Magnanimous Collector: Figures of Light reunite and reignite

Armed with a catalog of stripped-down two-chord songs inspired by the likes of the Stooges, the Who, Blue Cheer and the Pretty Things, New Brunswick, N.J.'s Figures of Light -- a frenzied four-piece that embodied punk rock before the phrase existed -- played its inaugural concert in the summer of 1970. Vocalist Wheeler Winston Dixon describes the ensuing chaos in the liner notes of the band’s debut album on Norton Records: “Our first concert was a wild one, in which we destroyed 15 television sets on the stage in Scott Hall at Rutgers University with pick axes and sledge hammers, along with some mannequins and some large mirrors. We started the performance by driving a motorcycle down the hallway on the stage and smashed a record player playing Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris.’ ”

The world was unready for such ballistic rock 'n’ roll shenanigans. Figures of Light’s debut seven-inch, which contained the churning, flippant “It’s Lame,” backed with the proto-slacker anthem “I Jes Wanna Go to Bed,” had a mere 100 imprints, which the band still had a tough time unloading onto the public. The band’s legacy was swept into music history’s dust bin. The impossible-to-find single became the stuff of record collector legend, a holy grail to be sought after and revered from afar. Until 2006, when Norton Records honchos Miriam Linna and Biller Miller stumbled across a copy of the single at a swap meet and decided to reintroduce it to the public.

Figures of Light’s long-overdue full-length, “Smash Hits,” which releases on Aug.  5, contains both sides of the single along with nine studio and live cuts from the band’s revived 2007 line-up. Accompanied by members of the A-Bones, the band presents songs that never saw a recording studio during their heyday, such as “Seething Psychosexual Conflict Blues,” “I’m Sick of Everything” and “Why Not Knock Yourself Off.” Thirty-six years after the band tore apart the stage at Rutgers, their edge remains as sharp as a hatchet.

-- Jason Gelt

Photo: Norton Records

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