I'd like to put together a piece with input from a bunch of different people on a couple of questions.
1. What is an album with artwork so ugly or hideous that, despite having a good feeling that you'd like the music on there, you could never bring yourself to own?
2. What is an album with artwork so amazing that despite knowing you'd dislike the music, you've almost bought (or perhaps even actually bought)?
If you're so inclined, answer one or both questions -- probably about roughly a paragraph or so long (take as much space or as little as you need) outlining what the record is, the artwork, and what compelled you to get it or not get it as the case may be, and email it to me at revme@kittysneezes.com.
In addition to your answers, send along the name you'd like to be credited as, and the site you'd like linked (and, perhaps a title, like "Editor, http://www.whatever.com" or anything like that, if you'd like).
Also, pass this along to friends/family/enemies and encourage them to email me as well!
The Deadline will be January 31, 2008, by which time the Fingertips project will have wrapped up.
If you do this, you will win a Kittysneezes No-Prize which I have PERSONALLY ripped off from the Marvel offices.
To get you started, here are my entries:
Good Record, Hideous Artwork:
Royal Trux - Sweet Sixteen
I first came across this record while going through my college station's music library, weeding out the records that we would play that year and which we'd give away. We were also getting rid of records before a certain date, and with those ones, they'd either be given away, or we could keep them. This one was right on the edge of the cutoff, and I threw it in to screen it. I actually really liked what I heard of the record, but when I looked at the sleeve, I was so nauseated by the artwork -- a broken toilet filled with god-knows-what with "RTX" written in birthday cake icing on top of the mess -- that I decided then and there I didn't care how good the record was, I didn't want to have to be faced with that hideous sight whenever I did a show, so it went in the "chuck" bin.
There's also a Merzbow record, I think it's a greatest-hits type of one, where the front and back artwork are of men missing a good chunk of their faces. Eeeagh. Luckily for me, in this case, I've never been able to get into Merzbow beyond merely respect for what he does, rather than actual ENJOYMENT of what he does, so that doesn't quite count. But seriously, the dude released a 100 CD boxset. That's pretty amazing. ANYONE who can do that gets lots of credit in my book.
Good Artwork, Not Good Record
Thrice - Vheissu
It's no secret I'm a huge McSweeney's fan, and the Dave Eggers-designed cover art for this had always caught my eye. I'm a sucker for interesting typography and good graphic design, and Eggers is very talented at both. Unfortunately, for me, I've never been able to get into Thrice's music. It's OK, but just not my thing. However, I often thought that if I could find an LP copy of this album, I would pick it up just to hang on my wall. Then I did come across one, once, and I didn't buy it, proving myself a big ol' phony liar.
How's About You, huh?
Rev. Syung Myung Me
Kittysneezes.com
If you haven't noticed, this has been basically pretty dead. Real dead, in fact. HOWEVER -- I have a new site, which I encourage y'all to check out and register at and whatnot -- it's Kittysneezes.com, and it's a combination Online Zine/Band Site. So it's got some of my own music (more to come, once I work on the record some more), and some reviews, articles, interviews and whatnot. It just launched this week (uh, Tuesday, IIRC), and the current schedule is at LEAST Tuesdays and Thursdays to have more content, but I might sneak more in depending, and once we get other contributors, who knows when THEY'LL contribute. Either way, though! So, hey! Go check it out! Sign up! Whatnot!
I love Falco, and this is a track from his later era, that appeared on the (I believe posthumously released) "Out Of The Dark" album. The title of this song translates loosely into, "Mother, The Man With The Cocaine Is Here."
I figured I'd throw up a link to this here, for folks who don't typically keep up with my LJ, but I just did a post about an email from the Wild About Movies.com
mailing list which had a very odd headline. Not sure what the
deal with it is, though -- I wasn't expecting the anti-semitism...
Is my Vox blog dead? Well, just about it appears, but here I am trying to breathe a bit of life into it. I don't even know if anyone reads this, but I figure it's worth doing an occaisonal post.
Anyway, this is a song by the 80s/late 90s Brit band The Primitives. They're probably best know from their "Crash" song, which I believe was a success in both their native country and over here in the US of A. A few of you might also remember the cover that The Mr. T Experience did a while back (I'm sure it's been covered plenty, as it's a really good and catchy song, but I only really know the MTX). It turns out that The Primitives actually had a lot of good songs, and here's one of the other ones for your listening pleasure. I don't know a whole lot about the band, and in fact I don't actually own any of their records yet (something I'll definately be rectifying soon), but I seem to like pretty much everything I've heard...
EDIT: Looking around my friends pages, it appears just about EVERYONE'S Vox blog is dead. What's up with that?
but, man, today? MY FOOT HURTS.
That last one worked out okay, it turned out. When I'm picking the video, I can only see the first word of the title of the video, so, after the fact, I found out that "Graham" turned out to be the video or perhaps a live performance of "Temporary Beauty". Since, again, I'm waiting for a lot of stuff to be done by my other computer which is kinda tying it up, here's a more risky one.
Been digging Mike Watt quite a bit lately, and I remember seeing the video for "Piss-Bottle Man" on Beavis & Butthead back in the day, so it'd be kinda cool to see the real video, non-commentaried. WILL I SUCCEED, or will everyone be forced to COVER THEIR EYES IN HORROR as I search for PISS BOTTLE MAN:
At least the title looks like it might be right.... it is indeed called "Piss Bottle Man", but hopefully it's actually the video and not, say, an apt descriptor of a non-musical fellow.
I figured that since sometimes I've got a bunch of downtime at work, and a filtered internet connection, with many sites blocked, I'd actually take advantage of that blocking -- namely that of YouTube, and post a random YouTube video, based on the keywords. See, with VOX, I can do a search for YouTube, but I cannot actually SEE any of the pages or even the thumbnail image of what it is. So, I'll do a search term, and pick one of the things blind, and see what comes up.
For instance, right now, I'm listening to the Squeezing Out Sparks/Live Sparks 2-fer CD by Graham Parker, so I figured I'd, ideally, post one of the Graham Parker music videos. Or perhaps a live performance. But seeing as I won't know what I'm posting until I get home -- perhaps it will be Colin Whasshisnameyouknowthescieno talking about pie crusts. Who knows. Not me.
So, here it is: GRAHAM PARKER, in some, potentially cosmic-only, sense:
