Manic Attracts - Eyes Wide Shut 12"...

another cool record design by C.M. Ruiz i recently stumbled upon.... this Manic Attracts 12" conjures up some of C.M.'s signature style of making the most mundane found imagery beautifully interesting through his process of playfully cutting and photocopying to perfection.

i always like his use of line work, but the way he layered in that second color on this cover art was a cool new twist for his work....

these are offset printed sleeves on a standard coated cover stock, nothing special there. however, the back cover art is equally great to the front... more crazy lines, more cut up imagery, and some hand written song titles to finish it off. it's looking very cool in my book...

no insert for this guy, but the A and B labels are rad. they are kind of a mash up of all the key elements from the front and back covers, so here's looking at you....

you can grab this from Dead Beat directly....

Fed To The Wolves...

i recently made a bunch of art for san diego based Fed To The Wolves.... they needed a demo cover and a t-shirt now that they are playing out all the time, so click the links and check them out live if you have the chance....

to see more of my illustration work, go here. also, hit up their label page if you are interested in grabbing these...

Slobs - Look Busy Do Nothing ep...

i picked up this new Slobs ep on Cowabunga recently, this may be my favorite 7" for 2011 so far...

the cover art is nice and weird, featuring an abstract image of a man having a smoke, photocopied to perfection. BUT, what's really great on this cover is that fucking SLOBS symbol that they came up with in the corner! holy shit, that thing is good! i love the way they handled the type below it as well. it's very controlled yet perfectly punk. man, that thing will definitely be making a page of "classic punk logos" in some book 30 years from now....

this is a 1 color photocopied cover on an 80lb uncoated cover stock, folded not glued. here we have a great "no bullshit" back cover. big bold type, continuing to play with the typewriter / hand written mixing that worked so well for them on the front. it's great....

there is a one sided 7" x 7" photocopied insert as well, i'm not sure what kind of paper this is, but i am not a fan of it. it feels kinda weird in your hands, like it absorbed all the moisture in the air or something. i don't know.... anyway, the hand written lyrics look great with the photo....

ok, as if that logo wasn't awesome enough on the front cover, check it out on the A side label. the "O" in the slobs symbol lined up perfectly with the hole in the center of the record, making for a nice composition...

B side label is another abstract image, this one is my favorite in the layout....

Only The Messengers Posters...

i just finished designing and screen printing these west coast weekend tour posters for New York based Only The Messengers. they are 3 color 18" x 24" posters on 100lb cover stock. both shows have great line ups, so go see them if you are in the bay area this weekend! and don't forget to pick up a print while you're at it....

Crazy Spirit - Demo 12"

a friend of mine alerted me that this ultra-hand-made Crazy Spirit 12" was for sale at the Sorry State web store and i quickly snagged a copy for the blog... i believe the art was done by sam ryser, and this is easily the most hand-made and over-the-top screen printed record i will encounter all year! the covers are 2 color screen prints on a coated white chipboard material. they were printed flat and then folded and assembled. love the little block print illustration happening in that circle, i almost wish it was really big as the cover image. don't get me wrong, i like the minimal and understated approach, but when you have something killer to show, show it big....

the back cover is more of this big messy roller print texture that has been engineered to look as though it was relief printed over the fold marks of the back panel post assembly, but it looks to me that they printed these in one shot unfolded. get lost in the darkness....

there is also a small screen print on the inside of the cover of some snake pictographs, but i couldn't get a usable photo of that....

ok, here is where the shit really starts to get wild! there is a 2 color, 9"x14" folded booklet that unfolds to be a 18"x24" 2 sided poster. here is a shot of the front of the insert folded, this panel is a pretty sweet mash up of photocopied and distorted shit mixed with some nice loose illustrations and hand made type. love the 2 color over printing in the screening, that is always a personal favorite for me....

unfold it once for an amazing hand written lyric sheet. the varying size of the typography creates great movement in the composition. the combination of the illustration style and the way the 2 colors interact with each other is pretty great, perfect for this kind of art....

unfold it again and this thing becomes a crazy looking, crazy spirit poster. 18"x24" 2 color screen print... love the illustration, love the type, and overall just a really nice use of geometric space....

here is a shot of the back of the insert all folded up. similar to the front insert panel, this has a lot of little hidden imagery buried within the photocopier noise and the over-printed color....

the A and B labels are just a solid pink label, no art. however, the dust sleeve was screen printed! pretty cool, but i wish they had matched the color of the labels to the ink used in the screen prints...

this was a Quality Control release, but i have no idea where you can get it, i think it may be sold out....

Poster Show Opening!

i will be displaying some of my screen printed poster work as the guest artist for the month of august over at BOOKMACHINE in Fullerton, CA. there will be an opening reception this friday during the downtown Fullerton Artwalk from 7-11pm, come out and say hi if you are in the area....

BOOKMACHINE Books & Zines

223 W. Santa Fe

Fullerton, CA 92832

The Outdoorsmen...

i played a show with this band The Outdoorsmen from the Bay Area last month, they had 4 different 7"s with them that all had really great cover art, so i picked up 2 of them for the blog. there are some seriously over the top illustrations happening on these jackets...

i think what i love about these illustrations is that they have the right balance of rawness to refinement. what they lack in detail they make up for big time in style. while they are rough and loose feeling as far as finished illustrations go, you can tell that this person took some time to draw these pieces to the best of their ability and this is what naturally came out. i think they are great for what they are, regardless of what you may think of the subject matter. that said, let's get started with this self titled ep first...

the cover art depicts a cop having his head chopped off while another dude is jerking off on his bare ass! like, wow, big time... i really like the style of the art, i'm always a sucker for a nicely crafted naive illustration. back cover also has a illustration that completes the theme started on the front cover. god, these illustrations are so dumb, i fucking love it! song titles are hand drawn, but they almost start to look a bit "comic book" to me with all the little stipple dots, so they lose points for that in my book....

A and B labels are nothing great in comparison to what you just saw, but here is a shot anyway. you can get this one from Wild American Records ( i also love that logo, by the way!)

next is the "Drunk Driving" ep, and this cover art is so epic! i mean, what else could you possibly draw as cover art for a record called "Drunk Driving" other than the bottle guy from the Minor Threat logo driving a car!?! all that white space surrounding the main illustration lets this thing breathe, and the hand drawn script type arching over the illustration was such a good call...

for the back cover, they continued the "Drunk Driving" theme from the front cover image, but were able to make it directly relate to the B-side song "Dead Meat". the middle finger salute in the distance is so sweet....

A and B labels are slightly better on this record.... slightly...

this one was release on Clown College Records.