

JOHN SANDERS - "People's Park"