Hiya friends, Fred Icebag (a.k.a. Taylor Jessen, Firesign archivist) here at Firesign Fred's House of Big Promises. This is the first of two official Firesign announcements about upcoming reissues and special sales. The announcement of the Sidd Fudd Black Friday Firesale, happening 11/23/2012, is now available. For this announcement, a preview of coming detractions.
The following products are coming soon, oh so very soon, to the FireSale store (we don't have exact dates for you yet, but count on them debuting just after the end of the world, if you catch my Yucatanian drift). First to come will be three new books from Bear Manor (bearmanormedia.com), and they're literally just a couple of emails away from going to the printer as I type:
MARCHING TO SHIBBOLETH. The complete texts of Firesign Theatre's Big Book of Plays and Firesign Theatre's Big Mystery Joke Book reprinted in a single volume. 'Nuff said. If you lost yours in the move, loaned them to some no-account joker or gave them up when the old man / old lady split, you'll once again be making avant-garde hay night and day - with enough spares left over in the warehouse to turn on your friends and family besides!
EXORCISM IN YOUR DAILY LIFE: THE PSYCHEDELIC FIRESIGN THEATRE AT THE MAGIC MUSHROOM 1967. Firesign gets their Goon Show on! Never-before published, now gathered in one volume, it's the original scripts behind the legendary comic mayhem they unleashed live on Sunday nights throughout Fall 1967 from the Magic Mushroom club on Ventura Boulevard, Studio City, and simulcast on KRLA. In a world where a comedy team this good could never get on TV, they wrote their own one-season series and put it on the radio instead! Includes the title piece, plus "The Seance", "The Last Tunnel to Fresno", "Twenty Years Behind the Whale", "By the Light of the Silvery", "The Sword and the Stoned", "Sesame Mucho", "The Armenian's Paw", "Tile It Like It Is", and "A Life in the Day". Like a sunny Spike Milligan just stepping off the magic bus, this brilliant cycle of plays is Firesign at their most anarchic. Fully transcribed with original cast lists. 208 pages.
PROFILES IN BARBEQUE SAUCE: THE FIRESIGN THEATRE ON STAGE 1967-1972. Eugene Ionesco meets Norman Corwin, live from the Colorado Beefsteak Mines. An essential compilation of scripts to old familiar faves, well-traveled bootlegs, and pieces so rare even David forgot about them. Includes "International Youth on Parade", "Temporarily Humboldt County", "W.C. Fields Forever", "38 Cunegonde", "A Shadow Moves Upon a Land", "Freek for a Week", "Profiles in Barbeque Sauce", "Thanksgiving or Pass the Indian Please!", "The Fuse of Doom", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "...nd of the World", "The TV Set", "Mutt 'n' Smutt", "The Dr. Blojob Show", "The Bob Sideburn News", and the complete performance script to "Martian Space Party". In turns hilarious, nightmarish, and breathtaking, this one will be full of surprises for even the most hardcore Firesign fan. 271 pages.
Coming in early 2013, look for a CD reissue of THE PINK HOTEL BURNS DOWN. Out of print for 15 years or more, we're delighted to bring back this peppy odds-n-sods collection with added bonus tracks. Includes the title piece plus original Magic Mushroom plays "Exorcism and Your Daily Life" and "By the Light of the Silvery"; the Jack Poet VW radio spots "Aboriginal Amateur Hour", "...nd of the World", "Breakfast with the Brunts" and "Captain Equinox"; Firesign's very first official performance, "International Youth on Parade"; vintage Craig Cassette ad "Sgt. Preston"; a selection of "A Closer Look" pieces for NPR; and the beyond-belief soap opera "Over the Edge". Bonus tracks will include the never-before-released three-minute wonder "Paul Eichorn's Paris Report", played just once in front of their label's top brass as part of Firesign's notorious "Youth Pulse" put-on at the Columbia Records convention in July 1969.
Also in the hopper is OIL ON ASTROTURF, a collection of postcard reproductions of some of the rarest and most ridiculous Firesign advertising art and other original frameables, including all the posters you wished you'd ripped off the fence on Sunset Boulevard back in the day. Expect to see a groovy psychedelic human totem pole, a mad scientist and his robot, an announcement of a 1960s Dutch street happening, the cast of "Babes in Khaki" in a kick line, and clowns being eaten by panthers.
Coming next year, the long-promised first in a series of Firesign DVD compilations, EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG: THE FIRESIGN THEATRE'S VIDEO ADVENTURES 1969-1975. This will include every, but EVERY moment of Firesign on film and video we could recover from their classic Columbia Records period. To be included: "Everything You Know Is Wrong", their 1975 feature (with a new running commentary recorded by the full group in 2009); "Martian Space Party", their 1972 concert documentary (also with commentary); all eight "Jack Poet Volkswagen" TV ads from 1969; "The Bob Sideburn News", as performed for L.A. public affairs TV series "About a Week" in 1971; "Questions and Answers: Live at U.C. Santa Cruz", a one-hour stage show captured in black and white in 1975; Firesign in the 1975 Santa Claus Lane parade; Firesign's 1972 TV ad hawking their Columbia LPs; and more than an hour of home movies, including footage shot during original "Dear Friends" broadcasts and synced to sound for the first time. Shocking! Unbelievable! Declassified! So strange only a TV could believe it!
Yep, it's all happening, I'm not hot-doggin' ya. But we need your help to get the presses rolling and the disc stampers stamping. Click Here for an announcement about how you can help Firesign raise the necessary funding by participating in a very special Black Friday sale.
And of course the FireSale store always remains open.
Cheers,
Fred
