Re/Search: Incredibly Strange Music. Volumes I and II
San Francisco: Re/Search Publications, 1993-94. 1st Edition. 2 vols., quarto, publisher’s stiff photo-illustrated paper wraps.
Two-volume issue of self-described "amateur anthropologist" V. Vale’s iconic underground punk publication dedicated to outsider vinyl culture, cataloging exotica, lounge, novelty, early electronic music, celebrity records, sound effects LPs, thrift store oddities, and other recordings dismissed by mainstream criticism. The successor to Vale's seminal punk zine Search & Destroy (1977–1979), which he founded while working as a clerk at San Francisco's City Light Books, Re/Search would end up being one of the longest-running independent publications in the US, predominantly composed of in-depth interviews with prominent avant-garde figures, rare photos, collaborative artwork, essays, short fiction, San Francisco cultural coverage, and other forms of esoterica. These issues include interviews, discographies, references, indexes, and LP-covers with, by, and of subjects such as The Cramps, Eartha Kitt, Martin Denny, Gershon Kingsley, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Norton Records, Jello Biafra, Ken Nordine, Robert Moog, Bebe Barron, Korla Pandit, Yma Sumac, and others. Illustrated with black-and-white photos, drawings, and reproductions. Volume I a first printing, volume II a second printing. Light sunning, soiling and minor creasing to wraps. Very good. Item #12851
$75.00