THE FIGGS- GINGER 12" LP

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THE FIGGS- GINGER 12" LP-Originally released on cassette only in 1991, Ginger is now available on vinyl for the first time in 28 years! Painstakingly re-mixed and mastered from the original tapes, this LP presents all 10 tracks from the GINGER cassette in the same order as they originally appeared. The LP includes a 12”x12” two sided insert with liner notes written by New York Times Music Columnist Ben Sisario and photos by Erica Moody. The LP art is a slightly updated version of the original cassette j-card artwork with layout by John Falco. The LP includes a digital download code with all 10 tracks plus 14 additional tracks that are not on the LP! Many are hard to find tracks and some tracks have never been released before! 24 tracks total! SO MUCH FIGGS!

PRESSING STATS- First pressing is limited to 300 copies (200 on Black Vinyl, 100 on Splattered Marbled Vinyl- Splattered Marbled vinyl is already sold out!!!!)

The Figgs-Ginger LP is $18.00 plus shipping.
For more information contact us at [email protected]

REVIEW-A reissue of this long-lived (thirty three years!) and venerated band's debut. Originally released on 1991 on cassette only, this is the first time its on vinyl. Whats you get is a grab bag of raw-wire, energetic, punk-infused power pop with echoes of so many greats-Plimsouls, The Beat, Replacements, Husker Du, Elvis Costello, and maybe a smidge of Big Star- embedded in the DNA of every note. Essential from the start, it ends too soon and it makes you wanna flail gleefully in abandon throughout. (Razorcake Fanzine).

Read more about the making the Ginger LP from Figgs Bassist Pete Donnelly:

A few people had been asking us about the likelihood of our 1992 record “Ginger” being rereleased. Matto Laque (Peterwalkee Records) particularly showed interest and wished to do an LP release. It piqued our interest enough to consider it, as this record really was the first Figgs record.

The greatest challenge surrounding this idea was getting the tapes and having them transferred. Our relationship with our ex manager Brad Morrison wasn’t exactly copacetic, in fact it had potential to be down right ugly. We left on bad terms in ‘97 feeling both angry and let down, and for me certainly I felt we had let the train derail. It wouldn’t be easy to open back up this tumult, unsettled as it was.

I took the reigns and made the effort to reach Brad and talk with him about the idea of reissuing Ginger. In some ways our conversation was as old friends reconnecting, but with a lot of deflecting. Brad seemingly hadn’t moved on much since our demise. He routinely barbed me with age old issues between us, he loved to remind me we were just kids and did’t have much of a clue back then. I never engaged, I only spoke of current life and what was important now. Which was getting the tapes and baking them and transferring them digitally so I could mix them back at my studio. Through it all we eventually settled on an agreement that satisfied him. He had paid for the Ginger sessions out of pocket and, as expected, wanted his money back; so we coughed up the bread.

I took a trip up to his house in Chester NY. It was the farm where we had spent many days recording and camping out between tours and meetings and parties; it was a second home to us for a while. Pulling in the driveway I could sense that familiarity but there was a unsettling shadow cast across the property. He greeted me as an old friend and we spent the afternoon shooting the shit and looking through boxes and sorting tapes and taking stock of all the recordings he had of us. There were 26 reels of recordings and I still don’t know how many DATs and cassettes etc. I got very excited at the prospect of diving into all of this material, much of it never heard outside of the immediate camp.

In order to transfer the Ginger tapes Brad had to track down the original machine and dolby system that had been used to record us. His friend Harry, who’s studio it was we used, had passed away. Lucky for us his wife still had all of his gear and gave Brad her blessing to take it and do with it as we needed. He called me and told me rewind wasn’t working and that he had to manually rewind the tapes every time. I anxiously hoped for the best. As the sessions started to come in on his work’s FTP site, they were somewhat organized but the audio files were unlabeled. Pulling them into my Protools I began the process of listening to tracks and trying to identify what was what. In some cases it was clear but sometimes I was struggling to decipher what was what. As I began to get a grasp on tracks, organizing them and such, it became clear that the transfers were not that great, and in some cases, downright awful. There were drop outs and certain songs in particular sounded like they were under water. The tapes had been baked, Brad set up the machine-but it clearly needed biasing and a tune up. Basically this whole project need attention that we really could’t afford. I hesitantly plowed ahead.

For nearly a year I’d mix and then walk away and then mix again. Every time I tried I nearly gave up. Why was I investing myself into this project that was so fraught with audio problems? We thought it sounded pretty poor in the first place, now I was insecure about whether I could top the original mixes at all. I didn’t feel like a sure thing and there wasn’t enough energy surrounding the project to really propel it. The artwork certainly helped, it was looking good! But the mixing was depressing me.

Information travels fast on FB and through an old friend I saw that Brad had passed away. I knew he was reckless with his own life, and he was clearly suffering in ways that I didn’t really have a chance to understand. It was unexpected though, I was shocked by this. We had really only began to reconnect and that was refreshing. I actually liked knowing that we were making headway, refreshing a petrified relationship.

I decided to get back into the studio and give this record one last attempt. There he was, Brad, at the top of Harrison St. giving us the “Go ahead”. I can see the cigarette in his hand, his body slightly slouched forward with his head between the speakers, listening intently, knowing that he had something special there, something that he could help put forth into the world to great affect. He was right. It was these recordings that got us our record deal, it was these recordings that succeeded in giving the band a sound…as faulty as it was. It was these recordings that became our first record as The Figgs. Thanks for that Brad. Here’s to you!

Pete D