Hardly Music formed in response to the rapid growth of the Indiana punk and new wave band population circa 1980.
Until that time, only Gulcher Records had released anything of this type from Indiana, dating back to the first Gizmos EP in 1976. In five years Bob Richert’s label cranked out 7″ from not only the Gizmos (four 7″ EP’s) but also 7’s from MX-80 Sound, The Jetsons, The Panics, The Dancing Cigarettes, a triple 7″ of former Hoosier Mark Bingham’s NYC band Social Climbers, and even a 7″ from between-contracts John “Cougar” Mellencamp. The first Gulcher LP, Hoosier Hysteria, featured one side of the later Gizmos and one side from Dow Jones and the Industrials.
Dow had retained the rights to its tracks, unlike most of the other bands who’d worked with Gulcher, by paying for its half of the LP, and they hoped to maintain control of their recording future. As the band count exploded, Gulcher found itself unable to release everything it wanted to, though feelers were put out to many of the newer bands, including The Last Four Digits (L4D) and Amoebas in Chaos, the band I was in.
As Gulcher invited competitive submissions to be included on its landmark Indiana LP comp Red Snerts, members of Dow (Mr. Science Brad Garton), L4D (Dave Fulton and Steve Grigdesby) and I cooked up a plan to put our own records out under the self-effacing moniker Hardly Music. Both L4D and Dow owned recording studios, so much was already in the can. Amoebas recorded for Red Snerts at L4D’s Defoliant Sound and ultimately recorded its album at Dow-connected Zounds studio. With all of the Hardly bands placed on Red Snerts, we worked to put out a set of four 7″ records prior to the Snerts release in spring 1981. Initially it was to be three 7″: Dow, L4D and a Residents-inspired studio concoction called Observers Observing Observables (3-O) the brainchild of Garton and Fulton. The fourth came about because one of our close associates, Tony Philputt of The Math Bats, was connected to Malcolm Tent, a NYC musician who at the time was looking for a label to put out a 7″. So his was added to the mix, though almost all of the copies were shipped to Malcolm in NYC for his own marketing–making it a production deal rather than a true label release.
In February, 1981, the records were pressed and a release party was held at Second Story in Bloomington. We endeavored to get national reviews, airplay and distribution the best we could, but we weren’t hooked up and we failed to get much interest. At this time it was tough to get unknown indies into distribution. The non-major distribution infrastructure was just beginning to form; most of the distributors who would consider such a thing were fragile and making most of their cash from importing records from Europe and Japan. We ended up with a lot of unsold records.
To make matters worse, 1981 also saw the breakup of Dow and L4D. Dow returned with a different lineup but it didn’t last long. L4D morphed into The Last Four (5) Digits (L45D), and its new lineup gelled and would record and tour the East Coast in 1982. However, the changes fouled the marketing strategy as there were no live bands during most of 1981 to promote the new records. Amoebas in Chaos recorded its album and it was to be the first Hardly LP, but the band moved to Boston and then broke up as the album was at the pressing plant, leaving the label to market an LP from a defunct band that wasn’t that well known even in Indiana or Boston. Again, more unsold records.
1982 marked the end of Hardly Music. L45D broke up again. Garton, who had left Dow to join L45D, moved to New Jersey and went on to become Director of Electronic Music at Columbia University. The other members of Dow scattered across the country. Fulton and Grigdesby moved into career and family mode. I moved back to Bloomington after the demise of Amoebas in Chaos, played briefly with Red Square, and then paused until Tombstone Valentine came along in the late 1990’s.
Remarkably, L4D has reformed several times in the past ten years, with a hybrid lineup of members from both of the original versions, and plays live from time to time still. Timechange Records released a comprehensive L4D/L45D vinyl record and CD in 2017.
Time has been fairly kind to the original Hardly Music records though the pressing quality, done via RCA contract pressings, isn’t the best. Most of the Dow pic sleeves and many of the records were destroyed in a basement flood, driving up the prices to over $100 for a clean 7″/pic sleeve/insert. Demand is steady for the others, though they do not command as high of a price. Some of these records and sleeves also were ruined in the flood. The Dow 7″ was remastered and reissued in 2015 by Family Vineyard, followed by a definitive retrospective on 2LP vinyl and CD in 2016. The Dow vinyl is now out of print. Family Vineyard also released a Mr. Science 7″ featuring early 80’s solo recordings by Garton. It too, is sold out.
Timechange Records and Third Uncle released a limited run of 50 lathe cut 7″ boxes for Record Store Day 2016 called The Hardly Music Story, featuring three 7″ records and six bands, including Dow, L4D, 3-O, the pre-L4D band Joint Chiefs of Staff, Red Square, and Amoebas, which quickly sold out. Eventually we hope to release a more comprehensive retrospective that will be widely available.
An Amoebas in Chaos retrospective CD is being prepared by Timechange Records for late 2018 release.