LOS ANGELES, CA. (THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 87, 2023) – Independent Project Records announced today full details on three long-awaited upcoming vinyl reissues of The Ophelias’ Bare Bodkin, Shiva Burlesque’s Mercury Blues+ Skulduggery and Scenic’s Incident at Cima. Full details below.

The Ophelias – Bare Bodkin (September 29)
Available on vinyl for the first time, this double LP retrospective from the 1980’s cult San Francisco neo-psychedelic outfit has been mastered at 45 RPM for superior sound quality. First released on CD in 2022, Bare Bodkin received critical acclaim, with Shindig! magazine calling it “a stunning summation of The Ophelias’ offbeat oeuvre” and Ugly Things magazine enthusing, “the quartet sounded like a traveling musical troupe from a production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream by way of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd”. This limited edition release will be available on both Midnight Black and Nocturnal Blue vinyl. Bare Bodkin collects 15 of the band’s most fascinating and eclectic recordings (including 5 previously unreleased studio tracks), hand-selected by frontman Leslie Medford, all remixed and remastered. The retrospective includes extensive liner notes by David Fricke and is housed in an elegant, old-style tip-on gatefold LP jacket with metallic duotone printed inner sleeves including never-before seen photos and song lyrics. Includes a postcard-sized full-color download card with code for a free download of the album. Click here to buy.

Shiva Burlesque – Mercury Blues + Skulduggery (November 17, 2023)
Creators of what Uncut Magazine editor Allan Jones lauded as “…timeless, brilliant music” Shiva Burlesque was founded by transplanted northern Californians Jeffrey Clark (current IPR partner) and Grant-Lee Phillips (later of Grant Lee Buffalo), emerging from the alternative music scene of subterranean Hollywood/Downtown Los Angeles in the mid-1980’s. Drawing comparisons to everything from John Cale to Echo & the Bunnymen to early Leonard Cohen, the band was described by All Music Guide as “…a powerful and graceful band too post-punk to be folk rock, and too folk to be post-punk.” The original Mercury Blues album was recorded in early summer of 1990, and after being out of print for over two decades was remastered in late 2021 by Josh Bonati and released as a double CD by IPR in 2022 with a second full album of previously unreleased demos and outtakes called Skulduggery. This newly expanded vinyl version features a 5-color 12” x 24” folding insert with liner notes by David Fricke – who in a 1988 issue of Melody Maker called the sound of Shiva Burlesque “a marriage of Joy Division’s shadowy abstractions and Love’s Forever Changes.” Also featuring entirely new artwork, printed in 5 colors on IPR’s iconic die-cut packaging created by label founder Bruce Licher, this new double album will be released on both black and translucent blue vinyl, and includes a postcard-sized full-color download card with code for a free download of the album. Click here to buy.

Scenic – Incident at Cima (November 17, 2023)
Originally released in 1995 (and described by Rolling Stone as suggesting “Ennio Morricone dune-surfing in Death Valley”), this new vinyl reissue of Scenic’s debut album Incident at Cima features a bonus CD adding 11 previously unreleased tracks of early demo recordings and rough basic tracks from 1992, the first year of the band’s existence. “The concept of Incident at Cima was to make an all-instrumental soundtrack for the East Mojave Desert,” said Scenic founder Bruce Licher. “I’m excited to be able to reissue Scenic’s first album as an expanded edition so that we can upgrade the artwork and share some early demo recordings as bonus tracks to give fans a window into how the album came together.” Four of the tracks from Incident at Cima have been used to great effect In Stuart Swezey’s 2020 feature-length documentary Desolation Center, including the track “Carrying On To Cadiz,” which underscores the opening title sequence of the film. This new vinyl edition features re-designed letterpress-printed artwork based on the original album graphics, a folding perforated oversized poster, IPR’s iconic die cut packaging, and includes a postcard-sized full-color download card with code for a free download of the album. Click here to buy.

All three titles are also available on compact disc and digital formats as well.

Additional IPR releases will be announced shortly and will feature both remastered and expanded IPR classics (and in some cases bring long out-of-print titles back in print) as well as new music that fits the IPR aesthetic both musically and in design. By utilizing IPR’s iconic hand-letterpress printed artwork created at Independent Project Press, the label will carry on with the design aesthetic that began in 1982 and has become its hallmark.

ABOUT
Founded in 1980 by musician and artist Bruce Licher, Independent Project Records and its sister entity Independent Project Press are known for their instantly recognizable hand-printed record covers for bands including Camper Van Beethoven, For Against, Polvo, R.E.M., Savage Republic, Silversun Pickups, Stereolab and more. Aside from creating much of the artwork on his vintage two-ton hand-fed letterpress, Licher was nominated for a Grammy Award for his design work on the IPR released debut album from For Against. In 2020, the label was relaunched by both Licher and Jeffrey Clark with new and archival releases and is distributed by MRI/The Orchard & via Proper Music Group, outside the USA & Canada. It is based in Bishop, California, at the base of the Eastern Sierra Mountains.