***Electric Cowbell Records announces the launch of Richmond Relics, a new archival imprint dedicated to preserving the city’s musical history. Its inaugural release is a newly remastered reissue of FA3574, the sole album from Richmond, Virginia’s legendary supergroup Famous Actors From Out of Town. Originally self-released in 1986 as a limited-edition, cassette-only title, FA3574 was recorded at Floodzone, a repurposed tobacco warehouse studio in Richmond.
The album features ten original instrumental tracks that capture the group’s kinetic chemistry and their off-kilter blend of late-’70s/early-’80s art rock, jazz, noise, and improvisation. Nearly forty years later, the recordings remain strikingly vibrant. Now fully remastered for vinyl.
Formed in Richmond, Virginia in the mid-1980s, Famous Actors From Out of Town created ambitiously composed instrumental music rooted in the city’s fertile underground scene. Built around the uncommon power of two drummers working intricately in tandem, the quartet blended jazz, rock, improvisation, and experimental music into a sound that was both cerebral and physical.
Though the band played infrequently, their live appearances became legendary local events, drawing multigenerational audiences of punks, metalheads, jazz fans, students, and artists alike. The group featured composer and keyboardist Marty McCavitt, percussionists Johnny Hott and Pippin Barnett, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Watson on trumpet, guitar, and bass. All four were veterans of Richmond’s jazz, rock, and new-music communities, with deep connections to bands such as the Ululating Mummies, Orthotonics, Gongs Violence, House of Freaks, Idio Savant, the Tom and Marty Band, and the Snakehandlers. Their creative pedigree extended well beyond the city, with members later contributing to influential projects including Sparklehorse, Cracker, Curlew, and Gutterball.
