Various Artists

*In process of stocking* To celebrate The Residents' 50th anniversary, we bring you something rather special: a re-issue of the legendary Subterranean Modern compilation. Subterranean Modern was Ralph Records' first album involving music from anyone other than The Residents or Snakefinger. The idea was to widen Ralph's appeal by bringing a greater variety of styles into the label. To this end Ralph had four band submit contributions on the theme of "San Francisco". Each was required to include a version of Tony Bennett's I Left My Heart In San Francisco. The four bands chosen were The Residents (of course), Chrome, Tuxedomoon, and MX-80 Sound. Fred Frith contributed to the songs by The Residents. All groups aside from Chrome (who signed with Beggars' Banquet instead) would later release albums on Ralph. In another first, Ralph hired artist Gary Panter to create the cover art for the album, rather than having it made by their in-house graphic design team Porno Graphics. Subterranean Modern was released on August 28th 1979. It was reissued by Ralph Records both in 1980 and 1983.