Figures on a Beach was a 1980s musical band that played in a style that drew influences from New Romantic

New Romantic

New Romanticism , was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and new wave music...

, techno

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

 and pop music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

.

History

Figures on a Beach was formed in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, in the early 1980s from the ashes of the band Razor 1922. The group was composed of vocalist Anthony Kaczynski; guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

  John "Rik" Rolski; keyboardist

Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...

 Christopher Ewen; bassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

 Perry Tell; and drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

, multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

 designer

Designer

A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...

, animator

Animator

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...

, and illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

 Michael "Smitty" Smith. The group recorded an independent EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

, Swimming, in 1983, and the Don Was

Don Was

Don Was is an American musician, bassist and record producer.-Life and career:Was was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Oak Park High School in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, then attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor but dropped out after the first year...

-produced single "Breathless" in 1984.

Figures moved to Boston in 1985 and was signed by Seymour Stein

Seymour Stein

Seymour Stein is an entrepreneur in the music industry who has been a part of the business since getting his first job as a clerk for Billboard magazine in 1958. Stein is a vice president of Warner Bros...

 of Sire Records

Sire Records

Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...

 soon afterward. Figures released its first full-length album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 in 1987, titled Standing on Ceremony. A self-titled LP (Figures on a Beach) followed in 1989, containing a minor hit cover of Bachman–Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" and a single titled "Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria)." The group disbanded in 1991.

Figures on a Beach has a Web site at Figures on a Beach

Chris Ewen went on to form Future Bible Heroes

Future Bible Heroes

Future Bible Heroes is one of several musical groups led by Stephin Merritt, best known for his work with The Magnetic Fields. He shares vocal duties with Claudia Gonson, who sings on the entirety of 2002's Eternal Youth...

, a collaboration with Stephin Merritt

Stephin Merritt

Stephin Merritt is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles , best known as the principal singer and songwriter in the band The Magnetic Fields...

 and Claudia Gonson

Claudia Gonson

Claudia Miriam Gonson, is an American musician best known for her work with The Magnetic Fields. She occasionally provides the band lead vocals as well as performing the piano or drums...

 from The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields is the principal creative outlet of singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt...

.

Anthony Kaczynski and Michael Smith went on to form Fireking

Fireking

Fireking is a power pop/rock band that hails from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in the late 1990s, Fireking has released one album, entitled "Live a Little, Love a Little", which has generally received favorable reviews from critics. This CD was released on Fireking's own label, Blueberry Pie...

.

"Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria)" was covered by The Echoing Green

The Echoing Green (band)

The Echoing Green is an electronica/synthpop band. It began as a duo between Joey Belville and Aaron Bowman in 1992, and has since released eleven major albums....

 on the band's self-titled album.

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions				Album
		US Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	US Modern Rock	US Mainstream Rock	UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
1989	"Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria)"	-	14	-	-	Figures on a Beach
1989	"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" is a rock song written by Randy Bachman and performed by Bachman–Turner Overdrive on the album Not Fragile. It was released as a single in 1974 with an instrumental track "Free Wheelin'" as the B-side... "	67	-	-	-	Figures on a Beach

Singles

• "Swimming EP" (Metro America, 1983)
• "Breathless" (Metro America, 1984)
• "In Camera Obscura/Paradise" (Metro America, 1985)
• "No Stars" (Sire, 1987)
• "Accidentally 4th St. (Gloria)" (Sire, 1989)
• "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (Sire, 1989)

Albums

• Paradise And Other Four Letter Words (Metro America, 1985)
• Standing On Ceremony (Sire, 1987)
• Figures on a Beach (Sire, 1989)