Today I was in the letterpress studio mixing ink for an upcoming Dept of Energy promo poster I’m working on. I promised teasers last week of this work-in-progress, and here is the first one. This poster will need 7 inks total (which took me 6 hours to mix all of ‘em!), 3 press set-up’s & 3 print passes total on two different presses (an electric Vandercook and a C & P manual). Those of you wondering how 7 ink colors end up being only 3 passes-well, that’s because 2 of the passes will be a 3 color split fountain(*). (Ooooo, a hint to how it’ll look!) There will also be some unique details to this poster that extend outside of paper to make it complete. Curious? You should be! But I’m not telling what those are….yet.I haven’t been this excited to print a poster to see how it’ll turn out since….well, ever. If I get it all dead on, this will be simply put, gorgeous. Artful. Keep checking back for more status reports on this project as it progresses….

(*) Split Fountain - Technique of putting ink colors next to each other in the same ink fountain or roller and printing them off the same plate.

More fun than a barrel of monkeys…on acid. Simian Mobile Disco.

I have felt the floor bounce at Neumo’s before, but not like a trampoline. I thought we might actually fall through, thankfully it held up to the massive boogie down party. Shades of Ibiza and crazy happy times. Such a good time dancing with rockers, nerds, hippies, emo kids & punks. I have never been to a show in Seattle where so many different people got together & got down. Huge wall of sound and LED light barrage that would have given Homer and Bart seizures. RAD!!!

Mr. Styk has spent the past few months cultivating an incredible formation of facial hair. Wtih the warmer weather approaching it became time to liberate his cheeks from the wooly canopy. Never a man to shy away from an opportunity to make a statement, he entered on the second leg of his experiment and slowly removed his hair, revealing frightening styles, before only witnessed in comics and “don’t talk to strangers” books. The results were truly staggering. 

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The Black Angels are back with another album full of siren songs. Murky, tripped-out rock that will lure us back into captivity with its haunting, yet meditative discordant jams not unlike their first release Passover.

Still nodding heavy homage to their psychedelic, garage rock, and drone punk influences such as The Velvet Underground, The Doors, 13th Floor Elevators, Joy Division, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Syd Barrett, they still remain modern sounding for today’s young ears.

The story behind this sophomore release is that while recording the album, the Black Angels lived in an old haunted mansion in Austin, TX and are claiming to have seen a girl frequently walking the mansion at night robed in a red dress, resulting in the inspiration for the album’s title, Directions to See a Ghost. It would also seem that it influenced the darker mood it evokes.

Though a tad on the ominous side, it is still an album full of multi-layered chords, smoky echoing vocals, vibrating noises, guitar fuzz that thrums like electricity under the skin and steady tempo’s pulsing back and forth like a slithering snake that sets one adrift in uncharted seas where the undertows are ones of pure Epicurean delight.

The songs are epic even when under five minutes, cascading within walls of golden sound as if moving languidly through honey, or reminiscent of adagio kisses in the dark with pulsing goose-flesh shivering against warm flesh, one side with a five-o-clock shadow; definitely music one can union to, eyes darkened with smoldering passion.

After listening from start to finish, I twitch with the silence hailing the end, leaving me with a feeling much like waking up unsure of where I am until my eyes land on a midnight sylvan scene rendered in acrylic paint on black velvet, the jarring fluorescent highlights of the moon’s glow cast on bark and rippling river water, bringing me back to the present. Or am I still lost in dreaming?

Album release date May 13th.

For a lot of my letterpress printing I have polymer plates made through Boxcar Press so I can use modern day typefaces & custom illustration. This past week I just finished designing an upcoming Dept. of Energy promo poster in which I needed a pretty big plate made. On my invoice, I found notes for something new they are doing this year for orders over $100. I have to say, I really like this idea by a company as a way to make a greener world. By knowing I am using earth friendly inks, all natural cleaning solvents, all cotton paper, and having a tree planted in her name while making posters on an old steel press, it sure makes a designer gal feel real good.

Oh, and keep an eye on the Skip Report for a future glimpse of the poster being made & as a final in the upcoming weeks.

Sharing is caring, and what better way to show you care then by sharing some tunes you’ve been listening to. Muxtape is an online music sharing site that acts a little differently than some of the other players in the game. Users register and are granted a URL based on their username. Each user can upload up to 12 mp3s to have as their “muxtape.” Friends can then subscribe to each others muxtapes via RSS and always see when their friends upload new music that they’re interested in.

Check out an example of a muxtape I made

A little update on a recently completed project

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