Coincidence?
Coincidence? We shall consider revisiting this topic following the album’s March 6, 2012 release.
Feb 102012
Nov 212011
"You had me at Dick Clark as Hitler."
Once a year I try to listen to my lone Devo album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! I want to love it. I begin to chuckle over it before I even drop the needle. Once I do, however, musically there’s not enough there for me to care about, no matter how much I try. I inevitably skip ahead to get my requisite laughs out of the song “Jocko Homo” before logging onto YouTube to marvel at their videos. Devo videos are amazing!
As an impressionable college freshman I got into The Residents. I bought Third Reich ‘n Roll and Meet the Residents as soon as I saw the album covers, without ever hearing a note of the band’s music. (Actually, come to think of it, I stole both records before ever hearing a note of the band’s music, but that’s a long story I might have shared once and I will probably share once more in the future…) The Residents’ album covers and concepts are amazing! I dig their “classic” albums enough to actually feel compelled to rank their musical output and cite “turning points” in their development, but without the record covers and overriding concepts, what would be the point of ever listening to The Residents? Without the medium of the 12-inch vinyl album cover could The Residents have ever existed? I don’t think so. What 18-year-old kid is going to log into the iTunes Store to sample and download a Residents album?
I’ve never liked KISS, but I’ve got to give them credit for their visual appeal. Sans makeup and pyrotechnics would KISS have been anything more than a “1-hit wonder” like Brownsville Station?
What artists are you attracted to primarily for their visual appeal, even long after you’ve bought and dug their records?
Previously: Music That’s Better With the Sound Turned Off: Devo…
Oct 072011
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/01-Stoplight-Roses.mp3|titles=Nick Lowe, “Stoplight Roses”]
This is terrible, this may be the worst attitude I’ve had about a new release in years. It’s been 2 weeks since I purchased Nick Lowe‘s new album, The Old Magic. I’ve yet to spin it. As anyone who knows me and my Insta-Reviews can tell you, “KingEd don’t sit on new releases for 2 weeks.” OK, I sat on a pile of Robert Pollard-related releases sent to me by Townsman kpdexter for too long, but that was because life was crazy busy, not because I had a bad attitude about listening to Pollards then-latest 19 albums.
I’ve got a real bad attitude about this new Nick Lowe album. Let’s start with the first contributing factor:
Jun 032011
Do we start with Pink Floyd?
Townsman trolleyvox and RockTownHall Labs bring you the following topic for discussion:
Which artist most consistently has produced better album art than the music contained therein?
There’s no need for fancy build up or explanation, is there? On with the discussion!
Apr 182011
Just got back from Boston with the Fam. While there we checked out the kinda cool ICA museum, where they had an exhibit The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl. Most was just so-so, but they had the original David Byrne More Songs About Building and Food artwork, which was way larger than I imagined (90″x90″) Typically I don’t dig musicians doing cover art. I don’t know why—it smacks of “look at me-ism,” to me. But that cover was very cool. I don’t think even Beefheart did much of his own cover art. Maybe David Thomas? Anyway, this has probably been hashed over, but is it proper for musicians to do their own covers—except for the Head, that is?
Apr 202010
“Good effort, but, like, they totally got the details wrong!”
I’ve yet to hear this new record by indie supergroup Sweet Apple (two members of Cobra Verde, J. Mascis, and one of Mascis’ bandmates in Witch), but I appreciated the tribute-style album cover the first time I saw it. I’m a Cobra Verde fan, so I’ll be picking up this album for more than one obvious reason.
However, soon after appreciating this album cover and determining that the women were lacking some of the charms of the models on Roxy Music‘s Country Life, I began to wonder whether I should don the patented RTH Pince Nez and critique all the details missed from the original album cover. Then, even sooner thereafter, I thought I should invite my fellow Townspeople to join in this critique. So put down your latest issue of Cat Fancy, blow your nose, pick up your monacle, and see if you can help me identify the key missing details that separates the women from the girls, in this case, when it comes to paying tribute to one of rock’s all-time greatest album covers.
I look forward to your respectful, family friendly analysis.
Aug 072009
Recently I had the pleasure of being contracted to design the art for the latest release by Philly phaves, Nixon’s Head. The Enemies List (available for purchase here) cover was an exercise of almost pure creativity. Listening and then designing.
The back cover though was a joy for different reasons. The band wanted the back to be a take on the back of The Beatles Rubber Soul. (I derive an odd pleasure from finding/duplicating just the right font.)
This got me thinking about album parodies and more specifically album backs. There are loads and loads of album parodies. Not the least of which include Townsman mrclean’s band, The Dead Milkmen’s Smokin’ Banana Peels cover:
