Independent Project Records Confirm 40th Anniversary Relaunch

Currently celebrating their 40th anniversary of the innovative record label Independent Project Records (IPR), founder Bruce Licher and partner Jeffrey Clark (singer of 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 from an exciting range of artists from the creative underground.

IPR will relaunch with influential underground albums from Half String: A Fascination with Heights, Scenic's Incident at Cima and Shiva Burlesque's Mercury Blues and will be distributed worldwide by Darla Records. Full details on each expanded edition with previously unreleased archival material will be announced shortly. All 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 on December 4, 2020.

"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 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."

IPR founder Bruce Licher has released more than sixty projects in the label's 40-year existence and has designed packages from released titles by R.E.M. (Fan Club Holiday singles), Stereolab, Camper Van Beethoven, Silversun Pickups, Polvo, Savage Republic, For Against and Red Temple Spirits. 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."

In 2019, Licher and his group Savage Republic was featured extensively in Stewart Swezey's feature-length documentary film Desolation Center, a previously untold story of a series of early 80s guerrilla music and art performance happenings in Southern California which were 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.

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