Format Details: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition / Red Vinyl
Release Date: 13 May 2022
Label: Real Gone Music
Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 848064009559
Genres: Rock
Release Date: 13 May 2022
Label: Real Gone Music
Packaging Type: Brilliant Case (Jewel Case size, Holds 2 CDs)
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 848064013969
Genres: Rock
Description
Welcome to the world's first (and only) post-punk-industrial-trancepsychedelic-surf album! The fact that it took us so many adjectives
to describe Tragic Figures lets you know just how unique of an album it is. Sure, there are echoes of other artists, like krautrock legends Can,
post-punkers Public Image Limited (Savage Republic opened for PiL on their 1982 West Coast dates), avant-garde guitar players like Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, scrap metal industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten, and Bay Area sludgecore nihilists Flipper—but really, this unlikely product of (mostly) UCLA undergrads sounds like no other record before or since. And only adding to Tragic Figures' mystique are its graphics, which displayed band co-founder Bruce Licher's trademark letterpress printing and featured a UPI photo of rebels getting executed in Kurdistan, the ghostly images sharing space with a red lettering that gave the album's title in script that roughly translated "tragic
figures" into Arabic (which, in turn, had the unexpected effect of drawing
more Iranian and Middle Eastern people to their shows)! Tragic Figures wasn't
just a bold musical statement; it was an objet d'art in its own right.
For its 40th anniversary edition, we at Real Gone Music worked with Bruce
Licher to preserve and expand on the magical, talismanic quality of the initial
release. The original album has been remastered from the original tapes by
Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision, while both the CD and LP editions boast an
extra disc of largely unreleased rehearsal recordings taped in the bowels of
UCLA parking garages, where the band used to practice to take advantage
of the extended reverb afforded by all the concrete surfaces (imagine being
an unwitting undergrad happening upon this unearthly din coming out of
nowhere)! Richie Unterberger's liner notes feature interviews with band
members Licher, Philip Drucker, and Jeff Long, and the CD and LP come with
the original cover graphics expanded into a six-panel digipak and a gatefold
jacket pressed in heavyweight "chipboard" paper stock, respectively. Finally,
the LP pressing is in red vinyl limited to 2000 copies. Clear your calendar
and set aside a couple of hours to listen to Tragic Figures…you won't end up
where you started.
Description
Welcome to the world's first (and only) post-punk-industrial-trancepsychedelic-surf album! The fact that it took us so many adjectives
to describe Tragic Figures lets you know just how unique of an album
it is. Sure, there are echoes of other artists, like krautrock legends Can,
post-punkers Public Image Limited (Savage Republic opened for PiL
on their 1982 West Coast dates), avant-garde guitar players like Glenn
Branca and Rhys Chatham, scrap metal industrialists Einstürzende
Neubauten, and Bay Area sludgecore nihilists Flipper—but really, this
unlikely product of (mostly) UCLA undergrads sounds like no other record before or since. And only adding to Tragic Figures' mystique are its graphics, which displayed band co-founder Bruce Licher's trademark letterpress printing and featured a UPI photo of rebels getting executed in Kurdistan, the ghostly images sharing space with a red lettering that gave the album's title in script that roughly translated "tragic figures" into Arabic (which, in turn, had the unexpected effect of drawing more Iranian and Middle Eastern people to their shows)! Tragic Figures wasn't just a bold musical statement; it was an objet d'art in its own right.
For its 40th anniversary edition, we at Real Gone Music worked with Bruce
Licher to preserve and expand on the magical, talismanic quality of the initial
release. The original album has been remastered from the original tapes by
Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision, while both the CD and LP editions boast an
extra disc of largely unreleased rehearsal recordings taped in the bowels of
UCLA parking garages, where the band used to practice to take advantage
of the extended reverb afforded by all the concrete surfaces (imagine being
an unwitting undergrad happening upon this unearthly din coming out of
nowhere)! Richie Unterberger's liner notes feature interviews with band
members Licher, Philip Drucker, and Jeff Long, and the CD and LP come with
the original cover graphics expanded into a six-panel digipak and a gatefold
jacket pressed in heavyweight "chipboard" paper stock, respectively. Clear your calendar and set aside a couple of hours to listen to Tragic Figures…you won't end up where you started.
Tracklisting
Tracklisting
Tyketto
X-Ray Spex
Loudon Wainwright Iii
Petula Clark
The Donnas
Tiny Tim
Henry Franklin
Stephen J. Kalnich & Friends
Savage Republic
Savage Republic
