Throughout the 80’s Savage Republic was a deep-underground phenomenon, playing highly unorthodox shows in remote desert locations, abandoned factories, skid-row parking lots and grimy bars across the U.S. and Europe with such luminaries as Einsturzende Neubaten, Minutemen, Sonic Youth and Live Skull as well as hardcore-punk slugfests with the likes of Bad Religion, Angry Samoans and Final Conflict.
Known for their oddly-tuned guitars, tribal beats, shouted vocals, metal percussion (typically 55 gallon oil drums and items gleaned from dumpsters and junkyards), and Morricone-meets-Dick Dale melodies, their performances were at times ritualistic and occasionally involved fire and explosives. Beginning with the arrestingly aggro Tragic Figures in 1982 on through the wildly diverse experimentations of their final studio album Customs, recorded while on tour in Greece in 1988, Savage Republic produced music that seemed to come from some distant uncharted region. A land at turns harsh and beautiful, where elements of Mikis Theodorakis’ film scores smashed into 60’s psych, tribal punk and oddball Mediterranean folk-pop. Jarringly eclectic, they often sounded like a completely different band from album to album - at times from song to song on the same album. The music was packaged in beautifully distinctive chipboard covers hand printed by noted graphic artist, letterpress printer and band founder Bruce Licher. They even issued their own postage stamps.
Then in 1989 everything went quiet as ‘the Republic scattered to pursue other interests. After reuniting in 2002 for a brief U.S. tour supporting the boxed-set reissue of their five studio albums by Mobilization Records, several of the members began sharing ideas for new songs, reviving the band officially in 2005.