INDEPENDENT PROJECT RECORDS 40TH ANNIVERSARY RELAUNCH CONFIRMED WITH EXTENSIVE REMASTERED AND EXPANDED ALBUMS FROM BACK CATALOG
Currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of the innovative record label Independent Project Records (IPR), founder Bruce Licher and partner Jeffrey Clark (vocalist with the late 80s LA band Shiva Burlesque) confirmed today the relaunch of the label with an extensive release program featuring remastered, expanded and long out-of-print titles from their back catalog alongside previously unavailable recordings by an exciting range of artists from the creative underground.
IPR will relaunch with influential underground albums including Half String's A Fascination with Heights, Scenic's Incident at Cima and Shiva Burlesque's Mercury Blues. Product will be distributed worldwide by Darla Records. Many forthcoming titles will be released on vinyl and CD utilizing the label's iconic hand-fed letterpress artwork designed by Grammy nominated artist Bruce Licher of Independent Project Press. All titles will also be released digitally, many for the first time ever. The IPR catalog will be available via all online retailers both digital and physical.
Independent Project Records has released more than sixty projects in the label's 40-year existence and IPR founder Bruce Licher has designed packages for titles by R.E.M. (Fan Club Holiday singles), Stereolab, Camper Van Beethoven, Silversun Pickups, Polvo, Savage Republic, For Against, Red Temple Spirits and many others. Independent Project Records is home to some of the most unique and creative underground bands of the 80s and 90s, with most of these releases wrapped in limited edition hand-printed packaging created by Licher's Independent Project Press. This is no more apparent than within the 240-page color coffee table book, Savage Impressions: An Aesthetic Expedition Through the Archives of Independent Project Records & Press (P22 Publications, 2020). Noted rock critic David Fricke in Mojo Magazine called it a "..magnificent large scale history of the label."
"Independent Project Records was started as a UCLA fine art class project while I was studying under provocative conceptual artist Chris Burden, and has been my passion and creative outlet ever since," said IPR founder Bruce Licher. "What started out as an avenue to record my own music and release it in artistic packaging, not only with Savage Republic but also with my later all-instrumental band Scenic, grew into a label that released new music from other bands I loved. It's a great feeling to be able to reissue these records years later on compact disc, vinyl and digital formats as well."
In 2019, Licher and his group Savage Republic were featured extensively in Stuart Swezey's feature-length documentary film Desolation Center, a captivating telling of a previously untold story of a series of early 80s guerrilla music and art performance happenings in Southern California which were iconic precursors to Burning Man, Lollapalooza and Coachella. Licher's 1990 instrumental band Scenic plays a major musical role in the film soundtrack as does his band Savage Republic's live performance at 1983's Mojave Exodus event along with seminal underground bands Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Swans, Redd Kross, Einstruzende Neubauten among others.