Black And White - Mortal Sin Ep

i'm back from japan!  tour was awesome, thank you to everyone who came out in support of my band Rough Kids.  i'm going to try my best to get back to posting here once a week, so keep your eyes peeled cause i have tons of radness from japan as well as a hefty pile of submissions from before i left....

first up, the very impressive first 7" ep from my favorite band we played with on tour, Tokyo's Black And White.  this band is really great both live and recorded, so seek this out if the snotty brittish sounds of the the first wave of UK punk is your thing.  as far as the art is concerned, this may be my favorite cover art for the year!  really great classic cut and paste punk collage on the front cover with very sharp handwritten "Black And White" type knocking out the image to the white paper.  i absolutely love that they used a small "times new roman" style font to sit above the art and gesture back to the fact that many of these images within the collage were clipped from a newspaper.  it's politically charged, but in a vague "image only" sort of way, not really out to make a statement either way.  to add the "70's punk single" vibe of this record, these sleeves were offset printed on what feels like newsprint grade paper.  it literally looks and feels like you are holding a 30+ year old record in your hands....

on the back panel of these covers, there are 4 images of the band members displayed as a grid with the Episode Sounds record label logo above them.  not only do i love that these covers were folded and glued with the folded tabs on the outside of the back panel, but i love how it looks as though the covers were assembled before they were printed.  again, as far as creating an authentic 70's punk aesthetic to go along with your sound, these guys knocked it out of the park!  this thing screams KBD to me...

this A side label is perfectly dialed as well.  blank ink on an off-white paper stock with a spot neon pink ink used to pop that Episode logo that is behind all the info.  everything from the choice of type to the layout and design is spot on....

the B side label is a bit off the grid as far as the rest of the layout, but i guess the completely random quality of it isn't too uncharacteristic for this style either...