Night Birds - The Other Side Of Darkness

Here's a record I've been meaning to post up for quite some time now, the long awaited Night Birds Lp. they enlisted the help of photographer Max Ryazansky to stage a scene for the cover art that further cements this release as the "soon-to-be classic" record that it is musically. It's a dark and looming exposure that let's you see just enough detail in their faces to entice you while remaining abstract enough to keep you guessing. All the type was left to the marque floating above them. I like the idea of these men being overshadowed by their own creation, as though the very thing that identifies them also obscures them. This is the other side of darkness...

These covers were professionally black and white offset printed and glued, "standard issue" so to speak. The back cover is one of the many great live shots I've seen of Night Birds (photo by Keith Marlowe) as well as some hand-drawn song titles by Bryan Sculthrope to match back to the band name logo he originally created for them on their demo. The up-side to being an incredible live band is that there is never a shortage of kick-ass live photos lying around...

They went for a printed dust sleeve instead of a regular insert, which is always a classy choice in my book. Also black and white professionally printed and glued, on the one side you have an alternate image from the front cover photo shoot. This time their faces are revealed, further playing with the "other side of darkness"concept....


On the opposite side is a killer looking hand written lyric sheet. This thing is perfect punk style.... The hand writing varies quite a bit in size and character (slightly more organized in some places and then more free-form in others) and there are all these rad little naive doodles that were scattered throughout! It kind of reminds me of a Ramones insert, I wanna say Rocket To Russia....?


A side label is where the info goes....


B side label is the fun shot...


since I pre-ordered this thing like a good little record nerd, my copy came with a limited edition hand screen printed cover as well! this is a one color screen print of metallic silver ink on a raw black paper stock. These were printed in an edition of 210 and were available for pre-order only. Hate to say it but I think I actually prefer the high contrast screen printed version of this cover art to the actual photo real cover....

Half back panel with the song titles and the alternate photo from the insert. Same comment here as the front cover, I think I actually prefer the high contrast version now that I have seen both...

This is easily one of the best records to come out this year, be sure to pick up a copy from Grave Mistake directly if you haven't done so already...