Week number two of being back on the job. I'm good, feeling stronger with each passing day.Tomorrow there will be tentative bicycling.
Please enjoy this picture of a deceased century plant.
Good night to all!
February 12, 2009
Back to Work.
Week number two of being back on the job. I'm good, feeling stronger with each passing day.Tomorrow there will be tentative bicycling.
Please enjoy this picture of a deceased century plant.
Good night to all!
February 10, 2009
"Trouble in Mind..."
"...I’m blue. But I won’t be blue always,
I know the sun's gonna shine in my back door someday..."
February 8, 2009
You Can't Shit a Shitter.
Number four in a series regarding my involvment with the visual aspects of the audio endeavors of a few underground musical bands listed chronologically herein.
Negative Step on licky red wax. Accept no substitutes.
My friend August has been in many many bands, usually as the singer. Off the top of my head... let's see...Big Horny Hustler, Crown Roast, SSS, Filipino Wife, Society of Friends, Negative Step, part time live vocal duties in Iron Lung, Electric Eye, Lords of Light, Walls, Scilentist. Probably, I missed some. I'm also sure there have been many more since the last time he and I spoke.
At one point while August was still living in Austin, he was in this awesome throwback hardcore band called Negative Step. They had this raw, old-school thrash sound. So much fun to see live too, not as intense or precise as Society of Friends, but playful and snarky. They were a real joy to watch.
It came to pass that there was to be a split single between Negative Step, and Houston's finest, the Pretty Little Flowers. August had this idea about the cover. It was to have a snake on it. Not just any snake, but a very specific snake. It was the snake from the Gadsden Flag, don't ask me why, I don't know. We went around and around about it, and I drew some crazy snakes. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that we should just make a copy of the snake picture that he had.
Which is what we did for the cover. I traced the snake on a light box, and hand lettered the purposefully boring logo. For the inside, August said to "draw a grim reaper killing a punk rocker!" Ah, the easy part. This would also mark the last time that I would do a manual paste-up for anything, hooray!
As for the music, it fucking shreds. The Step side is fast, furious and frowny, with August's howling over the whole tinny mess. The Flowers side is more fully produced, brutal and quick. Even though I'm a little biased, I have to admit that I think the P.L.F. side wins in a very tight competition.
This is way out of print, but you can get this shit here, now! Yeah!
Negative Step Side:
Negative Step on licky red wax. Accept no substitutes.
My friend August has been in many many bands, usually as the singer. Off the top of my head... let's see...Big Horny Hustler, Crown Roast, SSS, Filipino Wife, Society of Friends, Negative Step, part time live vocal duties in Iron Lung, Electric Eye, Lords of Light, Walls, Scilentist. Probably, I missed some. I'm also sure there have been many more since the last time he and I spoke.At one point while August was still living in Austin, he was in this awesome throwback hardcore band called Negative Step. They had this raw, old-school thrash sound. So much fun to see live too, not as intense or precise as Society of Friends, but playful and snarky. They were a real joy to watch.
It came to pass that there was to be a split single between Negative Step, and Houston's finest, the Pretty Little Flowers. August had this idea about the cover. It was to have a snake on it. Not just any snake, but a very specific snake. It was the snake from the Gadsden Flag, don't ask me why, I don't know. We went around and around about it, and I drew some crazy snakes. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that we should just make a copy of the snake picture that he had.
Which is what we did for the cover. I traced the snake on a light box, and hand lettered the purposefully boring logo. For the inside, August said to "draw a grim reaper killing a punk rocker!" Ah, the easy part. This would also mark the last time that I would do a manual paste-up for anything, hooray!
As for the music, it fucking shreds. The Step side is fast, furious and frowny, with August's howling over the whole tinny mess. The Flowers side is more fully produced, brutal and quick. Even though I'm a little biased, I have to admit that I think the P.L.F. side wins in a very tight competition.
This is way out of print, but you can get this shit here, now! Yeah!
[{Negative Step-Pretty Little Flowers Split 7 Inch}]
Negative Step Side:
Core Memory
What You Pay For (by the F.U.s)
Respect (Redding)
Negative Step Theme
Dead in Two Capitols
Pretty Little Flowers Side
Indigenous Revolt
Embrace Your Failure
Nuclear Threat (by Violent Headache)
Apathetic Shithead
Respect (Redding)
Negative Step Theme
Dead in Two Capitols
Pretty Little Flowers Side
Indigenous Revolt
Embrace Your Failure
Nuclear Threat (by Violent Headache)
Apathetic Shithead
February 6, 2009
February 3, 2009
February 1, 2009
"Cut Off at Midnight"
Periodically, I produce pretty, putrescent pictures for the people. Come, gaze upon the shambling horror that is my art...
Cover number three by me!
My instructions for this project were something informal like, "I don't care dude, do whatever you like." Instructions like that give me pause, and I have to evaluate them carefully.
In this instance it worked out well, because the band really didn't care. Thankfully, they were totally pleased with the result. There have been other times where I had been told that I should "go wild" and then, when wildness happened, they got upset or were disappointed. That's why I like it better when there is some previously existing vision of how things should look or be done, a theme or an idea that I can work off of.
For example: "Draw a dude with a skull-head killing punk rockers." Done. What a clear vision. So easy! I'll even make the skull-head guy naked, with a tiny, flaccid penis, just to be funny.*
That's much better than leaving it up to me, having no interest in my development sketches or roughs, and then getting pissed off when I turn it in, because "Too many skulls." or "Too much... it's just too much." If you didn't want over the top yuck, why come to me?
I ramble... Back on topic, this single is pretty awesome. It's a little Poison Idea here, a little Discharge there, maybe a touch of Motörhead, kneaded and squeezed through a fine Texas Redneck strainer, and poured over ice to make a delicious punk-core hellbroth, fit for the whole family.
Besides the rock, the one other thing that makes this single near and dear to my heart, is that Buzzcrusher were made up primarily of bar staff... bartenders, barbacks and bouncers. Being a longtime bartender myself, it makes my heart fill up with precious, prideful blood to know that I had a hand in this.
Grab it up here.
*An actual poster design that was later made into a tshirt.
Cover number three by me!My instructions for this project were something informal like, "I don't care dude, do whatever you like." Instructions like that give me pause, and I have to evaluate them carefully.
In this instance it worked out well, because the band really didn't care. Thankfully, they were totally pleased with the result. There have been other times where I had been told that I should "go wild" and then, when wildness happened, they got upset or were disappointed. That's why I like it better when there is some previously existing vision of how things should look or be done, a theme or an idea that I can work off of.
For example: "Draw a dude with a skull-head killing punk rockers." Done. What a clear vision. So easy! I'll even make the skull-head guy naked, with a tiny, flaccid penis, just to be funny.*
That's much better than leaving it up to me, having no interest in my development sketches or roughs, and then getting pissed off when I turn it in, because "Too many skulls." or "Too much... it's just too much." If you didn't want over the top yuck, why come to me?
I ramble... Back on topic, this single is pretty awesome. It's a little Poison Idea here, a little Discharge there, maybe a touch of Motörhead, kneaded and squeezed through a fine Texas Redneck strainer, and poured over ice to make a delicious punk-core hellbroth, fit for the whole family.
Besides the rock, the one other thing that makes this single near and dear to my heart, is that Buzzcrusher were made up primarily of bar staff... bartenders, barbacks and bouncers. Being a longtime bartender myself, it makes my heart fill up with precious, prideful blood to know that I had a hand in this.
Grab it up here.
*An actual poster design that was later made into a tshirt.
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