Tragic Figures

Double vinyl LP pressing includes a second LP of bonus material. Welcome to the world's first (and only) post-punk-industrial-trance-psychedelic-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. 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 share space with red lettering that gives the album's title in script that roughly translates '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, Real Gone Music worked with Bruce Licher to preserve and expand on the