I met Jaake outside of a Gnarboots show with For.The.Win. last year, and have since been blown away by his (and all the other San Jose kids) efforts to create an awesome DIY punk community. He asked me to do a t-shirt design for his old high school punk band Cheers To Doerr, which is the same art I used for this flyer. I guess the last time they played at Nickel City, the cops showed up. Also, the show was on 9/11. PUNK ROCK!
Here's an earlier version of the Screaming Hand art, based on Jim Phillipsiconic skateboard art. First person to point out the difference between this art and the art in the flyer wins a doodle by me (leave a comment below):
Every other blog on the planet has posted things about this release, but I'll go ahead and put it up here too since it'll cost you FREE dollars to get it, and you're bound to enjoy it.
So, I feel conflicted about this release. On the one hand, I've been listening to this a whole bunch. It's really good, incredibly listenable, witty, and it didn't cost me a dime. On the other hand, of course I'm going to like this, most of these songs were/are hits, and I already have 90% of them on my iPod. It is a stroke of genius that someone put all of these together in this manner, but the fact that Girl Talk can sell out a massive venue like the Fox Theater in a few minutes boggles my mind.
This is the perfect record for people with musical A.D.D. and a broad range of musical taste, and it might make you appriciate some songs you would have once turned your nose up at.
From the Anticon Propaganda newsletterA message from some familiar friends:
We of 13&god, would like to ask the all citizens of the world to draw a skeleton for our new album's artwork. Whether drawn by child, middle-ager, or going grey-er, all sorts of skeltons are welcome. Please email a quality copy of your skeleton to: skeleton@anticon.com. And thanks for helping us with our bone-ridden vision.
Love,
13&god
For some reason I got really into drawing wolf heads last week. I drew these guys in my sketch book, and decided it would be fun to use them for this flyer. I colored them last night while watching Dexter.
The most challenging thing about this flyer was having to make each line of text it's own layer, because photoshop spaces out the lettering too much when you just hit return. I always find it weird what winds up taking up my time when I work on these things. Anyone with a good cheat, let me know.
Here's another wolf head I doodled while answering phones last week:
I randomly saw this band after catching the Pillowfights at Balazo Gallery and waiting for Big Kids to go on. While it's kinda lame that once you enter Balazo Gallery, even if your over 21, you can't leave to get a burrito, but it kept me from missing this band's set. I thought they were really awesome, and the kids who were there to see them were going off, singing along and dancing, which is pretty great to see at a show in SF. These songs are weird while still being catchy, and punk without sounding cliche.
The t-shirts they were selling were ugly as fuck though. DUDES: let me do a shirt design for you!
Hopefully doing this flyer will score me one of these shirts, although I'll already be there to check out the Hard Girls set. Also, from the sound of it, bring ten toys to brighten some less fortunate kids birthday, get in for free. Sounds pretty killer to me!
I know I already put this flyer up a few months ago, but the show got postponed, and my band got added to it. So I adjusted the colors, changed the date, and changed the opening bands! Now its a gnarboots show! Deal with it!!
(click to go to the sketchy mediafire download linky)
Fulldisclosure: I haven't listened to this yet, but I like the Pillowfights (individually, and as a group) and I like Otessa (I saw pictures of her and Dani from the Pillowfights being awesome somewhere, and the first time I met her I said "Hi, you look like you like to have fun! I like fun!") and I like short recordings... Basically I'm putting this here to remind myself to go download it later. I'm guessingI know what this sounds like though without listening to it. It's female fronted pop-punk played by a bunch of fun folks from Monster Island. Am I right?
Olehole has a new 7" coming out and Brian Moss asked me to do some art for it. It was supposed to just be black and white but I went a little overboard and colored them.
I really like drawing anthropomorphic items with these silly white arms and legs. Maybe I should do 100 of these!?
Bob from Gnarboots is in this band, and so is Mike from Hard Girls. They broke up, then decided breaking up is stupid, started making music again, just not on a regular basis. One of my favorite sets of theirs was watching them open for a reunited Track Star. Anyhow, this is a collection of odds and ends that never found a proper release.
Turdus Musicus has landed in the United States, and will soon be sleeping on my floor. The t-shirt design I did for them is now their tour poster as well. I'll be picking up 200 shirts for them from the printer tomorrow. I booked their San Jose (Texas Toast House w/ Tigon, Ventid and Primary), Berkeley (924 Gilman w/ Sabertooth Zombie) and Stockton (Plea for Peace w/ Happy Body Slow Brain) shows. You should come to one of these.
I've also somehow talked myself into playing second guitar on these shows. Yikes.
After 13 years, Three Mile Pilot have dropped a new record with very little fanfare. My favorite record of theirs will always be "Another Desert, Another Sea", but this is still a really, really good record. Unlike my other Music Monday posts, this one isnt a free download, but you can watch them play a whole set in their hometown here: http://www.vimeo.com/9409613
*fun fact: I interviewed Three Mile Pilot for my old podcast Break This City, but we weren't able to use it because I was so nervous I did a terrible job! Hooray for being a total fanboy!
Scanned this out of my sketchbook and colored it in photoshop last night while watching "The Runaways". It was alright, but I'd suggest watching "Edgeplay" if you want the real story of the Runaways (sans Joan Jett's part of the story).
Link 80 played with a very early version of Turdus Musicus back in the day, way up in Tromsø, which is above the arctic circle. When the show ended and we went outside to cool off, the sun was still up. It was mother's day, so we all went stumbling to find a payphone to call our mothers. It was 4am, and we all felt crazy because it looked like it was 4pm. We went back to a house to hang out with the Norwegians who put on the show, who continues to drink, party mega hard, all while I watched a VHS copy of "Day of the Dead" with the sound muted so that metal could be played instead.
I've stayed in touch with the singer Carl since then, and he asked me to contribute some art to their most recent album, which can be downloaded by clicking the cover above. All I had to go on was the title of the record, so I painted a giant mushroom cloud blowing up a city.
Turdus Musicus are constantly on tour. They just returned from Russia. They have toured in China, and in November they will be returning to the United States for the third time. For those of you who are local, these are the dates I'll be going along to see them at:
Nov. 5th - San Jose, CA / Texas Toast Haus (Bob & I are playing this show in our new project PRIMARY)
If you read Japanese, this flyer might be kind of funny. I don't read or write japanese, but I know how to use an online translator! Gnarboots will be playing TWO show in San Jose with Peelander-Z on the 27th, both shows will be totally different, and both shows will be amazing. If you aren't doing anything next Wednesday, you should come check it out!
Two years ago today, I got married.
I commissioned these songs to use as our wedding favor. It was burned on a CD-R with a picture of Stephanie and I on it, they came with a set of one-inch buttons and extensive liner notes. An original composition from my best man, Aj Juncker and a cover of a song I'd heard on a Neutral Milk Hotel live recording, performed here by Jonah Matranga (FAR, One Line Drawing, New End Original). I stayed up late a few nights assembling the CD favors for the wedding, and I still have leftover ones sitting in a chest!
I hope you enjoy these songs, I've had a wonderful day with my wife, relaxing and wearing our special wedding converse.
I found this waiting for me in the mail this morning, started reading it on the bus and finished reading it at work today. Adam Pasion lives in Japan with his wife and two kids, and this is his illustrated journal of his life. After making zines out of the comics, in addition to posting them up on line, Adam decided to publish a bunch of them in a book. I love the honesty of it, and from an artistic standpoint I love looking at all of the mundane regular stuff Adam had to draw in each panel. Also, Adam played bass in a band with Bob Vielma(from Shinobu, and of course, Gnarboots) in Japan called The Bears, so coming across the pictures of Bob in here is very entertaining. Adam posted this off to me wrapped in what appears to be a print-out used to teach japanese children english, with a nice handwritten note & drawing on the inside page. To quote Bob: Niiiiiiice!
Some of the comics in here are reprints for zines Bob gave me a while ago, so as an attempt to get someone to check out Sun Dogs, I'll mail you one of these zines to you! Here's what you do if you want some fun mail, rather than just getting bills:
Hopefully this doesn't make Fighting Jacks groan too much with they see it. Also, the Record Winter are tight. They kinda sound like Black Heart Procession. Their bassist James plays a lot of video games and used to be in a killer hardcore band called Maida with Evan from Worker Bee/Tera Melos. He also has a fake-ass beard.
San Jose has been killing it lately. Between what Grand Fanali Presents has been doing for the past 14 years, Asian Man Records being the resident label, and the new group of d.i.y punk rock kids that have been making things happen, San Jose has become an awesome place to play or see a show. Gnarboots have played two shows in this backyard, and they were both excellent. Victor cooks up tons of amazing food while the bands rock out. He even runs a deep fryer!
When Jaake asked me if I'd make a flyer for this show I jumped at the opportunity. I'm going to adopt all of these kids.
I really like these mixtapes. This one is good enough to have been an actual release. Comadre pairs themselves with Dead To Me, P.O.S., Ghostlimb, Glasses, Trainwreck and Atlas for some amazing collaborations. I especially like the P.O.S/Atlas and Ghostlimb tracks, they're a pretty major departure from Comadre's usual hardcore sound.
I meant to paint this a while ago but kept forgetting to do it. I did paint it in one evening though. I giggled to myself the whole time I was painting it, just like I did when I was originally drawing it. I painted it on a wood panel that used to be part of a coffee table, which apparently on Etsy they call upcycling? That's a ridiculous term.
Time for a little shameless self-promotion: I'm in this "band" called "G.N.A.R.B.O.O.T.S". We put out a "collection" of "songs" we are referring to as "S.L.O.G.A.N.S". Currently, it's an "EP", but other songs will "soon" be "included". All of these "songs" will be "free" to download "here", unless they are not, in which case the internet is a frickin' liar.
(click these frickin' dudes to flippin hear some jamz)
Ricky Reed (aka Eric Frederic) & Arjun Singh (aka dude I play video games with) made you a mixtape. They put some dope jams on it to try to break you out of the bad mood you've been in. They want to make you dance, and they are sad you haven't pushed it into your earholes yet. PUSH THIS INTO YOUR EARHOLES!!!
I met Josh at the RoboGames Benefit art show last year. His art was definitely my favorite art at the show, and I was stoked that he was there hanging out. His art looked so clean and minimal while still maintaining a lot of energy and detail. He also wasn't too embarrassed to hang out with me the second day when I wore my robot costume. In fact, I think Josh is going to build his own robot costume this year, which will undoubtedly be a lot crazier than mine.
Recently, Josh has been posting a set of YouTube Animal Meme drawings that you should check out. He has also done the 15 year anniversary poster for Laughing Squid, some really cool art that is up in some of the BART stations, and this painting, which someone should buy for me.
Great dudes, great live band, great album, great price! For the low low price of free dollars, you get eight awesome songs from Chotto Ghetto. This album hints at the sounds of Glassjaw and Mr. Bungle without sounding like a knock-off. It's good! It's free! Go listen to it!
If you like this, there's a free live record at Phat N' Phunky, and there's a split EP with Stab City. I recommend getting both because they is freeeee.
I met Aram from Stunt Monkey at the Warped Tour in '99 and thought he was one of the most genuinely funny dudes I have ever met. Literally everything that came out of his mouth was hilarious, and no one else involved in the conversation could hold a candle to his level of wit. Based on that conversation alone, I jumped at the opportunity to do this flyer. Also, I knew exactly what I wanted to draw for it, as this is based on the cover of one of their albums:
Yesterday I had someone ask if they could "poach" one of the images from my 100 ROBOTS project for a community skate park event flyer. I thought that it was pretty awesome that they had thought to ask rather than just jacking the image, so I said they could do that if they were in a hurry, but if they could wait about an hour I could just draw something up for them to use. Drawing robots (as opposed to painting them) takes me no time at all, and I think skateboarding is a great activity (even though I'm absolutely terrible at it). Plus, I've seen "The Search for Animal Chin" over 100 times.
So here he is, in all his glory, the GROMINATOR!
KIDS: He's not wearing any pads or a helmet because he's a frickin' robot. The worse that will happen to him if he slams is that he'll have to go to the repair shop to get the dents hammered out. You'll end up in the hospital with a fractured skull! Also, he's a drawing. Wear your dang helmet and pads, junior! Now, give me back my cane! Where are my dentures?!
Here's a video of the Groms in Hood River going huge:
Here's the flyer for the event if you live in Hood River:
I came across this a while ago on Punknews.org and gave it a listen, not expecting much. I was plesantly surprised, and have had this EP in rotation for the better part of a year. This is a really solid batch of songs that wound up being reissued on vinyl, which I bought, along with a t-shirt (see, giving away your music for free is profitable!) These dudes just finished up a tour that swung through the bay area, but I missed them (they wound up playing a house show in Dublin on a Monday night, and I am an old man).
My favorite track on Comadre's Mixtape Vol. 3 is a song called "Delirium" by Atlas. If this was an physical mixtape, this part would be showing some wear by now considering how much I've listened to it. I looked around online for more music, but couldn't find any. Turns out I couldn't find any because there wasn't any... until now! Comadre is hosting a free download of the new Atlas record here: http://www.siqshit.com/
I forgot to post anything last week (whoops!) so now, I'm posting it from the future, like Marty McFly. I'll hide this and maybe no one will read it. I'm currently working on some shirt designs for Hard Girls, more flyers for Grand Fanali Presents, and hatching plans for some other slick stuff. Gnarboots is going to start recording on September 4th, I'll be doing the layout for that. We played a show on Friday and it was really awkward for us for several reason, probably the biggest reason was that we were wearing these creepy cat masks. We also have a new song about cats that wear pajamas. It sounds like something you would hear on Dr. Demento. Well, hope you're doing well. Be sure to leave a comment if you read this. I need another cup of coffee.
( I did a quick drawing of an elephant head for no reason )
( This robot is wondering why he is made out of an old cast iron stove )
( When you have no good ideas to draw, you can always draw your other hand )
(click the album cover to go to the download page)
Hailing from Redwood City (hey, have I mentioned how much I like it when a band in the bay area claims where they are actually from rather than claiming a larger city nearby? Seriously, if another band from Piedmont claims they are from Oakland, I'm bashing skulls), this band features past members of Anti-45 and HeartCrossLove, both bands I knew about, but somehow this slipped under my radar for the past few years. This is hardcore played by dudes who obviously listen to way more music than just hardcore. Lots of weirdness thrown in rather than just 1,000 musical punches in the face. Comadre currates a free mixtape series, runs their own record label, does their own graphic design and tours a ton. Way to go dudes!
There is a blog with illustrations of nothing but Dualing Banjo Pigs. I am now included on that site here.
I did this fun illustration last week after seeing this awesome post by Jake Parker (who is my current artist man-crush). I thought "Why not?!" and drew this immediatly after finishing Drawing Challenge #4. I colored it after a delicious breakfast of waffles Saturday morning while watching Robotech.
Does anyone know about any other blogs like this? I'd like to participate in as many of these as I possibly can, because they're a ton of fun! EMAIL ME!
(click the album cover to go to the download page)
This came out forever ago, but there's a good chance you missed it if you were busy with life. One of my absolute favorite bands in high school, NIN took a hiatus from making music I cared about during my 20's and returned with some killer jams as my 30's arrived. I'll take the availability of this album for free as a "we're sorry" for making me buy The Fragile (actually, I think my brother got that album for me as a christmas present... ok, fine. This can be a "we're sorry for making you buy 20 different CD singles with a bunch of crummy half assed remixes on them.")
