Savage Republic

Genre: Avant/Experimental Hometown: San Francisco CA
www.mobilization.com

Friday, March 17   1:00 a.m.
Room 710   (710 Red River St)

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  Savage Republic - Jamahiriya
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Savage Republic was a "seminal" Los Angeles Tribal-Industrial-Art-Punk band from the 1980s. The band was influenced by a diverse array of "inspired" music, including Glenn Brancha, Can, Amon Duul, PiL, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, the Ventures and Flipper, as well as a smorgashboard of "ethnic" albums and sound-tracks. Their sound, style and approach resonated along-side similar early 80's contemporaries such as Einsturzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth and the Butthole Surfers.

In 2005, Savage Republic reformed with the post 1983 "core" members Greg Grunke, Thom Fuhrmann and Ethan Port, together with drummer Sterling Fox (who performed in several post-Savage Republic projects with this trio). The massive Glenn Branca inspired guitar shimmering still remains.

Savage Republic performed a west coast tour in 2005 and in Jan 2006
co-headlined the "How to Destroy the Universe - Part 5" festival in Los Angeles with Blixa Bargeld.

The group is currently recording a new CD and is scheduling a short European tour for 2006.

HISTORY:

Savage Republic began circa 1980 at UCLA in the sub-terranian utility tunnels and concrete parking structures as "Africa Corps" with UCLA art students Bruce Licher, Mark Erskine, and Phil Drucker ("Jackson Del Rey"), following various preliminary projects (Bridge, Tunnel Tones, Them Rhythm Ants). A tall, charismatic 17 year old "hard core" skin head/high school student Jeff Long also performed with Africa Corps in 1981 and 1982. Jeff Long also played with the L.A. hard core band Wasted Youth. The band changed its name to Savage Republic in June 1982 when the first album "Tragic Figures" was released. Jackson Del Rey and Jeff Long split lyrical duties on "Tragic Figures". The name was conceived by Mark Erskine in his garage along with other band members, with no particular signifigance beyond just describing the bands overall sound. Coincidentally, 20 years later the term "Savage Republic" would also be used to refer to the Iotola Khomeni's Musulim fundamentalist regiem.

The album featured a hand letterpressed version of a famous AP Wire photo of several Iranian professors being executed in a firing squad at the time the fundamentalists took over the country, around the time of the Iranian U.S. Hostage crisis. (Coincidentally, Ethan Port later lived in the UCLA coop with one of the professors former students).

Early recording experiments produced by Bruce Licher for his Independent Project art course were paired with a clean yet industrial, apocalyptic design style via silk screen, and later hand letter-press printing that echoes back to the Futurists. Licher's unique design ethos formed the basis of Savage Republic's image and helped keep the band "out of time and space". (This design style led to a Grammy nomination for later commercial work by Bruce Licher.)

Member Changes in a Time of Radical Change:
Like so many punk bands in the early 1980s, Savage Republic went through many lineup changes. The following brief description provides a general outline of the bands timeline and member changes.

In 1982, Robert Loveless joined on keyboards for a few months with Jeff Long, then until mid 1983 after Jeff Long quit the band (and all music). In 1983 the band recorded tracks for a second album which was never released. Instead some of the material was used by Phil Drucker and Robert Loveless when they left Savage Republic to form 17 Pygmies. Bruce Licher and Mark Erskine continued with Savage Republic.

The new Core Republic:
In late 1983, Greg Grunke, Thom Fuhrmann and Ethan Port joined Bruce Licher for the rest of the bands life. This trio continued to work together after Savage Republic dissolved in 1989. This core group recorded the 4 song Trudge instrumental EP in 1984 and 1985 with drummer Mark Erskine.
Robert Loveless joined the band for Ceremonial, and appears on the Live Trek 1985-1986 LP.
Following the 1987 European tour, drummer Mark Erskine left the band and was replaced by Brad Laner (Medicine, Debt of Nature, Electric Company), who contributed his own unique and innovative style to the Jamahiriya and Customs studio recordings and the "I Married Thurston" live tape and the Live in Europe album.

Real Men Play Live:
Savage Republic was at its best in front of a crowd--especially an incoherant art-punk throng. The double bass spleen-wrenching assault reinforced by metal percussion (often shooting 20 foot pillars of flame) charged the room with raw savage energy. The layered "monotone" tuned guitars (check out Glenn Branca) float above this chaos singing beautiful and haunting harmonies that shimmer in 3-dimensions throughout the performance space. it was a sound unmatched--out of time and space.

Notable performances include the Mojave Desert performances with the Minute Men, Sonic Youth, Einsturzende Neubauten and Mark Pauline in the early 1980s (years before Burning Man!) which included high explosives and burning trees.

The live albums document these powerful shows through the various formations of the band. The cleanest recording is the so far unreleased digital multi-track recording of the bands final performance at the Wash in Claremont California on Feb 25, 1989.
This album is due for an October 2002 release.


Savage Republic performed their "Final Performance" on Feb 25, 1989 at the Wash in Claremont, California. The digital recording of this show was flawed, but recently has been salvaged using modern technology. A CD of this performance is scheduled for release in the early part of 2006.

Re-Issues for the 21st Century:
The complete Savage Republic back catalog was re-issued by MOBILIZATION Recordings in October 2001.
Studio albums include: Tragic Figures, Trudge, Ceremonial, Jamahiriya and Customs. Live albums include Live Trek, Live in Europe, and the soon to be released Execution of the State by Fire and Ritual

In 2002, Savage Republic peformed a one week reunion tour, inspired by Neurot Records request to have Savage Republic headline their "Beyond the Pale" festival (a model for the later "How to Destroy the Universe" festival series). Multi-track recordings of some of these shows were made but currently remain unreleased.

Complete and current information is available at:
http://www.SavageRepublic.com