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Ralph America

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Ralph America was an American independent record label, founded in 1993 by The Cryptic Corporation. The label, an offshoot of the defunct Ralph Records, exclusively released material by The Residents via mail-order to the American market, while the group's European distribution was handled by Euro Ralph.

Although founded in 1993, it wasn't until 1997 that Ralph America began a consistent schedule of releases, with the revival of the Buy Or Die! mail order catalog. In 1999, Ralph America employee Dren McDonald revamped the label's website, which became The Residents' only official online presence until they gained control of the residents.com domain name in 2003.

The label notably released the albums Live At The Fillmore, Wormwood Live 1999, Demons Dance Alone, The 12 Days Of Brumalia, The Way We Were, Night Of The Hunters, Postcards From Patmos, and Dollar General; its final release.

History

Ralph America was founded in 1993 by The Cryptic Corporation as an offshoot of Ralph Records, which had been out of business for four years. It was also formed as an American counterpart to Euro Ralph, which had been founded the year prior by Guido Randzio.

Unlike Euro Ralph, which acted as The Residents' main European record label (a role previously handled by Torso had previously been), Ralph America's role within The Residents' ecosystem was closer to that of UWEB, providing rare Residents recordings via mail order, which may have been of interest to fans, but not to the typical consumer.

Ralph America was first credited on the companion CD accompanying the 1993 book Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents; the first regular release to boast the label was the limited edition CD Pollex Christi, released in 1997. T.E.C. Tones owner and operator Tom Timony assisted Ralph America with warehousing and distribution in the early months of the company's activity.

Ralph America revived the Buy Or Die! mail-order catalogs which had been so successful for Ralph in its original incarnation; the new catalogs were authored by Cryptic employee Eddy, "your Buy Or Die Guy", or sometimes Eddy's mother, Mrs. Hodgenipper. UWEB fan club founder and president Uncle Willie contributed a regular column to the revived catalog, with additional writing from Ralph America staff members Sarah McLennan and Molly Harvey.

Both McLennan and Harvey left Ralph America in 1999. From that point, Dren McDonald, formerly of Vaccination Records, took over the company's day-to-day operations. Notably, McDonald revamped Ralph America's website, which would become The Residents' only official online presence for the next several years, and was the home of the group's first free online releases at the end of the year (later compiled on the album dot.com).

Ralph America's final release was The Residents' album Dollar General in 2010. With the rise of Internet music downloads in the early 21st century, Cryptic instead began to release would-be Ralph America material through their official Bandcamp page, the Ralphlet Outlet.

Releases

Ralph America releases were limited fan-centric mail-order only items not appropiate for a release on the East Side Digital label.

See also

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