Experimental Music from Royal Books, Inc.

N.p.: ZDF Bilderdienst, 1986. Vintage borderless photograph of composer Robert Wilson holding a cardboard stick puppet on the set of the 1984 opera. Mimeo snipe in German on the verso. "The CIVIL warS" was originally conceived as six movements, created in six different countries, that once premiered in their countries of origin would then be joined together into… Read more about this item

New York: N.p., 1984. Vintage invitation to a performance by Frank Zappa at Limelight nightclub, 660 Sixth Ave., New York, on August 4, 1984. The invitation features a black and white photograph of Zappa by Steve Schapiro on the recto, donning an oven mitt over a raised fisted left hand, with an oven mitt graphic and text… Read more about this item

Los Angeles: Los Angeles Festival, 1987. Limited Edition, one of an unnumbered edition. Published in conjunction with an event held at the Los Angeles Festival on September 5, 1987, honoring Cage on his 75th birthday. INSCRIBED by John Cage on the title page: "for Ben Latting / John Cage." Laid in with the booklet is a program for the… Read more about this item

New York: The Living Theatre, 1959. Vintage mailer for a performance by American classical pianist William Masselos, held at The Living Theatre on May 4, 1959. Founded in 1947, The Living Theatre laid the foundation for a robust underground art scene in the New York City. After more than a decade of successful original radical stage productions… Read more about this item

New York: N.p., 1970. Four vintage promotional photographs of progressive folk-rock group McKendree Spring from the estate of violinist Michael Dreyfuss, likely dating from the 1970s. Dreyfuss pioneered the use of violins distorted by electronic and analog synthesizers, counting synthesizer inventor Robert Moog amongst his close friends, and McKendree Spring largely became known for the experimental sound… Read more about this item

N.p.: N.p., 1989. Vintage flyer advertising two performances by The Butt Boys: one on Saturday, April 15, 1989, at The Black Box in Phoenix, and one on Saturday, April 22, 1989, at The Crystal Pistol in San Francisco. Spain Rodriguez was one of the foremost underground cartoonists of the late 1960s and 1970s, alongside Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton,… Read more about this item

New York: The Living Theatre, 1960. Vintage flyer for a performance by John Cage and David Tudor, held at The Living Theatre on January 25, 1960. The flyer advertises a performance of "Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music," in which Cage read 90 stories, each a minute long, while Tudor played miscellaneous selections… Read more about this item

New York: The Living Theatre, 1960. Vintage flyer for an experimental music performance held at The Living Theatre on November 7, 1960. Flyer advertises performances by composers Stephen Addiss, Peter Hartman, Ezra Sims, William Sydeman, and Charles Wuorinen. Founded in 1947, The Living Theatre laid the foundation for a robust underground art scene in the… Read more about this item

New York: The Living Theatre, 1960. Vintage flyer for an experimental music show, held at The Living Theatre on March 14, 1960. Flyer advertises performances by John Cage, George Brecht, Alfred Hansen, Allan Kaprow, Richard Maxfield, John Herbert McDowell, and Robert Rauschenberg. Among the pieces performed were Kaprow's "Sound Piece 1958," Brecht's "Candle Piece for Radios" and… Read more about this item

N.p.: N.p., 1990. Vintage flyer for two San Francisco performances, one at Above Paradise (a short-lived venue above The Paradise Lounge) on Tuesday, February 27, 1990, and one at The Albion on Friday, March 2, 1990. Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hannah Marcus located to San Francisco in the late 1980s after graduating college, where she credits seeing a performance… Read more about this item

San Francisco: Klub Komotion, 1989. Vintage flyer for a performance by Janor Hypercleets and The Band That Dare Not Speak It's Name at Klub Komotion in San Francisco on Wednesday, May 17, 1989. Performance artist Hypercleets (also known as Hypercleats) and The Band That Dare Not Speak It's Name were proponents of The Church of the Subgenius, a… Read more about this item

N.p.: N.p., 1989. Vintage flyer for a performance by Danielle Hell and Iao Core on Saturday, September 2, 1989, at the Hat Heads Gallery of the San Francisco College of Art. Danielle Willis, a self-described San Francisco-based poet, writer, and vampire, who often went under the pseudonym Danielle Hell in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is best… Read more about this item

N.p.: N.p., 1974. Vintage photograph of jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, and composer Ornette Coleman, along with bassist Charlie Haden in the background, performing at Artist House in 1974. Stamp of photographer Raymond Ross on the verso. Coleman spent six years living and working at 131 Prince Street in New York, between 1968 and 1974. Acquired by Coleman in… Read more about this item

London: Virgin, 1974. Original eight page program for pioneering electronic music collective Tangerine Dream's first UK tour in 1974, including a brief biography of the band and a section describing EMs' Spectre video synthesizer (also known as the Spectron), which was made specifically for use by Tangerine Dream. Tangerine Dream's breakthrough 1974 album "Phaedra" was the first… Read more about this item

London: Blast First, 1986. Vintage Sonic Youth UK Limited Edition seven inch 45 rpm single, with pin, released on Blast First, BFFP 7, July 1986. The Limited Edition single of "Starpower," backed with "Bubblegum," the second Blast First pressing of the single, was released with a Thurston Moore pin, included here. With the stamped runout "BFFP 7 A-1U-1-1-2" on… Read more about this item

San Francisco: The Cryptic Corporation / Ralph Records, 1981. Vintage two-sided, two-color, fold-out Ralph Records catalog poster for Fall 1981. Featuring releases from Fred Frith, MX-80 Sound, Renaldo and the Loaf, [The] Residents, Snakefinger, Tuxedomoon, and Yello, as well as compilation lps, t-shirts, badges, and short films, as well as guidance for not submitting your music to Ralph Records. … Read more about this item

Manchester: Factory Benelux, 1985. Vintage poster for the 1985 Stockholm Monsters single, designed by Trevor Johnson for Factory Records and released by Factory Records Belgian imprint Factory Benelux. The Stockholm Monsters were an integral but often overlooked part of the Manchester/Factory Records scene of the early 1980s. Their highest-charting single, "How Corrupt is Rough Trade?" was an experimental… Read more about this item

N.p.: Gramschap and Ex, 1981. Vintage poster for the early 1981 single. Discogs lists the single as "War is Over (Weapons for El Salvador)," and notes that it was released with a poster and lyric booklet-likely the poster found here. The poster features text in Dutch in the left border which reads "Salvadorian guerrillas en route to… Read more about this item

Berlin: N.p., 1984. Vintage borderless photograph of musician Frank Zappa in performance at Eissporthalle in Berlin on September 11, 1984. Stamp of photographer Ronald Siemoneit on the verso, along with manuscript ink annotations noting Zappa's name and the date and location. In 1984 Zappa released four albums: "Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger" in August, "Them or… Read more about this item

London: Rough Trade, 1981. Vintage UK poster for the 1981 release of the Virgin Prunes' first EP, "Twenty Tens." Distributed by Rough Trade and released on the Baby Records label in the UK, humorously referenced here with the phrase "Buy Buy Baby" (also a sly anti-capitalist dig, consistent with the band's leftist bent). Formed in 1977, Irish post… Read more about this item