POSTHUMOUS SOLO ALBUM FROM FOR AGAINST FRONTMAN  JEFFREY RUNNINGS, PIQUED, SET FOR RELEASE ON JULY 11 FROM INDEPENDENT PROJECT RECORDS 

First Single “Batman Forever” Out Today on All Streaming Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA (WEDNESDAY MAY 14, 2025) – Independent Project Records (IPR) announced today that they are releasing the posthumous, final solo album from Jeffrey Runnings, Piqued, on Friday July 11 on vinyl, CD and digital formats.  All formats will include four bonus tracks of rare recordings from the late 80’s. Pre-save and pre-order the album here.

The first single from Piqued, “Batman Forever,” is out today on all streaming services. Runnings was the creative force and guiding light behind Nebraska post-punk pioneers For Against. Runnings died on Monday, March 3 due to stage 4 cancer as reported in Pitchfork.

Some forty years after a fan letter from Nebraska resulted in Independent Project Records commencing a decades-long collaboration with post-punk cult favorites turned dream pop visionaries For Against, Piqued is the last album from For Against chief songwriter, lead singer, bass player and only constant member Jeffrey Runnings. Piqued is a celebration of the artist’s lifelong quest for a sound that, stripped to the bones, is all the more powerful and cathartic for its restraint. Recorded by Runnings at home on an old 8-track cassette machine, the album plays just like a late ‘80s mixtape, lovingly compiled to showcase the beautiful emptiness of post-punk’s more eloquently quiet peaks.

The favorites of a life-time — from Section 25 to The Comsat Angels, from Young Marble Giants to early 4AD singles — are all conjured in Runnings’ final songs. Stark and deadpan on the surface, this is electric guitar music in its most human and vulnerable form. Piqued is available on vinyl (Black or Transparent Magenta), Special Edition CD and digital, and comes with a 4-track EP of rare recordings from the late ‘80s — two of them previously unreleased. This bonus EP comes on Clear Silver 12’’ for the vinyl edition and as bonus tracks on the CD. Track listing below.

LP Track Listing:

1.   Batman Forever
2.   Just Before Nothing
3.   Threadbare
4.   Mayfair
5.   Bloom
6.   The Courage of Voluntary Trees
7.   Heretofore
8.   Failed Rescue Attempt
9.   Glorious Grey
10. Value
11. Elegy

Bonus EP Track Listing:

1.     Follow
2.     Light of My Life
3.     Watch
4.     Demolition Blast

All tracks were composed, arranged, produced, performed and mixed by Jeffrey Runnings.

Since the 1980s, Independent Project Records has released or co-released no less than five full-length albums and one 7” EP with For Against. Within the last decade, labels such as Captured Tracks and Saint Marie Records have released box set compilations featuring portions of the For Against catalog, with Saint Marie releasing Jeffrey’s first solo album, Primitives and Smalls, in 2016.

ABOUT INDEPENDENT PROJECT RECORDS

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. IPR is based in Bishop, California, at the base of the Eastern Sierra Mountains.

For more information, please contact Joshua Mills at
It’s Alive! Media, 323-464-6314, josh@itsalivemedia.com, www.itsalivemedia.com

or
Camilla Aisa, camillaaisa@gmail.com

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