The Soft Pack - RSD 2010 7" Box Set

San Diego's The Soft Pack released this limited edition box set of their debut LP pressed on 5 7"s for Record Store Day 2010. totally unnecessary? yes. totally awesome? yes! each of the 7"s comes with its' own full color printed and glued sleeve with original collage art. some of these are really great, others a bit forced, but still really cool in my book.

SEASICK Japanese Tour Posters....

i just wrapped up the design and screen printing for SEASICK's new tour poster. this is a 5 color 18"x24" screen on 100lb cover stock. all of these are already on their way to Tokyo, so if you want one hit up the band directly.... see more of my art here.

NIGHT BIRDS!

Night Birds are one of my favorite bands going right now. they play top notch punk with a nod to classic surf and actually have the chops to pull it off. their singer Brian is a long time friend of mine as well as an ex band member from an old project, so of course i was more than delighted to help him out with some design service. for their debut ep on Dirtnap / Grave Mistake, the band hand stamped all the covers with their logo on the front of the sleeve and the song titles on the back. pretty great idea, actually. once again, totally loving the informal choice of plain paper for the covers instead of a heavy coated stock.

the insert is a 2 sided lyric sheet that i designed for them.

i also put the A and B labels together.

Brian was also nice enough to send along a copy of their Art Of The Underground 7" that just came out too! since all of the Art of the Underground singles have the same basic sleeve, it looks like they came up with their own limited folded photocopy sleeves to fit over the copies they will be selling. sweet! thanks Brian!

The Hunches Ep

pretty sure this is just a repress of the 2002 release, but it has new front and back cover art which is killer! great illustration mixed with hand done type (again!) on the front, and a straight-forward utilitarian approach to the back. high gloss glued sleeve making this raw and aggressive garage band look high style... i like! no insert or liner notes so i can't credit who did the layout.... nice work, you can get this from In The Red!

Burning Love Demo 7"

Also on Deranged, the debut Burning Love ep.... i'm liking the simple cover art and the back panel image, but the typography on the back panel kinda hurts. the A and B labels are even worse so i didn't even bother taking photos of them. this is a printed and glued sleeve with a Burning Love sticker on the outer record bag. overall nice attempt, and musically it's totally worth checking out. also, this was the cover art of the demo i found online, cooler cover art for sure...

The Bayonettes - Final 7"

Deranged Records recently released this final 2 song EP by Toronto's The Bayonettes. cool cover art by Tara Bursey, i just wish Gordon Deranged would have shelled out for something a little nicer than a color photocopy.... anyway, another great example of a 100% hand written record layout! the little insert kills me, so perfect for the half size back cover. keep em coming, punks!

MASSHYSTERI - Var Del Av Stan Lp

not a new release, but i've been listening to it a ton lately in anticipation of their new LP that will be out soon on Feral Ward and realized i never made a post about it since it came out before i was working on this blog.... Sweden's Masshysteri did an awesome job on the layout of their 1st LP (which was also on Feral Ward Records). the front and back cover art features some excellent photo collage work mono-printed onto an chipboard weighted 12" jacket. i've seen a lot of punk band photo collages in my time, but none have ever come together as tastefully as this. in fact, i'm pretty sure this is the first time i've ever seen a band photo collage that is front and back cover worthy at all!

the inner sleeve was printed on a really nice bright white stock and cut with rounded corners (so classy!). aside from the A and B label info, this record layout was completed with all hand written typography, no actual fonts. this feature wins big points with me as i tend to dislike most fonts and prefer to see hand crafted elements wherever possible. i can't wait to see what they come up with for their next LP....

CONDOMINIUM - Gag EP

another great release from twin cities CONDOMINIUM with another solid hand made layout! just like the last one, these covers are photocopies that were cleanly cut and glued, and then the band name was stamped across the top of the front cover. these guys are just nailing the abstract/strange imagery in my book... it's the perfect compliment to their punishing sound. the lyric sheet is a little less interesting this time, but hey, they all can't be knockouts!

Buzzer - Teachers Pet EP

just recently picked up the new BUZZER ep on Tic Tac Totally Records. pretty great little power pop record right down to the layout. no layout or art credits anywhere to be found on this release so i am guessing that the cover art was just scanned from an old book or something. check out the back panel though, it's looks straight out of 1977 with all this spaced apart typography. i love that Buzzer circle logo lock up they came up with too.... sweet!